Background
The son of McDonald"s Canada founder George Cohon, he was appointed as commissioner in 2007 succeeding Tom Wright. Cohon was born in Chicago, Illinois, and moved to Toronto, Ontario when he was two years old.
The son of McDonald"s Canada founder George Cohon, he was appointed as commissioner in 2007 succeeding Tom Wright. Cohon was born in Chicago, Illinois, and moved to Toronto, Ontario when he was two years old.
He is a graduate of Upper Canada College and Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Science majoring in communication studies and worked at the National Basketball Association as head of international marketing and Major League Baseball International as head of corporate development.
He holds both Canadian and United States citizenships. before becoming President and chief executive officer of AudienceView Ticketing, a company which sells ticketing systems and services to sports, arts and entertainment events. In 2002, Cohon married Suzanne Elizabeth Lucido. In 2003, he was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Ontario Science Centre and then named Chair in 2006.
Given his success at transforming the Canadian Football League, the Caras board wanted to bring in an experienced executive outside the music industry to transform the future of the Juno Awards.
In 2007 Mark Cohon succeeded Tom Wright as the Commissioner of the Canadian Football League. Under the direction of Cohon the Canadian Football League went through a remarkable renaissance. He stepped down on January 9, 2015 and was replaced by board chairperson Jim Lawson on an interim basis.
Jeffrey Orridge was appointed the new Canadian Football League Commissioner effective April 29, 2015.
In 2013, he was made a Member of the Order of Ontario and in 2015, he was awarded the Meritorious Service Meda Recently he was appointed the Chairman of Caras, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences which oversees the annual Juno Awards for the Canadian Music Industry. From record television ratings to the building of $2 billion in new stadiums to the expansion back to Ottawa, to overseeing two labour agreements to the national celebration of the 100th Grey Cup and finally to the tripling of television revenues with a new contract with Bell media, Cohon is credited in bringing back the Canadian Football League to prominence in Canada. In August 2014, Cohon announced that he would not seek a third term as Canadian Football League Commissioner, announcing that he had completed everything he set out to accomplish and it was time to seek new challenges in his career.
