Jean LaRose was named chief executive officer of the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) on November 18, 2002. He is a First Nations citizen from the Abenakis First Nation of Odanak. Mr LaRose was raised in Ottawa where he studied journalism at Le College Algonquin. He obtained his BA in Social Communications at the University of Ottawa (1978) and a certificate in Public Relations and Marketing at Le College Algonquin (1980). He has also begun the process to obtain a Masters degree in Public Administration at L’Ecole Nationale d’Administration Publique (ENAP).
Mr LaRose has held various posts with the federal government, primarily in the area of Communications, in departments that have included the former Department of the Secretary of State, the Treasury Board Secretariat, Health Canada and Foreign Affairs. He has also worked as a consultant in the fields of Communications and Public Relations, and has owned and operated a small business in the retail sector for 10 years.
Until accepting the position of chief executive officer at APTN, Mr LaRose was the Media Relations Officer and Director of Communications for the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), a position he occupied for eight years. He has worked for National Chiefs Ovide Mercredi, Phil Fontaine and Matthew Coon Come. Mr LaRose enthusiastically supported the creation of APTN as a member of the original advisory board that developed the concept for the first Aboriginal television network in the world. He strongly believes that APTN will become the key institution through which Aboriginal peoples in Canada will share their stories amongst themselves, with all Canadians and the rest of the world.
In 2005, Mr LaRose led APTN through a very successful license renewal process that now allows the network to access greater revenues as it moves forward to increase its range of programming and meet the technological challenges facing the industry shift to high definition television. Mr LaRose’s contract was recently renewed by the APTN Board of Directors for a minimum four-year period.