Rogers CEO Joe Natale Has Been Replaced, Effective Immediately

Rogers Communications announced on Tuesday its CEO Joe Natale will no longer be CEO of the company, effective immediately. The interim Rogers President and CEO will be Tony Staffieri, the pick of the company’s board chair Edward Rogers.

“On behalf of the Rogers family, the Board and our 24,000 team members across the country, I thank Joe for his leadership and contributions to our company, including paving the way for our future together with Shaw,” said Edward Rogers, Chair, Rogers Communications, in a statement. “While Joe is moving on, we have an experienced interim CEO and leadership team who will continue to focus on the business, return to stability, and closing our transformational merger with Shaw.”

“I am grateful for the opportunity to lead Rogers Communications through a critical time in its history and remain excited about the transformational potential of the Shaw transaction. It has been a privilege to build a team of such extraordinary character and ability and I wish each of our 24,000 team members continued success and good fortune in the future,” added Natale in a statement.

“It is a real privilege and honour to be assuming the role of Interim President and CEO for Rogers and I am excited to be working in this new role with the Rogers family, the Board, the leadership team and our colleagues from coast-to-coast-to-coast,” said Tony Staffieri.

According to Rogers, the company has already started its search for a new permanent CEO, “who will continue to drive our future growth including our integration with the Shaw team once the deal closes next year.” The company says Staffieri “will be a candidate for this role”.

Rogers says the Shaw deal will proceed as planned and on Monday, November 22, both companies will be attending the CRTC public hearing on the transaction.

Earlier this month, Edward Rogers secretly planned to remove Natale and replace him with Staffieri. Natale heard of the move by a ‘butt dial’ phone call, which resulted in Edward Rogers being removed from the board.

Edward Rogers then leveraged his role as chair of the Rogers Family Trust that controls the company, to replace the entire company board with his own directors to reinstate his role as chair, all performed by written resolution instead of by a shareholder meeting and vote.

B.C. Supreme Court sided with Edward Rogers and he was able to take control over the company again. Edward Rogers removed his mother and two sisters from the old board, putting a family power struggle front and centre, into the media spotlight.

According to sister Martha Rogers, she tweeted on Tuesday night, “guess he didn’t pinky swear”, referring to his brother Edward’s previous statement promising Natale would remain CEO and a director at the company with full board support.

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