Canadian University Press appoints three industry pros to board of directors
Twitter Canada’s Steve Ladurantaye, Council of Ontario Universities’ Wendy McCann and National Campus and Community Radio Association’s Shelley Robinson will each sit for a one-year term.
By Tamara Baluja, Associate Editor
Canadian University Press has appointed three industry professionals to its board of directors.
President Erin Hudson said the appointees will bring to CUP strong skills and expertise in financial accountability, professionalism and seeking new partnerships and grants.
“The board culture needed a bit of change,” Hudson told J-Source, “and I was finding that I wasn’t really getting the level of support, at least that I needed, from an administrative side. I think having these industry representatives will give CUP a more professional atmosphere.”
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Steve Ladurantaye, former media reporter at The Globe and Mail and current head of news partnerships at Twitter Canada, will be joined by Wendy McCann, a former journalist and director of strategic communications for the Council of Ontario Universities, and National Campus and Community Radio Association’s executive director Shelley Robinson for a one-year term. McCann and Robinson are CUP alumni; Ladurantaye, while not a CUP alumnus, has written for a campus newspaper.
CUP’s bylaws previously allowed only one industry professional with no voting rights to sit on the board. The organization now will have three industry professionals with full voting rights, who can serve for a maximum of two years.
Although there was no ratification of the appointees because of the tight turnaround, Hudson said CUP members will have the opportunity to ratify future industry appointees to the board at annual plenary sessions in January.
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Tamara Baluja is an award-winning journalist with CBC Vancouver and the 2018 Michener-Deacon fellow for journalism education. She was the associate editor for J-Source from 2013-2014.
