
Madeline Ziniak, C.M.,O.Ont.
Chair

Madeline Ziniak, C.M.,O.Ont.
ChairA senior broadcast executive and diversity champion, Madeline is recognized for influencing both public and private sector as a Multilingual Media Advocate. She is a renowned and sought after expert in diversity, inclusion and integration in the media profession. She is also a celebrated broadcaster, internationally recognized as an industry pioneer.
Madeline has been involved in ethnic media for more than 36 years and was the National Vice President of Rogers OMNI Television. Presently, Madeline is President of Madeline Ziniak Communications Inc. Madeline is also Chair of the Canadian Ethnic Media Association. For her dedication throughout her career, Madeline has received the Order of Canada, and the Order of Ontario, The Queen Elizabeth II Golden and Diamond Jubilee Medals, as well as numerous community, government, and industry related honors.
Madeline is former Chair (Ontario Region) of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, former Vice Chair of Women in Film and Television – Toronto, a founding member of the Strategic Alliance of Broadcasters for Aboriginal Reflection (SABAR), Co-Chair of the International Press Freedom Awards (Canadian Journalists for free Expression) and a previous board member of the Canadian Journalism Foundation. She was former Co-Chair of the Task Force For Cultural Diversity on Television, and Chair of the Jury of the Awards of Excellence, Canadian Race Relations Foundation.

Kiu Rezvanifar
President

Kiu Rezvanifar
PresidentKiumars (Kiu) Rezvanifar is the founder of KVC Communications Group, specializing in communications and broadcasting. Since 1993 he has been the executive producer of Iran Zameen TV and Pasargad TV on OMNI TV. These programs serve the Iranian communities across Canada. Kiu is also the publisher of Persian Tribute Magazine, the first English language publication targeted towards the second generation of Iranian Canadians.
In addition to being a documentary producer, Kiu has also served as a board member with various organizations, such as the United Way of York Region, Ontario Media Development Corporation, Iranian Canadian Cultural Fellowship, and York Region Integrated Strategic Community Advisory Council. He is also involved with CNEA and Toronto Police Services. Kiu has been a board member of the Canadian Ethnic Media Association since 1996, where he currently serves as President. In June 2017 he was elected to the board of directors of the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE). And in 2018 he joined the United Nation Association of Canada in Toronto as an advisor to the board. Kiu has been the recipient of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal and the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal for his contributions to his community in Canada.

Vasil Yancoff
1st Vice President

Vasil Yancoff
1st Vice PresidentVasil Yancoff was born in Toronto, Canada, to parents of Macedonian origin. He graduated from Toronto’s Centennial College in 1984, receiving a diploma in Radio and Television Arts. On placement he was hired as a news and sports reporter for CJCL Radio in Toronto. He went on to work as a junior hockey reporter for the Globe and Mail, and wrote a feature article on his parent’s homeland, Macedonia. Upon his return to Canada, he produced the Macedonian Mosaic program on City-TV for two years, before beginning a 29-year association with OMNI Television.
The Macedonian Heritage Hour is the Canadian Macedonian community’s lifeline to their heritage. The program has featured interviews with many prominent Canadians, including superstar hockey players of Macedonian descent — Steven Stamkos, Ed Jovanovski, Steve Staios, and Jose Theodore. Vasil Yancoff is also the producer of two documentaries financed by OMNI Television’s documentary fund: “The Late Bloomer: Ed Jovanovski” and “Georgi Danevski: Confessions of the Heart”. Vasil is Vice-President of the Canadian Ethnic Media Association.

Irene Chu
Treasurer

Irene Chu
TreasurerBorn in Shanghai, Irene Chu grew up in Hong Kong. She came to Canada in 1963 and stayed. Irene has been active as a volunteer in many sectors of society, including fundraising, health care, academia, finance, media and communications. She was a Canadian Citizenship Judge and a member of the Appeals Division of the Canada Immigration Appeals and Refugee Board. Irene also worked as a producer of the 20-episode television drama series “Once Upon A Time in Toronto” and was the author of a book entitled: “RARE BREED: A Chinese Jewish Quest ”. She is currently working on a new manuscript about her childhood life in Shanghai.

