Speaker: Tony Burman, Chief Advisor for the Americas, Al Jazeera English

Convener: Alidad Mafinezam, President, West Asia Council

Time: 12:00 pm-2:00 pm

Date:  Friday May 6, 2011

Place: Fasken Martineau, 333 Bay Street, 24th Floor, Toronto

Tony Burman was managing director of Al Jazeera English from 2008-2010 and is now Al Jazeera’s head of strategy for the Americas. During his time as the channel’s head based in Qatar, Tony guided AJE’s growth in North America, including its launch in Washington, D.C., and on every major cable and satellite platform in Canada. AJE is now available in more than 100 countries, and its worldwide audience reach more than doubled during his time as managing director – reaching some 200 million people internationally.

Now based in Washington and Toronto, Tony’s new role is to oversee AJE’s efforts to expand its reach and reputation in the U.S. and Canada as the world’s leading global news provider.

Under his leadership, AJE has been widely recognized for its groundbreaking reporting from the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. While Tony was serving as managing director, the channel received international acclaim for its news and programming, including awards and nominations from the International Emmys, the Monte Carlo Film Festival, and the Royal Television Society.

Before coming to AJE, Tony was editor-in-chief and executive director of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC News) for nearly eight years. During his career with CBC (which spanned more than three decades), Tony was an award-winning news and documentary producer with field experience in more than 30 countries, including the Middle East, Africa, Europe, the U.S., and Latin America.

In October 2007, Burman received the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television‘s Gordon Sinclair Award for lifetime achievement in broadcast journalism. In October 2009, Arabian Business magazine named him the second most influential non-Arab in the Arab world. Then, in November 2009, the Canadian Expat Association also announced that he had been voted the third most influential Canadian living abroad, behind Michael J. Fox and Wayne Gretzky.