Former HuffPost Canada managing editor Kenny Yum named CBC News chief of staff

TORONTO — CBC News has named Kenny Yum as its new chief of staff, replacing Gino Apponi, who retired in May.

Yum heads to the public broadcaster from Huffington Post

Canada, where he served as the founding managing editor of the online news site since 2011.

He has previous stints as editor of the Globe and Mail’s website, and as the managing editor of digital for the National Post.

In a memo to staff, CBC News general manager and editorin-chief Jennifer McGuire said Yum’s role will include strategy and business development for the broadcaster’s news division.

McGuire said Yum will also be tasked with leading initiatives involving training, internships, staff engagement and diversity. Yum will begin his work with CBC News on July 24.

Yum has been a champion of promoting and strengthening diversity in the news media.

His hiring comes weeks after a high-ranking CBC staffer was reassigned over a controversy about cultural appropriation.

In May, Steve Ladurantaye, then-managing editor of CBC’s

The National, was among a group of media leaders involved in a late-night Twitter conversation offering backing for an “appropriation prize.” An outcry followed and Ladurantaye was reassigned due to his participation in the exchange. McGuire called his tweet “inappropriate, insensitive and frankly unacceptable.”

In the midst of that controversy, Yum wrote an impassioned blog post about the need for more diversity in the media.

“You can see it in the bylines, in the ranks of columnists who shape the daily opinion, in the senior leadership of just about every Canadian media organization. Forget leadership, just go walk into any newsroom and look around — then go outside and walk the streets of a city like Toronto and you know there is a disconnect,” Yum wrote. “Canada’s newsrooms are not diverse. And we are all suffering for it.”

On Monday, CBC spokesman Chuck Thompson said Yum’s post about diversity in the Canadian news media “had no influence” on his hiring and he was chosen “from a strong pool of candidates because of his breadth of experience in the industry, strong leadership skills as well as his digital expertise.”