Ackles tackles new job with Paladin
Security: He’s VP of communications
SCENE & HEARD: Scott Ackles spent eight hours in a Paladin Security patrol car Thursday monitoring Vancouver’s downtown nightlife. He calls it a form of on- thejob training.
Not that the one- time front office executive with the B. C. Lions, general manager of several successful Grey Cup Festivals and president of the Calgary Stampeders is preparing for a night watchman’s post at a bank or furniture depot. On the contrary. Ackles, 48, signed this week with Paladin Security as vice- president of marketing, sales and communications.
“Security and the safety of people have always been a concern to me in every football job I’ve had,” he says. “The Canucks Stanley Cup riot in 2011 completely changed my world.”
When a young Ackles briefly played football (“rugby was my game”) for the Westside Warriors while he was at Eric Hamber Secondary, his coach was Leo Knight, a Vancouver police officer who eventually became an original investor in Paladin Security.
The newly formed company in 1976 had four employees and one client.
Today, under the leadership of CEO Ashley Cooper, Paladin has 7,000 employees with offices across the country.
After chairing the 2011 Grey Cup Festival in Vancouver, Ackles was named chief executive officer of ViaSport, the heir apparent to Sport BC. In a mutual parting of the ways, he resigned last March and spent the next six months with his wife Theresa, daughters Kasey and Robyn and mom Kay at their summer home on Gambier Island.
“I just unplugged,” Scott says. “When it was time to get back to work I was focused on an opportunity to join a company that was building and growing with a national presence.
“I found it with Paladin, where I’ll still be involved in the staging of events.”
HERE ‘ N’ THERE: With Rogers Sportsnet’s $ 5.2- billion, 12- year takeover of NHL telecasts beginning next year, rival TSN has been actively extending contracts for key on- air personnel.
One of their most talented personalities — Glen Suitor — signed for another five years this week primarily to continue as analyst on the network’s CFL coverage alongside playbyplay man Chris Cuthbert. The two shared a Gemini Award in 2006.
Suitor, born in New Westminster and raised in Prince George, returned to Vancouver where he graduated from Carson Graham Secondary before being drafted by the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 1984.
He played 11 seasons as an all- star defensive back with the Riders and proudly wears a 1989 Grey Cup ring.
Suitor is unique compared to most television sports analysts who seem bent on stealing the show. He’s knowledgeable, articulate and quietly confident.
SHORT HOPS: The sports anchor slot for the afternoon drive on News 1130 has been posted following the resignation of popular Scott Russell, who’s now enjoying a more tranquil existence with his family in Gibsons. END ZONE: Bob McCusker’s wide- angle grin in his family photo of 10 at Rogers Arena last week confirmed how much he enjoyed his special tribute night.
McCusker played for the WHL Canucks in the old PNE Forum during the 1960s and has been a driving force with the Canucks Alumni for almost 50 years.