Revolving Door

Mike Omelus has joined APTN as Executive Director of Content and Strategy. In the newly-created position, he’ll oversee the network programming, scheduling and content creation departments and lead global content and scheduling strategies for APTN’s four linear broadcast channels, as well as its lumi content streaming service. Omelus was most recently Vice-President of National News and Newsgathering at Global News, and also served on the senior leadership teams of Shaw Communications and Corus Entertainment. Prior to Global, he spent five years as executive producer at CTV’s Business News Network (now BNN Bloomberg), and held several key roles during a 21-year career at The Canadian Press, including general news director, senior parliamentary correspondent and Washington correspondent.

Noovo has announced the team who’ll helm the Bell Media French-language network’s news programming beginning in spring 2021. Noémi Mercier will present the national and Montréal news weekday evenings. Lisa-Marie Blais will anchor weekday evening and late-night reports for the Québec City, Mauricie, Estrie and Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean regions. Michel Bherer will present late-night news for Montréal, while Meeker Guerrier will host network weekend shows. Over the past few weeks, Noovo has also filled key production-related positions, including Emilie Beaulieu, former editor-in-chief at Radio-Canada, who will make decisions on daily news content; Dominik Paulin, former senior manager of production operations at Radio-Canada, will manage news department operations; Mick Côté, who was previously responsible for digital distribution strategy at URBANIA, is in charge of digital news strategy and developing multi-platform segments. Catherine Mauffette, former editor-in-chief at La Presse Canadienne, and former TVA and LCN news editor Ariane Lafrenière, will serve as content producers. 

Telefilm has added four new positions, created as part of the agency’s Equity and Representation Action Plan. Ayesha Husain is the new Lead, Inclusion Initiatives and Content Analyst in English Market, Project Financing, based in Toronto. A former Telefilm employee, she continued her career at Corus Entertainment, the Directors Guild of Canada and TIFF; Hager Namly has been named Inclusion Initiatives Advisor and Content Analyst in French Market, Project Financing, based in Montreal. Hager has close to seven years of experience as a coordinator with Item 7 and as a sales consultant for TVA Films; Amadou Dia is Head of Project Management, Senior Management team, based in Montreal. He’s worked for Nortel Networks, OZ Communications, Nokia and Gurus Solutions, leading critical projects; while Fabrice Ravier Berthaud is now Inclusion Initiatives Advisor and Investment Analyst, Business Affairs. Based in Montreal, Berthaud started his career at Telefilm in 2011 as a Project Coordinator and was most recently a Development Analyst. 

Drex, aka Justin Wilcomes, is helming the new Jack 96.9 (CJAX-FM) Vancouver morning show. The former host of Corus late night network talk show, The Shift with Drex, brings with him former The Shift producer “No Fun Bobby” (Bob Addison), with the show also featuring Lena Schulman, most recently a morning show co-host and news anchor with Byrnes Communciations’ stations in Niagara Falls, as well as station digital content producer Ryan “Sully” Sullivan. Jeff Brown, Charis Hogg and Paul Brown, who had been teamed together on the JACK 96.9 morning show since Aug. 2018, were released as part of layoffs across Rogers Sports & Media last month. Read more here.

Nathalie Normandeau, former Quebec deputy premier, is joining Cogeco’s 98.5 FM (CHMP-FM) Montreal. Starting Dec. 21, she’ll replace Bernard Drainville during the holiday break, and then in January join Luc Ferrandez every morning during “Puisqu’il faut se lever avec Paul Arcand.” Lise Ravary, who was previously paired with Ferrandez, will instead join Luc Lavoie on the Drainville afternoon show.  

Joanie Olson, a recent graduate of Western Academy Broadcasting College, has joined 900 CKBI Prince Albert, and its two sister stations, where she’s now the network morning news anchor & reporter. She’ll also be heard on the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group stations in North Battleford and Meadow Lake, SK.

Jackie Wilson is leaving Global Saskatoon to join Global Calgary as a digital journalist. Wilson had been with Global Saskatchewan for the last five and a half years as a morning anchor and reporter.

Shelby Blackley has joined Indiegraf Media as an Audience Strategist. Blackley, who also works as a digital consultant, was previously with The Globe & Mail as a news and audience engagement editor.

Luke Carroll, producer of Netflix animated hit, The Willoughbys, is joining Relish Interactive in the newly-created role of SVP, Animation. Carroll will have a dual role and act as SVP, Development for the studio’s original content division, Wasabi Entertainment, which is currently developing a slate of originals with the first feature film, Shadowrail Circus, already in pre-production and slated for release in 2022. In addition to producing The Willoughbys, Netflix’s first original CG feature, Carroll produced Escape From Planet Earth for The Weinstein Company as well as Bron Animation’s first animated feature Henchmen. Prior to joining Bron as VP of Production & Development, Carroll produced numerous feature-length projects for Mattel Inc. 

Oscar Juste has been appointed Senior Vice President of Global Sales for Ross Video. In the newly-created role, he’ll provide leadership and strategic direction to the global sales function and help drive growth as Ross continues to expand into new international markets. Juste joined Ross in April 2016 as Director of Sales for EMEA and was promoted to VP of Sales for EMEA, Asia and LATAM in May 2019.

Advanced Systems Group (ASG) has announced two recent additions to its audio team. Jeff Briss joined the company last month as audio ambassador, while Collyer Spreen joined in October as the company’s new sales engineer. Briss is the co-founder of Cutting Edge Audio Group, a systems integrator with offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Spreen is a former Cutting Edge consultant, who also spent more than seven years as a pro audio solutions specialist for Avid Technology. A Pro Tools expert, he continues to work as a freelance recording engineer through his company, Soundasleep Productions.