Jeffrey Orridge

Education

Harvard University.

Career

Between 2011-2015, Orridge served as executive director of Canadian Broadcasting Company Sports. Orridge was appointed to his position at Canadian Broadcasting Company Sports on April 4, 2011, after his appointment was announced the previous March. Orridge succeeded Scott Moore.

He was responsible for acquisition, management, and revenue optimization of sports properties.

As the chief negotiator, he is credited for bringing the broadcasting rights to the 2014 and 2016 Olympic Games back to Canadian Broadcasting Company/Radio-Canada, as well as the rights to the 2015 Pan American Games. Orridge was also principally responsible for the management of the National Hockey League"s relationship with Canadian Broadcasting Company, a broadcasting contract that Canadian Broadcasting Company lost in November 2013 under Orridge"s watch after the 2013-2014 National Hockey League season.

Canadian Broadcasting Company"s hope had been that Orridge"s long-time relationship with Gary Bettman would help Canadian Broadcasting Company secure a renewal of the National Hockey League broadcast rights due to the fact that Orridge and Bettman knew each other from their basketball management days in the early 1990s. Canadian Broadcasting Company had held the rights to National Hockey League broadcasts in Canada for 62 years prior to Orridge"s handling of the file.

The Globe and Mail reported: "lieutenant didn’t have to happen, staff at both the Canadian Broadcasting Company and Hockey Night say, because they believe National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman and his marketing chief John Collins were willing to offer the Canadian Broadcasting Company a compromise that would have saved a scaled-down version of Hockey Night for the network that still would have been a significant source of revenue.

Those staffers also believe the Canadian Broadcasting Company executives missed this chance because of their failure to recognize the changed broadcast landscape and to see the threat posed by Rogers and Bachelor of Civil Engineering Incorporated., which owns the TSN and CTV networks. The Canadian Broadcasting Company negotiators insisted throughout an exclusive negotiating period with the National Hockey League that any new deal would see the network stick to a regional and national schedule by carrying all games played by Canadian-based National Hockey League teams on Saturdays. Sources said the National Hockey League bosses told Orridge and McEneaney to drop the regional broadcasts of Canadian teams and cut back to two games on Saturday night, at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m.

(Eastern time), give up the all-star game as well as the digital rights and cut back on playoff coverage.

Do that, it was said, and we’ll work out a number. Then we’ll sell the other games and other platforms to other bidders." Orridge"s tenure with Canadian Broadcasting Company Sports ended after April 9, 2015.

On April 29, 2015, Orridge began his tenure as commissioner of the Canadian Football League, becoming the first-ever non-white chief executive of a major North American sports league. Orridge also previously worked as:

1986–1989 Corporate Associate at Rogers & Wells

1989–1991 Executive Director of Home Attendant Corporation at North General Hospital

1991–1994 Head of Business & Legal Affairs for United States of America Basketball.

1994–1996 Director of Global Sports Marketing for Reebok International

1996–1999 Director of Sports Licensing for Warner Brothers

Consumer Products

1999–2000 Senior Vice President & General Manager for Momentum Worldwide

2000–2001 Chief Marketing Officer for OneNetNow

2001–2006 Vice President for Mattel

2007–2010 Chief Operating Officer/Head of Global Business Development for Right to Play

Orridge played basketball, before tearing his Anterior Cruciate Ligament. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1986 after graduating with a Bachelor from Amherst College in 1982.

Achievements

• Under his watch, Canadian Broadcasting Company lost the rights to Fédération internationale de football association World Cup soccer which it was seeking to renew, and failed to win back the rights it had lost following the broadcasting of its final Grey Cup in 2007. Then the Canadian Broadcasting Company was offered the top ratings draw, the Toronto Maple Leafs, or the Montreal Canadiens for the early games on Saturday nights and the Stanley Cup final for at least a few years.