Jeffrey Orridge is TVO's new Chief Executive Officer
December 16, 2020
Arriving home from work in 2007 shortly after relocating with his family from New York, TVO often popped up when Jeffrey Orridge turned on the television.
The channel was preset because it was his two-year-old son favourite.
When Lisa de Wilde announced she was resigning after 14 years as TVO’s Chief Executive Officer, the provincial broadcaster launched a global search for her replacement that attracted more than 170 candidates.
Orridge was chosen based on his vast experience with large organizations and extensive background in multi-media, technology and child development.
Preparing to take on the new challenge, he reflected on those early days in Canada watching TVO with the elder of his two children.
“As a parent, you naturally love anything that gives your child joy,” Orridge said. “When you sit your kid in front of the TV and he’s loving what he’s experiencing, nothing is really better than that. But the big thing was it was safe programming. You knew it was age-appropriate, the content was safe, it was fun and engaging and my kid was learning. It was a great window not only into kids programming, but also shows like ‘The Agenda’ gave us some insight as to what was really going on in Ontario. It was very cool for us as a family because my wife and I would learn about our new environment.”
This is the second Canadian Crown Corporation he has worked with.
Orridge spent 53 months with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) as Executive Director of Sports Properties, overseeing rights acquisitions, partnership management, revenue initiatives and program execution involving marquee sports properties and digital opportunities.
“I have a fair understanding of how things work in a particular environment,” said Orridge who graduated cum laude from Amherst College. “What was most attractive to me about it when they explained the role was that TVO has now an expanded mandate to help provide a co-ordinated robust premium online provincial learning system for students in every community. That was compelling to me. TVO has got a vaunted history of on-air education for kids that is a strong brand.
“But things are changing rapidly and kids are consuming content in a different way these days. The pandemic has clearly accelerated the need for access to learning tools remotely. Because of technology, we are able to consume content in very different ways. What we will endeavour to do is focus our efforts on positioning TVO as the central repository for online premium educational products.”
TVO Board Chair Chris Day said the network cast a wide net to find an experienced executive leader with energy and vision to propel the organization to new heights.
“Jeffrey is that person,” he pointed out. “His passion for, experience with and interest in technology, media and learning – all areas where TVO must excel in the years to come – will ensure we continue to serve learners in exciting new ways, when and wherever they need us.”
The provincial government is the sole shareholder of TVO that airs a variety of original children’s programming, documentaries, scripted dramas and public affairs programs.
“TVO plays a key role in encouraging Ontarians to be active and informed citizens through its thought-provoking media and services,” Ontario’s Education Minister Stephen Lecce noted. “I look forward to building on this work with Mr. Orridge while delivering on our shared goal to deliver high quality, modern and accessible education to Ontario’s students.”
Orridge has always flourished in high-pressure situations.
The Harvard-trained lawyer was at CBC at a time when the network sports television was undergoing major changes and the future was uncertain.
While Hockey Night in Canada is CBC’s strongest sports property, the network had lost the Canadian Football League (CFL) and Major League Baseball (MLB) rights and was outbid by CTV and Rogers Communications for the 2010 and 2012 Winter and Summer Olympics respectively.
Just when it seemed they had given up on bidding for the Olympics, CBC sprang a major surprise in August 2012, announcing it had won the rights to broadcast and stream online the 2014 and 2016 Games in Sochi and Rio de Janeiro respectively.
CBC also won the rights to the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto with Orridge at the helm.
What did he learn from his time working with a public broadcaster that will benefit TVO?
“I have had to lead through change before and acquire new assets and properties to build capacity and encourage and inspire people to adapt to change and to ultimately be comfortable with change,” said Orridge. “The skills are transferable. It’s really about leadership and having the experience of going through a number of transformations in different capacities in the United States and Canada. There will be setback and you will stumble sometimes but, at the end of the day, if you are persistent and goal-oriented and you have people who are aligned with you and supportive of the vision, then you are going to win.”
Prior to moving to Canada, he was USA Basketball Head of Legal & Business Affairs, Reebok’s Director of Global Sports Marketing, Warner Brothers Consumer Products Sports Licensing Director, Vice-President of World Licensing & Entertainment and New Business Development with Mattel Inc., OneNetNow Chief Marketing Officer and Momentum Worldwide Senior Vice-President & General Manager.
The experience gained working with the first American Olympic team to feature active professional players at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics was invaluable and rewarding.
With the exception of Chris Mullin and Christian Laettner, who was the only collegian in the squad, the remaining ‘Dream Team’ members were among the 50 Greatest Players in the National Basketball Association (NBA) history unveiled in 1996 to mark the league’s golden anniversary.
“I had the opportunity to work with and learn from extraordinary people with extraordinary abilities,” he said. “Professionally, I had to handle extremely complicated relationships and help put together very complex and complicated marketing, licensing and operational deals. It was an incredible learning for me at a very young age been immersed in the middle of this. I was negotiating deals with the International Olympic Committee and how they tied into the U.S Olympic Committee and how they tied into USA Basketball. There were a lot of different parts and moving pieces. You then had the players who are legendary. The level of professionalism, maturity and graciousness that they demonstrated was also a learning experience for me. It was truly a once-in-lifetime experience.”
