The women who make TV – Marie Collin: a team player
Marie Collin, CEO of Télé-Québec
Now President and CEO of Télé-Québec, where she heads a mostly female management committee, Marie Collin started out in the middle of the media in the late 1980s, “a time when there weren’t many women yet,” she recalls.
Ms. Collin worked from 1987 to 1994 at TVA in the research sector, then in the public relations department. She then served as Director of Communications at TQS for three years. For the next 13 years, she was senior vice-president of Canal Vie, Vrak.tv and Ztélé, channels she helped build.
In short, she has seen a lot of it, on TV… and she has seen women take their place there. “When I was appointed executive at TVA, there were three female managers in the entire organization. Now, there have been women in decision-making positions on TV for a long time.”
Creating fire teams
< p>At Vrak, Canal Vie and now Télé-Québec, Marie Collin herself has appointed women to management positions, particularly in content, to ensure that speeches are addressed to everyone and all and which follow the evolution of society.
Among the famous female faces she has put on screen, she names Marie-Louise Arsenault of the show In the media, known for her biting interviews; Rosalie Bonenfant, a bubbly host who established herself in the male duo at the helm of Two Golden Men, who became Two Golden Men and Rosalie; Monic Néron and Émilie Perreault who offered a new look at journalism with their show The future belongs to us.
On the fiction side, it is delighted to have broadcast the work of Florence Longpré who, with the series M'entendre tu?, presented a singular vision of people whom you don't see much on TV.
CHECK OUT THESE OTHER WOMEN SHAPING TV:– Marie-Philippe Bouchard, CEO of TV5: place for female leadership
– Suzane Landry, vice-president of content at Bell Media: The TV that dares
Marie Collin is also delighted to have created solid teams during her time that did not fall after her departure. “It's the greatest achievement for a manager,” she says.
To achieve this, she believes that you have to surround yourself with people who complement you and thinking from the moment of recruitment, looking towards the next generation, taking people under her wing in order to make them grow and bet on performance, she who says she is demanding, but always with a great concern for humanity.
Television to forge our identity
Even before starting a job at Télé -Quebec, Ms. Collin was interested in the channel for its mission dedicated to education and culture.
“I think we have to find a way to keep our young people rooted in local culture and in our values, but without cutting them off from the rest of the world. We must keep them by offering them a vision of the world. We have succeeded in Quebec in having a strong culture and youth television has participated in it for years. References were given. The programs from your childhood are cultural markers that become a link to your national identity”, affirms the one who notably operated the transfer of Canal famille to Vrak.tv.
For Marie Collin, the language and the cultural vitality of the province need to be preserved. At Télé-Québec, she has made it her primary mission, intuitively tinting each of her decisions with her feminist values.
