A Montreal lawyer whose resumé includes work as a Radio-Canada sports commentator has been named the new head of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Heritage Minister Josée Verner appointed Hubert T. Lacroix as the next president and chief executive of the CBC, including its French-language service, Radio-Canada.

New CBC President Hubert Lacroix poses for a photo between meetings in Ottawa Monday.
(Tom Hanson/Canadian Press)

"I am a huge fan of the CBC," Lacroix, who was approached for the job by a head-hunting firm, said Monday. 

"I grew up with it, I worked for it, so it's pretty exciting to actually now join this team, which is an incredible one, and try to help CBC/Radio-Canada move forward."

Robert Rabinovitch, who has served as president and CEO for the past eight years, will complete his second term on Dec. 31. Lacroix will take up the post Jan. 1, 2008.

Lacroix "possesses the necessary experience and skills to lead Canada's national public broadcaster," Verner said in a statement.

"I am confident CBC/Radio-Canada will be well-served by the leadership of Mr. Lacroix."

Lacroix said he believes the public broadcaster faces two significant challenges: to stay relevant to a changing population and to raise funds that will keep that audience watching and listening.

"I am going to work very hard to get as much money as we can....if we are constantly compelling and relevant, we're going to try to get revenues from every single possible source to plow it back into programming," he said.

"My job and the mandate that I have taken is clearly to try to make this company evolve in terrific changing times and to create the sense of urgency that I know everybody else around, in every other company competing with CBC/Radio Canada, has."

Born in Montreal in 1955, Lacroix received a bachelor of law degree from McGill University in 1976 and was admitted to the Quebec bar a year later. In 1981, he also received an MBA from McGill, where he served as a basketball coach and established a sports-related scholarship.

Lacroix, currently with the Montreal law firm Stikeman Elliott, has practised law for 30 years, including as a past partner with McCarthy Tétrault. He has worked as a senior adviser to Telemedia Ventures after serving as executive chair of Canadian media firm Telemedia Corp., and also sits on the board of directors for several companies, including printing and media giant Transcontinental and the SFK Pulp Fund.

He is also an adjunct professor with the faculty of law at the University of Montreal.

A basketball colour commentator for Radio-Canada TV and radio during the 1984, 1988 and 1996 Olympic Games, Lacroix has served as a regular contributor reporting on amateur sports for the Radio-Canada radio show Hebdo-Sports.

Headhunter Egon Zehnder International was hired to seek out potential candidates and make recommendations for the post, but the final decision was made by the Prime Minister's Office.

The lobby group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting were critical of the way the choice was made.

The Commons' heritage committee has recommended that the CBC president be hired and fired by the CBC board of directors, not the prime minister.

"The problem is if you're named to that position by a certain party, do you feel an obligation to that party?" said Ian Morrison, spokesman for Friends of Canadian Broadcasting.

"We'd like the president of the CBC to have a responsibility to the board of directors and be accountable to the board, not to the prime minister."

With files from the Canadian Press