At Reebok, the highly accomplished executive was responsible for Shaquille O’Neal’s business unit.
The Chief Operating Officer and Head of Global Business Development for the Toronto-based Right to Play before joining CBC in April 2011, Orridge made history five years ago as the CFL’s first Black Commissioner.
He was the first Black executive to hold the position in a major North American sports organization.
“That was a significant event, not only in the history of the league, but I think in the history of this country because the CFL is so intrinsic to the fabric of Canada,” said Orridge who is the recipient of several prestigious honours, including the African-Canadian Achievement Award for Excellence in Sports and the National Bar Association Attorney of the Year Award. “This is the only league that’s only played in Canada and Canadians claim that. So there’s a deep relationship among Canadians with this league. I think it was important to be in that position where people of colour, particularly Black and Brown kids, could see themselves reflected in me. Just my very presence as Commissioner was significant.”
Unfortunately, Orridge experienced a fair amount of racism in the role.
“Some was overt and some was extremely subtle,” he pointed out. “It would range from twitter comments to the obvious biased-framing and language used in certain media articles. The racism that I experienced wasn’t unique during my time with the CFL. I grew up as a Black male in America and you can always be the target of racially motivated insults along with vile, ugly and disparaging comments, I was subjected to that at a very early age. What was surprising and particularly painful is that I didn’t expect to experience that in Canada. No society is perfect and at least now, many acknowledge that we as Canadians can do better and be better and we are better than that.”
The racism Orridge faced wasn’t the reason he left the CFL’s top post after 27 months.
He and the Board of Governors had differing views on the future of the league he rebranded.
“In my first six months on the job, I wrote an 80-page strategic plan with nine pillars that was widely hailed by the Board of Governors when I made a six-hour presentation to them,” said Orridge who was the first Commissioner of any of North America’s major sports leagues to march in the annual Pride parade. “Two Board of Governors members stood up, saying ‘this is the best piece of work we have ever seen’. Prior to that, the league didn’t have a strategic plan. What was interesting was that when we started implementing the plan, it was working.”
During his tenure, the CFL introduced its first violence against women policy, a robust drug testing plan and an anti-tampering procedure governing coaches’ movements between teams, and collaborated with ‘You Can Play’ on new initiatives to promote access and fairness for LBGTQ athletes.
Shaw also became the CFL’s first presenting sponsor of the Grey Cup and an investment in the league’s digital platforms led to traffic doubling on CFL.ca in 2016.
Orridge was introduced to the league long before becoming its 13th Commissioner.
Jeffrey Orridge was one of the speakers at Historica Canada’s Black History Month event in 2017
During the 1982 National Football League (NFL) work stoppage, NBC delivered three-down, 12-man and 110-yard football into American homes to fill the void.
Sitting on the sofa at home in Queen’s, New York on a fall Sunday afternoon, Orridge’s father pointed to the screen and the Edmonton Eskimos quarterback who was Black. Undrafted in the NFL, Warren Moon led the team to five Grey Cup championships before joining the Houston Oilers in 1984.
The nine-time Pro Bowl participant is the only player enshrined in both the CFL and NFL Halls of Fame.
One of Orridge’s first duties as CFL head was to honour Bernie Custis – Pro Football’s first Black starting quarterback in 1951 – with the Commissioner’s Award.
Drafted in the 11th round, Custis turned down the Cleveland Browns request to play safety, bolted to Canada and represented the Hamilton Tiger-Cats which won the Grey Cup two years later with him as the signal caller. He died in February 2017 at age 88.
After leaving the CFL, Orridge was Canadian Tire Corporation Senior Vice-President with responsibility for Community & Partnerships for 18 months and Tidal’s Chairman for 21 months before joining TVO.
He first came to Canada in 1970 with his parents to visit family in the Greater Toronto Area and later spent considerable time here in the early 1990s while working with USA Basketball preparing for the 1994 World Championship in Toronto that the Americans won.
“What stands out for me about Canada and particularly Toronto is that when I was growing up in the United States, Canada was always perceived as an open welcoming country,” said Orridge who grew up around the corner from Malcolm X in East Elmhurst, Queens. “There were always stories of Black athletes being given opportunities in this country that they were denied in the U.S and how well treated and regarded they were here. My personal experiences as a boy with my dad visiting my West Indian relatives and going to Caribana were always an event when I came here. With all the cultures here, you feel you are in a melting pot. With my kids being bi-racial, I wanted them to grow up in a cosmopolitan and multicultural environment where they would feel comfortable in a place that’s also relatively safe and clean.”
His parents are deceased.
Egbert Orridge migrated from Jamaica to New York and was an Assistant Dispatcher with New York Transit Authority while Jacynth Paterson-Orridge was a Registered Nurse and Social Worker.
“They instilled a great work ethic in me and placed a premium on education,” he said. “They also cut a lot of corners so they could put their three children through college.”
Eternally grateful for the opportunities his parents provided him, Orridge and his wife are doing the same for their young sons.
