Jean La Rose is a First Nations citizen from the Abenakis First Nation of Odanak. He was raised in Ottawa where he studied Journalism at Algonquin College and obtained his Bachelor of Arts in Social Communication at the University of Ottawa/Université St. Paul. Mr. La Rose later began his Masters in Public Administration at L’École nationale d’administration publique.

In November 2002, he was named Chief Executive Officer of APTN. Since then, Mr. La Rose has been responsible for the network becoming an Official Broadcaster of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games that carried over 14 hours per day of events in English, French and eight (8) Aboriginal languages.

Preparing APTN for future growth, he has developed the organization into a multi-platform broadcaster that employs more than 150 people nationwide. Mr. La Rose has also overseen the purchase of the buildings APTN occupies in Winnipeg and the renovation of one to house the new state-of-the-art news studio. Moreover, two (2) regional studios have been established as well as home offices for video journalists to broaden the network’s news reporting capabilities across the country.

Mr. La Rose sits on the Boards of Directors of the National Screen Institute, Media Smarts, Mother Earth Recycling (a social enterprise located in Winnipeg) and Indspire. He was awarded a National Aboriginal Achievement Award (now known as Indspire Awards) for Media and Communications in 2011, and the CEO HR Champion of the Year Award from the Human Resource Management Association of Manitoba in 2015. He was also named “Alumni of the Year” in 2015 by St-Paul University and received an Honorary Diploma in Journalism from “La Cité Collégiale” in Ottawa in 2015.

Speaking on: Keynote: The Honourable Mélanie Joly