Youth Media Alliance Appoints New Board Members

Canada’s Youth Media Alliance has appointed six new members to its board of directors to replace six outgoing executives.

New additions are Julie Derome (Télé-Québec), Agustin Guevara Mastretta (TVO), Drew Mullin (CBC), Mike Omelus (APTN) and Claude Sauvé (Groupe Média TFO). Athena Georgaklis (Nelvana) will also take on a new role as co-chair.

Derome has 20 years of experience in youth production, the last 12 of which have been spent at Télé-Québec, where she is currently director of youth and family content. She is committed to reaching children at every stage of their development through script-editing, game production, creating immersive universes and podcast series.

Guevara Mastretta is currently production executive at TVO, where he oversees production and development of original series. Prior to that, he worked as a development executive at 9 Story Media Group. He is a graduate of Centennial College’s children’s media program.

Mullin has been serving as executive in charge of production for children’s content at CBC since 2016. He has overseen several broadcast and digital series, including Dot, Kingdom Force, Big Blue, Dino Ranch, Mitten & Pants, Addison, Napkin Man, Game Savers, Let’s Go Bananas and Snapshots (2018 International Emmy winner). Drew also executive produces the recent relaunch of CBC Street Cents on TikTok.

Omelus oversees programming, scheduling and content commissioning at APTN as executive director of content and strategy. Throughout his career, he spent seven years as VP of national news and news gathering at Global and served on the senior leadership teams of Shaw Communications and Corus Entertainment.

Sauvé has been a manager in the media world for over 40 years. He is currently VP of content and production at Groupe Média TFO, but originally began his career at Videotron in Montreal, holding various positions in operations management, marketing and programming as supervisor, director and then VP. He then worked as senior director of programming, communication and marketing for TFO, strategic advisor to the president at RDS and director of programming at Pelmorex/Météomédia.

Georgaklis, who will be taking on the new role of co-chair, is the head of development for Nelvana. She leads the acquisitions of rights and development of all original content. She is committed to developing creator-driven content, working with the studio’s producers, creators and talent around the world that will resonate with kids of all ages.

The six new members are taking over the positions of outgoing members Monika Ille (APTN), Nadine Dupont (TFO), Marie McCann (CBC), Marney Malabar (TVO), Nathalie Chamberland (SRC), and Marysol Charbonneau (Télé-Québec).