Jurij R. Klufas
Board Member

Jurij R. Klufas
Board MemberJurij Klufas is the President and Founder of Entertainment Media Corporation (1979), and President and Founder of KONTAKT Ukrainian TV network (1992) where he is also Executive Producer. Jurij is also a founder of, and current Chair of the Bloor West Village Toronto Ukrainian Festival (1997).
He received the Shevchenko Medal in 1999, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012, and the Cross of Ivan Mazepa in 2019.
Jurij is the father of two children, Sofia and Lidia. He was born in Nottingham, England and after a five year stint in Rome, Italy, now lives in Toronto, Canada.

Anna Chiappa
Board Member

Anna Chiappa
Board MemberAnna was the Executive Director of the Canadian Ethnocultural Council, a national non-profit organization representing different ethnic communities across Canada. She has worked in the area of human rights, employment equity, race relations and multiculturalism with several institutions and government agencies, including the Ontario Human Rights Commission, Algonquin College, Ottawa Regional Government and Boards of Education.
In more recent years she ventured in documentary film production and produced community videos and documentaries including SOS Arandora Star, Fallen Heroes Pilati 1943 and The Story of Quilt of Belonging.
Anna has been involved in a number of community organizations including The Famous 5 Ottawa and served on the board of The Dante Alighieri Society of Ottawa, Villa Marconi a Long-Term care facility and Quilt of Belonging. She is founding member of FILO’ an organization celebrating the achievements of Italian Canadian women in Ottawa. From 2005 to 2004 she was a member of OMNI Rogers Television, Community Advisory Board member (2005-2010). Anna has a Bachelor of Arts from University of Ottawa and studied in Italy at the University of Genova.
Anna is recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012), The Leading Women Building Communities Award (2012) and the Canadian Ethnic Media Association’s Sierhey Khmara Ziniak Award (2010) for dedication to multiculturalism and its expression documentary production.
She was born in Italy and came to Canada as a child with her family in 1959. She lives in Ottawa with her husband and daughter.

Jules Elder
Board Member

Jules Elder
Board MemberJules Elder is a journalist and educator. At present he works at Centennial College. As a journalist he has worked in radio, television, print and the online environment. He has also worked in the advertising industry as a copywriter and producer of radio, television and print material. He was managing editor of Share Newspaper, which he helped to launch. At OMNI Television he was a writer/editor, on-air commentator and producer for the TV show In the Black. Elder is a Centennial College Journalism graduate. He has diplomas in radio and TV production from institutions in New York City. He is also a graduate of York University in Toronto with a degree in social science.

Averill Maroun
Board Member

Averill Maroun
Board MemberAverill Maroun brings more than 40 years of experience and expertise in the field of communications to the projects she undertakes for CEMA. Averill began her professional life after graduating from St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, followed by Toronto’s Ryerson University where she studied Journalism. Her education prepared her for a career in media, which expanded from her earliest days as a commercial copywriter and news announcer/producer for CHER Radio in Sydney, N.S.
From there she moved on to one of Canada’s oldest television stations, CJCB, also in Sydney, as a commercial copywriter/producer, and then as the first female to work in the station’s newsroom as a nightly newscast writer and producer. Averill’s background as a writer/producer opened doors with CKO Radio in Toronto, leading to 10 years with Global Television Network as the eventual Manager of the Media Relations Department, while writing all print advertising and marketing vehicles.
She took these skills to CFMT Channel 47 (now OMNI Television) where she was Director of Promotions, Press and Public Relations, working with Toronto’s multicultural communities and media. The last 18 years of Averill’s very ambitious and diversified career were spent at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre. There she became Manager of Marketing and Promotions, excelling in the areas of devising and implementing marketing concepts, strategies and creative, while pursuing and brokering media sponsorships and promotional partnerships.
Her greatest achievement was developing thousands of dollars of in-kind marketing benefit for the not-for-profit arts centre. Because of her past experience working with multicultural communities and media, she was able to develop new audience for the centre’s international contemporary programming, creating extensive presence in both mainstream and community media.

