Mary Ann Turcke is a Canadian media executive. She worked as a

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

, consultant, and IT operations manager before joining BCE in 2005. There, she had assumed various management roles, including president of

Bell Media Bell Media Inc. (French: ) is a Canadian company formed by the amalgamation of several companies. Establishment (2011–13) On December 9, 2011, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan announced the sale of its majority stake in Maple Leaf Sports ...

from 2014 to 2017. In 2017, she was hired by the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...

to lead its digital media division, and was promoted to chief operating officer of the NFL the following year. She was named to the Top 100 list of Canada's Most Powerful Women by the Women's Executive Network (WXN) in 2009, 2010, 2012, and 2013, and was inducted into the WXN Hall of Fame in 2013.

Early life and education

Mary Ann Turcke was born and grew up in

Kingston, Ontario Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the north-eastern end of Lake Ontario, at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River (south end of the Rideau Canal). The city is midway between Tor ...

, Canada, the daughter of David John Turcke, a professor of engineering at Queen's University, and Ann Cosgrove Zarichny. She has a brother and sister, Erin and Robert. She pursued her bachelor's degree in

civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewa ...

at Queen's University, graduating in 1988. In 1990 she earned her master's degree in

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

. In 1996 she enrolled in the first

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

program at the

Queen's School of Business Smith School of Business (formerly Queen's School of Business) is a business school affiliated with Queen's University at Kingston. It is located at the university's Goodes Hall. Since July 2021, the school's dean has been Wanda Costen. The Sch ...

, receiving her MBA in 1997.

Career

Turcke began her career as a civil engineer and project manager for the

Ministry of Transportation of Ontario The Ministry of Transportation (MTO) is the provincial ministry of the Government of Ontario that is responsible for transport infrastructure and related law in Ontario. The ministry traces its roots back over a century to the 1890s, when the pr ...

, designing and building highways and bridges. After earning her MBA, she moved to A. T. Kearney Management Consultants, primarily as a consultant to railroad clients. In 1999 she moved to the IT sector, serving as vice president of operations and Canada general manager for Internet Pictures Corporation of

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was es ...

, until 2001. From 2002 to 2005 she was a partner and board director at Codesta LLC. In 2005, she joined

Bell Canada Bell Canada (commonly referred to as Bell) is a Canadian telecommunications company headquartered at 1 Carrefour Alexander-Graham-Bell in the borough of Verdun in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is an ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrier) in ...

as its Vice President of Customer Experience and Operations for Small Medium Businesses. overseeing a team of 1,000 employees. In 2008, she was promoted to Executive Vice President of Field Operations. In November 2014, she became

's president of media sales, before becoming the head of the division in April 2015 to replace the outgoing Kevin Crull. Shortly after assuming her position, Turcke was criticized for remarks she made that classified the use of

virtual private network A virtual private network (VPN) extends a private network across a public network and enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network. The b ...

s to evade geo-blocking and access the U.S. version of subscription-video-on-demand service

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

as "stealing". As president, she led a major re-structuring of the company's executive staff in August 2015, in an effort to reduce its expenses. On February 28, 2017, it was announced that Turcke would be stepping down from her position at Bell, and would be joining the

as the President of NFL Media, overseeing

NFL Network NFL Network (occasionally abbreviated on-air as NFLN) is an American sports-oriented pay television network owned by the National Football League (NFL) and is part of NFL Media, which also includes NFL.com, NFL Films, NFL Mobile, NFL Now and NF ...

and the league's digital media platforms. On March 13, 2018, she was promoted to chief operating officer of the NFL, replacing the outgoing

Tod Leiweke Tod Leiweke (born January 12, 1960, in St. Louis, Missouri) is an American sports executive who is currently part-owner, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Seattle Kraken. Career In the early 1980s, Leiweke was vice president of th ...

Roger Goodell Roger Stokoe Goodell (born February 19, 1959) is an American businessman who is currently the commissioner of the National Football League (NFL). On August 8, 2006, Goodell was chosen to succeed retiring commissioner Paul Tagliabue. He was chose ...

praised her performance as media head, citing the success of NFL Network since her arrival. Unlike Leiweke, football operations will not report to Turcke. Turke left the NFL in 2020 to join the Infrastructure Partners L.P. as a Senior Advisor.

Other activities

Turcke chairs the boards of Bell Technical Solutions and Expertech Corporation. In 2012, she was named to the board of

Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd. (MLSE) is a professional sports and commercial real estate company based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. With assets that include franchises in four of the six major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

. She is also a member of the advisory boards of the Queen's School of Business, the capital campaign for the Queen's Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, and Sheena's Place, an organization for people with eating disorders. She previously served on the boards of the Professional Engineers of Ontario (1993 to 1995), the

Kingston Yacht Club Kingston Yacht Club (KYC) is a private yacht club based in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. The stated objectives of the club are to encourage the building and sailing of yachts, skiffs and canoes; motor boating; rowing; canoeing and all aquatic and oth ...

(1996), CIBC Run for the Cure (2002), and the

Tarragon Theatre The Tarragon Theatre is a theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and one of the main centers for contemporary playwriting in the country.

(2006 to 2008).

Honors

Turcke was named to the Women's Executive Network's list of Canada's Most Powerful Women: Top 100 in 2009, 2010, 2012, and 2013. In 2013, she was inducted into the WXN Hall of Fame. In February 2015 Turcke was named Woman of the Year by Women in Communications and Technology. Also in 2015, she was named one of the Top 25 Women of Influence by the Women of Influence organization.

Personal life

Turcke is married to Gordon McIlquham, also a native of Kingston, Ontario. McIlquham represented Canada in

sailing at the 1988 Summer Olympics Sailing/Yachting is an Olympic sport starting from the 1896 Olympics in Athens, Greece). With the exception of 1904 and possibly the canceled 1916 Summer Olympics, sailing has always been included on the Olympic schedule. The Sailing program ...

, competing in the men's two-person dinghy (470) class with Nigel Cochrane; the team placed 8th. Turcke, McIlquham, and their two daughters are all

sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' ( land yacht) over a chose ...

enthusiasts and race on the same team out of the

Royal Canadian Yacht Club The Royal Canadian Yacht Club (RCYC) is a private yacht club in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1852, it is one of the world's older and larger yacht clubs. Its summer home is on a trio of islands (RCYC Island, South Island and North Chip ...

References

External links

"How to Create a Culture of Innovation" panel discussion
The Empire Club of Canada, February 5, 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Turcke, Mary Ann Businesspeople from Ontario Canadian women business executives Canadian civil engineers Queen's University at Kingston alumni University of Toronto alumni Canadian female sailors (sport) Sportspeople from Kingston, Ontario Living people Year of birth missing (living people)