User:Mariotass/Bill Roberts

Bill Roberts President and CEO, ZoomerMedia Limited, Television Division

Bill Roberts is President and CEO of ZoomerMedia Limited, Television Division, Canada’s preeminent multi-faith and multicultural broadcaster and parent company to VisionTV. Seen in over 10 million households across Canada, VisionTV presents inspirational, insightful and original programming that celebrates diversity and promotes understanding among people of different faiths and cultures. Under Bill’s leadership, VisionTV has grown to be among Canada’s top 25 specialty channels in audience awareness, attracting over two million viewers each week.

Outside the office, Bill has many passions and is a world travelling, adventure seeking Buddhist believing professional. For the past 30 years, Bill has climbed some of the world’s most intimidating mountains on several continents. From Mont Blanc/Monte Bianco, the highest mountain in the Alps and in the European Union and which is ranked 11th in the world to the highest mountain in Costa Rica, Cerro Chirripó, to Mount Kinabalu, the most prominent mountain on the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia which is home to the most important biological sites in the world, Bill has made it his lifetime passion to scale nature’s most amazing peaks. Closer to home, Bill has scaled Mount Rainier (southeast of Seattle) which is considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world and Mount Whitney, the highest summit in the contiguous United States. In Canada, Bill has also tackled Mount Robson, the highest point in the Rockies and the most prominent mountain in North America's Rocky Mountain range and Mount Assiniboine in Alberta, the highest peak in the Southern Continental Range of the Canadian Rockies. Not content to rest of his laurels and always seeking his next challenge, Bill plans to scale one of the highest active volcanoes in the world, Cotopaxi in Andes Mountains. And this past March, in an effort to raise awareness and funds, Bill scaled Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest freestanding mountain and the fourth most prominent mountain in the world for CARE, the non-governmental organization dedicated to defending dignity and fighting poverty by empowering women and girls.

When Bill is not climbing or working, he divides his time between three homes; Belize in beautiful Central America, the enchanting Cortes Island in British Columbia and the increasingly popular Prince Edward County in Ontario. Bill is also a hardcore skier having managed to ski to the North Pole an astounding four times. He is an expert scuba diver and sky diver with a Brown Belt in Karate with Mixed Martial Arts training. Outside of work, Bill is very active and generous with his time. Just recently, Bill returned from a stint at the NASA/Ames Research Center which is dedicated to information technology research with a focus on supercomputing, networking and intelligent systems that assists all NASA missions. Bill serves on the Board of Directors for the National Screen institute (NSI) and the Board of Directors of the Media Awareness Network, sits on the Hot Docs Advisory Council and is Special Advisor to and a past Vice-President of the Couchiching Institute of Public Affairs. Bill’s work with the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) as Senior Vice-President, Television, and with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) as a Senior Policy Analyst have made a significant impact on the Canada Television industry ensuring consumers have more choice on their television dial.

Bill holds several communications, public policy and business degrees, including a BA from Trent University, an MBA from St. Mary’s University and an MA from the Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris, France. Bill just wrapped a six year stint as an Adjunct Professor, Communications at York University. He is fluent in French, and conversant in Spanish and Swedish. A native of Quebec, Roberts currently lives in Toronto with his wife Sharon and two teenage children.