Stanley A. Papulkas
Board Member

Stanley A. Papulkas
Board MemberHe has been called “An Architect of Creativity”, Stanley A. Papulkas has always been a story teller – first with words, then with pictures. Inducted into the Western Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2017 and after multiple award-winning projects, Stan’s goal has remained the same: to make a difference within the broadcast industry by allowing people to tell their stories. Success came early. At the age of 18, and still in high school, he produced a 30-minute program titled “Mime ‘79” about Monarch Park’s Pantomime Club. The program was so well received, that Scarborough Cable distributed it to different cable networks across Canada.
As a student of the Radio and Television program at Centennial College, his organizational and leadership skills did not go unrecognized. Stan was hired to take full control of the campus radio station which had been devastated by poor management. Within two weeks, CKCC was fully staffed and operational offering campus news, information and entertainment for the 4 campuses of Centennial College across the City of Toronto.
Stan was also quick to realize that every Canadian, no matter where they came from or what language they spoke, had a story to tell, and he wanted to be the one that would help them tell it. He joined CFMT Multilingual Television in 1981 and made an immediate impact to their language programming.
In 1985, Stan left CFMT-TV to work in sports broadcasting at TSN but returned to CFMT as a Producer/Director in 1986 when Rogers Media acquired the television station. For the next 30 years, Stan would be the creator of all magazine language programs not under the news umbrella. He created more than one hundred programs, specials, and documentaries over that time.
A true and passionate Canadian, he dreamed of a society that was harmonious and free of racism. But how to go about doing that? Stan believed that we need to go back to what makes us all proud to be Canadians, and that was the game of hockey. Stan founded the Canadian Multicultural Hockey Championships, where Canadians would represent their heritage for the Canadian Cup. Over the next nine years, 26 different ethnic communities regularly took part in an event that only played the Canadian National Anthem.
In 2008, Stan left his hometown of Toronto, Ontario and moved his family to Alberta as a Vice President of Rogers Media to build and launch OMNI Television in both Edmonton and Calgary. In 2013, he took over all in-house programming for Rogers Media in Alberta, including the local version of Breakfast Television in both Edmonton and Calgary. As always, an out of a box thinker, Stan created “Dinner Television”, an evening news and information program with the genre of a morning show for the Edmonton audience.
Today, Stan has turned his focus to Canadian independent productions and the creation of Hydra Films Inc, a Film and Television production company. Stan is now able to use his entire imagination as a story teller in developing feature films, documentaries, television comedy series, and a 13-part television series promoting Independent Film Makers and their work!

Elena Zolotko
Board Member

Elena Zolotko
Board MemberElena Zolotko was born in the Ukraine. She received a PhD in Communication and Information Science from Moscow State University of Culture, and shortly after moved to Canada. Zolotko is a passionate journalist, a dedicated researcher and an enthusiastic entrepreneur. As a long-time columnist who writes the weekly “Women’s Accent” column for the Canadian-Russian newspaper Canadian Courier, she has published hundreds of articles, interviews and reports on lifestyle, fashion, health, wellness and fitness. She has also interviewed numerous global celebrities.
Zolotko’s name is listed in the 2,000 Outstanding People of the 20th Century, published by the International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, U.K., “in recognition of and outstanding contribution to Public Relations.” She was also nominated for the title of “International Woman of the Year” in 2004 and was awarded a silver medal for “Women Who Make A Difference”.

