Trina McQueen is a Canadian broadcast pioneer. Her bio is littered with a history of firsts: the first woman reporter for CFTO in Toronto, the first woman to host CTV’s W5, the first woman to report on-camera for CBC’s The National and at 33, the first woman appointed as executive producer for CBC’s flagship news program. With extensive senior management experience in both public and private broadcasting, Trina McQueen has an intimate knowledge of the challenges and opportunities in Canadian broadcasting. 

McQueen was President and Chief Operating Officer of CTV Inc., founding President of the Discovery Channel, and CBC Television’s Vice-President of News and Current Affairs and helped launch CBC Newsworld, now CBC News Network. She has served on the boards of the Canadian Television Fund, Telefilm, and the Canadian Association of Broadcasters. In recognition of her many achievements, McQueen was elected to the Canadian Broadcaster’s Hall of Fame and the CBC News Hall of Fame in 2018. In her acceptance speech, McQueen remembered a local television station manager who wanted her fired, asserting that “women do not have the authority to report news.” 

She has received multiple awards and honorary degrees and was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2005. 

McQueen retired from broadcasting in 2003. Since then, she became the Bell Media Professor in Media Management and Co-Director of the Arts, Media & Entertainment Management Program at the Schulich School of Business at York University. She is a board member of organizations supporting higher education, the arts and broadcasting, including the Canadian Opera Company, the Canadian Institute of Advanced Research, the Canadian Journalism Foundation, the Canadian Media Research Consortium, Historica, PEN Canada, and the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television.