Ted Rogers Bio

Ted Rogers
1933 – 2008

An extraordinary entrepreneur, visionary and devoted family man, Ted Rogers was also a great friend of Ryerson whose long-time support helped to transform the University in a remarkable way.

“Ted Rogers was a community leader second to none, with a deep commitment to education and creating the next generation of leaders,” said President Sheldon Levy. “He loved Ryerson and he loved our students.

Ted and Loretta Rogers have had a long-standing 20-year relationship with Ryerson.  They gave $12.5 million in honour of Ted’s father, the late Edward S. Rogers Sr., to name the Rogers Communications Centre, establish two research chairs and support graduate programming.

The Rogers Communications Centre is Canada’s leading facility for studies in converging communications and interactive media. The main foyer on the second floor features a tribute to Rogers’ father, a communications pioneer. At the opening of the building, against the backdrop of photos and artifacts from his father’s life, Ted Rogers spoke movingly about the legacy of his father as the source of his inspiration and drive.

In 2007, Ted and Loretta Rogers made a transformational gift of $15 million to the University and Ryerson celebrated the naming of the Ted Rogers School of Management.  The Rogers’ donation has made a dramatic difference to the lives of students by greatly enhancing accessibility and the quality of the student experience. The majority of the gift was used to establish 52 new undergraduate and graduate student awards and scholarships, at unprecedented levels for the University.  The gift also established the new Loretta Rogers Research Chair to seed academic initiatives that will attract outstanding faculty and create centres of excellence in management research.

Over the years, Ted and Loretta Rogers have contributed more than $27 million to the University, establishing a host of undergraduate and graduate student fellowships, awards and scholarships.  The University now hosts its annual Rogers Awards Ceremony, recognizing 47 students for their academic achievements and personal accomplishments.

“Ted Rogers honoured us with his name, and left a gift of the ages at Ryerson,” said President Levy. “We will miss his good humour, strength of character, integrity, loyalty and genius, as guideposts and trusted values. But his investment in young people, teachers and creative thinkers will last for generations.”

Edward S. “Ted” Rogers
Biography

It’s hard to begin any account of Ted Rogers without first discussing his father. Edward Samuel Rogers, Sr. was a telecommunications pioneer, legend and inventor of the alternating current (AC) tube, which enabled the radio to be plugged into household electrical outlets. Edward S. Rogers was entrepreneurial and started several companies, all capitalizing on his invention, on radio, manufacturing and wireless communications. Tragedy struck in May 1939 when at age 38, Edward S. Rogers passed away due to complications from an internal hemorrhage, leaving his wife, Velma, and five-year old son, Edward S. “Ted” Rogers, Jr. with a grand legacy. Perhaps the greatest legacy of his father, though, was the inspiration his life would provide to his son and namesake as he pursued his own career in telecommunications. As a youth, Ted would attend Upper Canada College, earn his B.A. from The University of Toronto in 1956 and graduate from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1962.

In the fall of 2004, several strategic transactions were executed that significantly increased Rogers exposure to the potential of the Canadian wireless market. Rogers acquired the 34% of “Rogers Wireless” owned by AT&T Wireless Services Inc. “Rogers Wireless” then acquired Microcell Telecommunications Inc., along with its popular Fido brand, which created Canada’s largest wireless operator and only GSM provider. In December, “Rogers Communications” repurchased the shares of “Rogers Wireless” that were publicly held and significantly enhanced the company’s operating & financial flexibility by taking the company private.

Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of Rogers’ launch of wireless services, on July 1, 2005, “Rogers Home Phone” voice-over-cable local telephony service was introduced in the Greater Toronto Area and also successfully completed the acquisition of Call-Net Enterprises Inc. (now “Rogers Telecom Holdings Inc.”), a national provider of voice and data communications services.

The founder and chief executive officer of “Rogers Communications Inc.,” Ted Rogers became Canada’s undisputed new media mogul and telecommunications legend. A tireless worker, in the last 30 years of his life Rogers ceaselessly expanded his business undertakings by plunging headlong into new communications technologies. Whether in the form of radios, cable television, wireless devices or multi-media, the “Rogers” name has established a long history of pioneering new technologies for Canadians to enjoy the best features of home entertainment, information access, and interpersonal communication.

TED ROGERS: Born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 27 May 1933. Died in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, December 2 2008.  Educated at the Upper Canada College in Toronto; The University of Toronto, Trinity College, B.A., 1956; Osgoode Law School, LL.B., 1961. Married Loretta Anne Robinson, 1963, children: Lisa Anne, Edward Samuel, Melinda Mary, and Martha Loretta. Read law for Tory, Tory, DesLauriers & Binnington; called to bar of Ontario, 1962; established Rogers Communications in 1967; and until shortly before his death, president and CEO of Rogers Communications, Inc.

“I guess if you lose a parent you always have a chip on your shoulder — you wish you had a mother, you wish you had a father,’ Ted Rogers was once quoted as saying. ‘It was my mother who filled me with all the stories of my father and gave me the ambition to fulfill his dreams.”

Rogers Communications (TSX: RCI; NYSE: RG) is a diversified Canadian communications and media company engaged in four primary lines of business. Rogers Wireless is Canada’s largest wireless voice and data communications services provider and the country’s only carrier operating on the world standard GSM/GPRS/EDGE technology platform; Rogers Cable is Canada’s largest cable television provider offering cable television, high-speed Internet access, voice over cable telephony services and video retailing; Rogers Media is Canada’s premier collection of category leading media assets with businesses in radio, television broadcasting, television shopping, publishing and sports entertainment; and Rogers Telecom is a national provider of telephony, data networking, and broadband Internet connectivity, to small, medium and large businesses across the country.

From Father to Son:
Edward S. “Ted” Rogers Timeline

1956 Earned his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto
1960 While an articling student started the nation’s pioneer FM station, CHFI-FM, and subsequently founded CFTR-AM in Toronto.
1961 Awarded an LL.B. from Osgoode Hall Law School.
1964-80 Attracted to the potential for programming choices on cable, and entered the cable business. Rogers Cable TV became the first cable company to expand past 12 channels. Rogers Cable became the largest cable television company in Canada.
1985 Rogers became a founding shareholder of Rogers Cantel Inc. to operate a national cellular telephone network in Canada in competition with the established telephone companies. Rogers Cantel Mobile Communications Inc. is now called Rogers Wireless.
1989 Rogers Communications Inc. acquired 40% of Unitel Communications.
1990 Awarded the Order of Canada.
1992 Unitel was granted CRTC permission to compete with the Canadian telephone monopolies in the long-distance market.
1995 Rogers Communication no longer held an equity investment in Unitel.
2000 Rogers Communications Inc. acquired the Toronto Blue Jays Baseball Club
2004 Rogers acquired Rogers Centre (formerly Skydome), the Toronto Blue Jays home venue and largest covered indoor entertainment complex in Canada.
2001 Rogers Media acquired Sportsnet, The FAN 590 sports radio station and 14 Northern Ontario radio stations.
2002 Rogers On Demand launched as a home video library over cable.
2003 Rogers Cable made personal video recorders (PVRs) available.
2004 Rogers launched Rogers Yahoo!, one of the industry’s leading providers of Internet content and services.
2005 Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of Rogers’ launch of wireless services, on July 1, 2005,
introduced Rogers Home Phone voice-over-cable local telephony service in the Greater Toronto Area and successfully completed the acquisition of Call-Net Enterprises Inc. (now Rogers Telecom Holdings Inc.),
a national provider of voice and data communications services.
2008 Died in his home at the age of 75 on December 2, 2008