Alan Horn, a Rogers Communications Inc. director who has served a number of key roles at the telecom and media giant, has died.
Mr. Horn, an accountant with a mathematics degree from Scotland’s University of Aberdeen, became the telecom’s chief financial officer in 1996 after working for the Rogers family holding company, Rogers Telecommunications Ltd.
Over the years, he became a trusted adviser and confidant to Ted Rogers, who founded the telecom and served as its chief executive officer until his death in 2008. Mr. Horn served as interim Rogers CEO on two occasions: once after Mr. Rogers’s passing, then again in 2016, after the departure of former CEO Guy Laurence. He also chaired the telecom’s board from 2006 to 2017, when Edward Rogers, Mr. Rogers’s son, took over the role.
The passing of Mr. Horn leaves an empty seat on the advisory committee to the family’s Rogers Control Trust, which steers the wireless giant through its ownership of 97.5 per cent of the company’s voting Class A shares. It is unclear how or when that spot, or the one left vacant by the passing of family matriarch Loretta Rogers last year, will be filled.
In addition to the Rogers children, members of the advisory committee to the Rogers Control Trust include Loretta Rogers’s nephew, David Robinson; Ted’s childhood best friend, Toby Hull; long-time Rogers lieutenant Phil Lind; and Toronto Mayor John Tory. Edward Rogers chairs the committee.
In the fall of 2021, Mr. Horn supported the company’s chair, Edward Rogers, in a dramatic power struggle aimed at unseating then-CEO Joe Natale. That put Mr. Horn on opposite sides from Mr. Rogers’s widow, Loretta Rogers, and the couple’s two daughters, Martha Rogers and Melinda Rogers-Hixon, who wanted to keep Mr. Natale in the job.
The boardroom battle eventually landed in a British Columbia court, which handed Edward Rogers a victory that allowed him to replace five of the company’s independent directors without a shareholder meeting. The new board fired Mr. Natale, replacing him with the company’s long-standing CFO, Tony Staffieri.
Edward Rogers in a company statement described Mr. Horn as a “mentor and a friend” whose contributions to the telecom were integral to its success over the past three decades.
“Alan was one of the most devoted and astute leaders I have ever worked with,” Edward Rogers said. “We will miss his sharp mind and wise counsel.”
Mr. Horn was known for working long hours and for navigating the company through difficult financial periods. During his tenure he strengthened the company’s balance sheet, changed its debt from junk bonk into investment grade status, brought in a dividend program, consolidated all of the Rogers companies under one public stock and played a critical role in many important acquisitions.
After resigning as CFO to join the company’s board in 2006, he also returned to his original job, overseeing the Rogers family private holding company.
He leaves his wife, Ruth, and his daughter, Susan.
Alexandra Posadzki