- Village Gamer - http://www.villagegamer.net -

New Appointments At Telefilm Canada This Month

Telefilm Canada [1]MontrealTelefilm Canada [1] is pleased to announce the appointment of Denise Arab to the position of Director, Communications, effective May 25.

Ms. Arab has worked for fifteen years at the Business Development Bank of Canada, where she presently holds the position of Director, Public Relations and Employee Communications at the Montréal office. She has also worked at Canada Post.

“On behalf of all of us at Telefilm I am very pleased to welcome Ms. Arab to her new position as Director of Communications and look forward to her participation on the Executive Management Committee” said Wayne Clarkson, the Corporation’s Executive Director. “Her expertise in management and communications and her extensive national and regional experience will be definite assets in carrying out our corporate plan.”

Originally from Halifax, Denise Arab holds a B.A. in Arts from Dalhousie University and a B.A. in Journalism from King’s College. In the course of her career, she has successfully taken on communications-related responsibilities in areas including media relations, internal communications, issue management, government relations and event planning.

Steve Flanagan will stay on as Interim Director, Communications until Ms. Arab assumes her duties.

Additionally, Telefilm has announced the appointment of Sheila de la Varende to the position of Director, National and International Business Development. Ms. de la Varende will take up her duties on April 20, 2009.

“Sheila de la Varende will be a valuable asset, for the Telefilm Canada team as well as for Canada’s audiovisual industry,” said Wayne Clarkson, Telefilm’s Executive Director. “She has a sterling reputation, both here and abroad, and we know how much of a professional she is, given that she has already held key management positions at Telefilm. Over the last few years, furthermore, she has acquired sound knowledge and understanding of the digital media sector and the challenges of a multiplatform environment. She will help Telefilm develop and implement national and international strategic plans to improve the Canadian industry’s capacity and build audiences for Canadian products.”

A career in the public and private sectors

Over the course of her career, Sheila de la Varende has successively been Manager, Cultural Industries at Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada; Director of Telefilm’s European office as well as Director of the Corporation’s International Promotion and Development division; Executive Director of the Festival du nouveau cinéma de Montréal; and Executive Director of Digimart, an organization involved in the promotion of a market for digital cinema.

More recently, Sheila de la Varende was Project Manager, Digital Strategy and Deployment at the National Film Board of Canada. As a consultant, she has also taken a close interest in international co-production by contributing to the development of multisectorial business strategies.

“I look forward to joining Telefilm Canada and to leading the National and International Business Development team,” she stated. “I am very excited about contributing to the organization’s strategic goals and to helping shape the future of the Canadian audiovisual sector.”

Danny Chalifour held the position of Director, National and International Business Development on an interim basis following the implementation of Telefilm’s new Operations structure in October 2008. Mr. Chalifour will be retiring from Telefilm in June 2009.