André Bureau

Bureau, André

André Bureau, communications administrator (b at Trois-Rivières, Qué 10 Oct 1935). Bureau was trained in law at Université Laval and at Paris's Université de Droit Comparé. He was in private practice in Montréal from 1960 to 1968 and then joined Montréal's La Presse as executive vice-president, a post he held until 1972 when he returned to law.

In 1976 Bureau became president of Télémedia Communications and, in 1982, president of Canadian Satellite Communications, positions that prepared him for his entry into the federal regulatory world in 1983. He successfully managed the transition from Liberal to Progressive Conservative governments when he became chairman of the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission.

Bureau's task with the CRTC was made doubly difficult by the technological explosion which marked the last half of the 1980s. The growth of cable and computer communications were widely unforeseen. Bureau shepherded the industries through this difficult period of adjustment. He finished his tenure at the CRTC in 1989 and became President and CEO of Astral Communications Inc and president of Astral Broadcasting Group Inc. His work in regulating has continued through consulting and appointments to several bodies, including the Federal Information Highway Task Force. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1993.