Canada’s 50 Most Influential People in Graphic Communications
by Jon Robinson
Addressing the power-suit crowd of the Canadian Club of Ottawa, Pierre Karl Péladeau laid out Quebecor Media’s ambitions to control a piece of the wireless network. His frank comments were picked up by most major dailies, discussed on tech blogs, and publicly denounced by Ted Rogers, president and CEO of Rogers Communications. These two media magnates had confronted each other before, in 2000, over a battle to control the Quebec cable company Vidéotron.
Rogers appeared to have his hands on the company until Quebecor teamed with Caisse de depot pension fund and bought Vidéotron for $5.4 billion. At the time, Rogers was openly taking a run at Bell Canada’s telecommunications monopoly. TELUS’ June 2007 bid for Bell (BCE) appears to have failed, opening up an opportunity for another suitor, as Canada’s largest media companies focus on the mobile spectrum.
During his April 2007 speech in Ottawa, Péladeau quoted Martin Higginson, former CEO of Britain-based MonsterMob, which specializes in developing content for mobile devices: “Within the next five to 10 years, the mobile will become the most important media channel the world has ever seen. It will take over from TV and the Internet as the largest generator of ad revenue by 2015. Why? There will be almost twice as many people with mobile phones than Internet connections.”
Printers who earn their livings from advertising output (ie: the majority) should closely watch how budgets are redirected toward mobility. PrintAction’s 6th-annual list of Canada’s 50 Most Influential People in Graphic Communications positions powerful Canadians based on a set of five criteria to illustrate emerging trends in today’s graphic communications marketplace. This year’s measures include: Power, Print (dots), Digital (pixels), Global reach, and Future potential. Heavy consideration is given to technological development.
Canada's 50 Most Influential People in Graphic Communications
1. Pierre Karl Péladeau
2. Michael Sabia
3. Ted Rogers
4. Paul Tsaparis
5. Luc Desjardins
6. Hadi Mahabadi
7. Jim Balsillie
8. Darren Entwistle
9. Tony Gagliano
10. Nadir Mohamed
11. Wes Lucas
12. Tamotsu Nakamura
13. Douglas Arends
14. Scott Saito
15. Phil Sorgen
16. Tim Bray
17. Robert Prichard
18. Gary Kovacs
19. Moya Greene
20. Marc Tellier
21. François Olivier
22. Dick Kouwenhoven
23. David Ballantyne
24. Peter Crean
25. Lloyd Bryant |
26. Isabelle Marcoux
27. Doug Lord
28. Michael Makin
29. Miles Nadel
30. Tony Galasso
31. Nicky Milner
32. George Mazzaferro
33. Nicole Rycroft
34. Bob Cockerill
35. George Kallas
36. Barry Pike
37. Raymond Royer
38. Abhay Sharma
39. Nick Howard
40. Chris Conners
41. Curwin Friesen
42. Leila Boujnane
43. Aivars Beikmanis
44. David Odell
45. William Li
46. Matthew Alexander
47. Patrick Bolan
48. Andrew MacDonald
49. Winfried Gleue
50. Ali Mazalek |
Read the full story exclusively in the July 2007 print edition of PrintAction | 
