The board of the National Screen Institute - Canada (NSI) is pleased to announce the appointment of respected executive John Gill as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). He will assume the position on April 4, 2011.

"John comes to NSI with a wealth of experience and a breadth of industry connections," said Brad Pelman and Raja Khanna, co-chairs of the NSI board of directors. "He brings a fresh perspective to the type of film, TV and digital media productions that can be successful in the marketplace and what skills are needed to create them. His ability to work with the leaders in our industry will help him and the NSI staff develop the most innovative and market-driven training programs in the country."

A graduate in film studies from Queen's University, with a Master of Business Administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business at University of Western Ontario, Gill has both the passion and the business skills to lead NSI as the organization develops new strategies to meet the training needs of Canada's emerging screen professionals. Gill is a media executive and consultant with over 20 years proven experience in programming and scheduling educational, cable and digital television. While at Alliance Atlantis Communications and TVO, he led creative professionals and built effective teams responsible for the development and programming of many hours of original drama and documentaries across several channels. Most recently, his independent consulting work has allowed him to work with a variety of organizations across the country including Rogers, S-VOX, the S-VOX Foundation, and the Knowledge Network.

"I'm excited to join NSI and to work with their talented board and staff," said Gill. "They are passionate about developing training that will create careers for writers, directors and producers working across many platforms in the film and TV industry. I'm looking forward to exploring the opportunities and to leading NSI as we create the best professional development curriculum for the Canadian industry."