Alan Horn, a Rogers Communications Inc. director who has served a number of key roles at the telecom and media giant, has died, according to sources.
Tausi Insider is not identifying the three sources aware of Mr. Horn’s death because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
Mr. Horn, an accountant with a mathematics degree from Scotland’s University of Aberdeen, became the telecom’s chief financial officer in 1996 after working for the Rogers family holding company, Rogers Telecommunications Ltd.
Over the years, he became a trusted adviser and confidant to Ted Rogers, who founded the telecom and served as its chief executive officer until his death in 2008. Mr. Horn served as interim Rogers CEO on two occasions – once after Ted Rogers’s passing, then again in 2016, following the departure of former chief executive Guy Laurence. He also chaired the telecom’s board from 2006 until 2017, when Edward Rogers, Ted’s only son, took over the role.
The passing of Mr. Horn leaves an empty seat on the advisory committee to the Rogers family’s Rogers Control Trust, which steers the wireless giant through its ownership of 97.5 per cent of the company’s voting Class A shares. It is unclear how or when that spot, or the one left vacant by the passing of family matriarch Loretta Rogers last year, will be filled.
In the fall of 2021, Mr. Horn supported Rogers chairman Edward Rogers, the founder’s son, in a dramatic power struggle aimed at unseating then-CEO Joe Natale. That put Mr. Horn on opposite sides from Ted’s widow, Loretta, and the couple’s two daughters, Martha Rogers and Melinda Rogers-Hixon, who wanted to keep Mr. Natale in the job.
The boardroom battle eventually landed in a British Columbia court, which handed Mr. Rogers a victory that allowed him to replace five of the company’s independent directors without a shareholder meeting. The new board fired Mr. Natale, replacing him with the company’s long-standing chief financial officer, Tony Staffieri.
In addition to the Rogers children, members of the advisory committee to the Rogers Control Trust include Loretta’s nephew David Robinson; Ted’s childhood best friend, Toby Hull; long-time Rogers lieutenant Phil Lind; and Toronto Mayor John Tory. Edward Rogers chairs the committee.
Mr. Horn was known for working long hours and for navigating the company through difficult financial periods. After resigning as CFO to join the company’s board in 2006, he also returned to his original job, overseeing the Rogers family private holding company.
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