The chief technology and information officer (CTIO) for Rogers has retired from the company late this summer, Rogers confirmed.
Ron McKenzie was brought on in July 2022 as the cable giant’s CTO to replace Jorge Fernandes in the wake of the Rogers network outage that knocked out services for millions of Canadians, which prompted a regulatory study and the company announcing billions of dollars in network resiliency initiatives.
“Being the CTIO of Rogers has been an incredible honour with such a long history of innovation,” McKenzie said in a LinkedIn post. “Leading the best Technology team in the country, I am so proud of everything we accomplished together – bringing 5G to the TTC subway, completing the first 5G slicing and Cloud RAN trial in Canada, completing the first Satellite to Cell phone call and earning the recognition of Global benchmarking leaders for both our 5G and internet network performance.
“I’ll be staying on as an advisor to the CEO until the end of the year and will be proudly cheering the Rogers Team from the sidelines,” he added.
“Ron has been key to our growth and momentum and under his leadership, Rogers has been recognized by global leaders in network benchmarking as Canada’s most reliable 5G network and Canada’s fastest and most reliable internet,” a Rogers spokesperson said in a statement. “We thank Ron for his many contributions and wish him all the best in his retirement.”
McKenzie has been replaced by Mark Kennedy, who has been with Rogers since 2019, most recently as senior vice president of wireless core engineering and national network implementation, according to his profile on the Rogers website. He will lead the “teams responsible for designing, building, and operating Canada’s largest and most reliable 5G network and largest cable network,” according to a bio on the Rogers website.
“Mark is a seasoned network leader with over three decades of experience in senior roles with global technology companies,” the bio adds. “With experience in network strategy, implementation and operations, he has led high-performing teams responsible for wireless and wireline networks across Europe and Asia.”
Before assuming his role as CTIO at Rogers, McKenzie was president of Rogers for Business for about a year. Before that, he was at Shaw Communications before it was purchased by Rogers, with roles including senior vice president of business and chief operating officer.
He was brought onto Shaw when the then-standalone cable company purchased Mountain Cablevision, whose president was McKenzie, in 2009. Mountain Cablevision was then sold to Rogers.
Between 2003 and 2006 he was executive vice president of marketing and business development for Allstream.
McKenzie is a board member for 5G Americas, a trade organization for the advancement of 5G and other wireless technologies, as well as a board member and technology committee chair of CableLabs, which advances technology for cable companies.
He holds an electrical engineering degree from the University of Toronto.
