Former Toronto Mayor John Tory is set to rejoin the board of Rogers, marking his return to the telecom giant where he previously held an executive role.
Tory will stand for election at Rogers’s annual shareholder meeting scheduled for April 24. This move comes as Rogers is seeing some big board changes, including the departure of several directors and a resolution to a family dispute that saw the resignation of Edward Rogers’s sisters from the board, reports the Globe and Mail.
Tory first joined the Rogers board in 2010 after leading the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party. He stepped down in 2014 to focus on his mayoral duties but remained involved with the company as a member of the advisory committee to the Rogers Control Trust.
Amid a highly publicized Rogers family feud in 2021, Tory attempted to mediate the dispute over board composition and leadership, fulfilling, as he stated, a promise to the late Ted Rogers, the company’s founder. This move was questioned at the time because he was still the sitting Mayor of Toronto.
Edward Rogers holds significant influence through the Rogers Control Trust and will play a key role in nominations.The incoming directors include Wayne Sparrow, the elected chief of the Musqueam Indian Band and Diane Kazarian as a former managing partner at PwC.
During his time as mayor, Tory frequently recused himself from some city council votes to avoid potential conflicts of interest, as he still had deep ties with Rogers.
Tory’s financial stake in Rogers is valued at nearly $15 million in stock, according to proxy documents sent to shareholders on Friday. His Class A Rogers shares are at 83,200 today, up from 7,812 shares in 2014. He told the Globe this is due to shares owned “by a family investment entity which I do not control.”
