Effective immediately, Suzanne Gouin has been appointed as the ninth member of the Bell Fund Board of Directors.
Ms. Gouin has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of TV5 Québec Canada since 2002. She previously held the position of Vice President of Business Publications at Transcontinental Media. She began her career in the News Department at Radio-Canada, and acted as Executive Producer at Pixcom. She also occupied the role of Vice President of News at CFCF12, and Director General for the Montreal ethnic television station CJNT. Ms. Gouin is a member of the Board of Hydro-Québec, holds an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario, and is certified with the Institute of Corporate Directors.
Chair Paul Hoffert welcomed her to the Board: “Ms. Gouin has a solid production and broadcasting background, and management expertise which will serve us well. We are happy to be able to benefit from all of her contributions.”
The Bell Fund Board members also include: Martin Ceré, Director General, Digital, RDS Sports Network; Barry Chapman, Vice-President, Regulatory Affairs, BCE; Suzanne Guèvremont, Executive Director, Centre NAD; Jacques Labelle, President and CEO Saint-Jacques Vallée Y&R Brands; Naveen Prasad, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Elevation Pictures Corp; Lori Rosenberg, Managing Director, Network Content (Linear/VOD) for the Bell Residential Services Group ; Catherine Warren, President FanTrust Entertainment Strategies.
The Bell Fund provides grants to Canadian independent producers who develop and produce engaging, interactive cross-platform digital content for Canadian broadcasters to complement and enhance associated television programs. Since 1997, the Bell Fund has invested more than $150M in over 1,600 Canadian digital media projects, television programs, development grants, co-productions and support for research and professional development. The Bell Fund also undertakes training, research, business development and promotion for the digital media industry. The Bell Fund receives annual contributions of approximately $16M from Bell TV as part of its broadcast distribution undertaking (BDU) contributions to the industry. In addition, the Development Program is supported by the interest generated by a $10M endowment, and contributions from Aliant. The Bell Fund is incorporated as a not-for-profit organization, governed by an independent Board of Directors representing various sectors of the television and digital media industry.