CFL.ca Staff

TORONTO -- On June 11, 2010, Chris H. Rudge was named Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the 2012 Grey Cup Festival which was awarded to the city of Toronto and the Toronto Argonauts Football Club.  Most recently, Rudge was Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) from January 10, 2003 until April 15, 2010. For the last two years, he has also served as Chairman of the steering committee of the Own The Podium initiative which helped delivered Canada’s best ever team performance at an Olympic Winter Games and the most gold medals in Olympic history at a winter Games. 

He is currently an Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia’s School of Human Kinetics.

Rudge is a former senior executive and member of the Office of the CEO of Quebecor World Inc., which was at the time of his retirement in January 2002, the world’s largest commercial printer, employing 43,000 people at 160 plants in 16 countries in North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia.

Over his 12 years with Quebecor World Inc., Rudge held several executive positions including: Executive Vice President, Marketing, Communications and International Development; and Chairman, CEO and President, Que-Net Media.  He has also been President of Quebecor Printing Canada, and President, International Operations (Europe, Latin America and India) and Special Assistant to the CEO at Quebecor Printing Inc.

Prior to joining Quebecor World Inc. in 1991, Rudge was President and Part Owner of Pickering, Ontario-based Web Offset Publications.  He has also been General Manager, Sales & Marketing at Maclean Hunter Printing and has held various senior advertising sales positions at The Financial Post, including National Advertising Manager.

Rudge began his professional career as a Physical Education Teacher with the Toronto Board of Education, teaching both junior and senior high school students. 

His sport background includes competing as a player with the Syracuse Stingers of the National Lacrosse League (NLL), holding the position of Directeur du Personnel with the NLL’s Les Caribou de Quebec and coaching the Canadian National Field Lacrosse Team in 1976.

Rudge is and has been active on a number of boards, including The Paxen Group Inc. (Melbourne, Florida), Merrill Lynch Canada, the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, the National Ballet of Canada, the White Ribbon Campaign, the School of Graphic Communications Management at Ryerson University where he co-chaired the New Building Campaign, the University of Toronto Department of Athletics Restricted Funds Committee and the Country Day School (Vice Chairman). He was a Member of the Province of Ontario’s Olympic Trust and Waterfront Development Board and Chairman of the Town of Vaughan’s Recreation and Sports Advisory Committee and has been an active member of the Canadian Printing Industry Association. He has also served as the Executive-in-Residence at the Director Education Program at the University of Toronto Rotman School of Business.

Rudge holds a teaching certificate from Queen’s University and a Bachelor of Physical Education and Health from the University of Toronto.  He lives in Toronto, Ontario with his wife Janet Nutter, a medalist at the 1978 Commonwealth Games and the 1975 and 1979 Pan American Games, and a 1980 Olympian in diving.  They have two children, Ryan and Diane.