Phil was one of our longest standing employees, working for the company for 54 years. He was a close confidante and advisor to Ted for nearly 40 of those years.
He started as the company’s first Programming Officer in 1969. At the time the company owned two radio stations and had fewer than 10,000 cable subscribers. Since these early days, Phil has played an integral role in every critical business decision in the company’s history. Dubbed Ted’s “right hand man,” Phil helped build Rogers into the telecom and media powerhouse it is today.
As a proud “cable guy,” Phil led the company’s efforts to win cable franchise licences in the United States in the 1980s. He steered the complexities of the approval process for the Maclean Hunter acquisition in 1994 and was a key leader in bringing Shaw and Rogers together in 2021. He was instrumental in the creation of the Rogers Group of Funds and championed Canada’s independent film and television sector. He was the architect and founder of CPAC and the driving force behind bringing Sportsnet to Rogers. It was Phil who convinced Ted to buy the Toronto Blue Jays back in 2000.
Phil, who served as the Vice Chair of our Board until his passing, was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2002 and was inducted into the U.S. Cable Hall of Fame in 2012. Phil was the third Canadian to receive this honour, after Ted and JR Shaw.