Alexander Gershtein
Board Member

Alexander Gershtein
Board MemberBorn 1951, in Moscow, and growing up in Kyrgyzstan, Alexander Gershtein graduated from Kyrgyz State University. For many years, he worked as a TV broadcast director. Later he worked for the Israeli TV as a writer, director and a documentary maker. In 2002 he immigrated to Canada, residing in Toronto, and became an active member of CEMA. Gershtein has been working for RTVI, a global TV Channel, and has covered Canadian multi-cultural life, telling the stories of diverse communities. His films, created for the OMNI TV Channel, became the living story of the second wave of Russian immigration, fully integrated in Canadian reality, preserving their culture, language and traditions, for future generations.
Over long years working as a journalist for the Russian Express weekly newspaper he is well known in the GTA and worldwide. In addition to being a board member of CEMA, Alexander Gershtein is an honorary member of OMHS, the Multi-History Society of Ontario.

Pauline Tong
Board Member

Pauline Tong
Board MemberPauline Tong is on the Board of Governors of Yee Hong Centre for Geriatric Care and Yee Hong Community Wellness Foundation. She was in charge of the Foundation from 1994 and continues to support its mission after her retirement in Oct. 2015. An active volunteer since 1980, Pauline participates continuously in various charities and non-profit organizations. Since 2016, she has joined the Board of Upper Canada Choristers and the Board of The Canadian Ethnic Media Association.
Pauline received her M.S. in Communications from the University of Illinois. When opportunities present themselves, she has involved herself in producing TV documentaries and shows.

Paritosh Mehta
Board Member

Paritosh Mehta
Board MemberParitosh Mehta joined the Ontario Media Development Corporation in 2016. As a business officer, he reviews and analyzes applications for the Digital Media Tax Credits. At OMDC he has also worked as a program consultant for the Film and TV sector, overseeing the Export, Marketing and Industry Development Fund.
Prior to joining OMDC he worked at Rogers Media Inc., one of Canada’s largest integrated media organizations. As Director of Independent Production Development he was responsible for directing original programming from 28 community groups, enforcing compliance with OMNI’s licensing
commitments, and managing the overall budget and contract management function for independent productions. Previously he worked at Vision TV.
Paritosh Mehta is a graduate of Ryerson University in Toronto, where he earned a degree in Radio and Television Arts. He also holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Bombay University in India. He is the recipient of CEMA’s 2015 Diversity & Harmony Media Award.

Indira Naidoo-Harris
Honorary Board Member

Indira Naidoo-Harris
Honorary Board MemberIndira Naidoo-Harris was born in Durban, South Africa. Her family immigrated to Canada, to pursue the dreams they could not achieve under the oppression of apartheid.
The Naidoos settled in central Alberta, where Indira grew up in a small, rural town. Fuelled by her family history in South Africa and her arrival in Canada during our Trudeaumania years, Indira has always been interested in current affairs and world events. That interest led her to the University of Lethbridge, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science.
After graduate work at the University of Alberta, Indira moved to the United States for two years with her husband, Randy. She began her career in journalism there, working briefly for NBC and PBS.
From those beginnings, Indira built a successful career as a writer, reporter, producer and news anchor at the international, national and regional levels. Coming to Ontario in the 1990’s to work for CBC’s The National and Midday News, she has anchored for two of Canada’s national television networks (CBC Newsworld and National news, CTV Newsnet), as well as for many local Ontario stations (CBC Toronto and CBC Ottawa, TVO and OMNI Television). Indira has also anchored for regional and national radio, including World Report, and The World at Six, and has hosted the popular current affairs shows, Cross Country Check-Up and The Current.
Throughout her career, Indira has earned admiration and respect as a fair-but-firm, honest, intelligent and credible journalist. She has interviewed Prime Ministers, Premiers, entertainers, authors and other important Canadian and international personalities, winning numerous awards for her work and volunteerism in national and international causes. Close to three years ago Indira finally decided to pursue her interest in government. She has sat on the Board of Directors for the Reel World Film Festival, the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund of Canada and on the University of Western Ontario’s Journalism Advisory Council.

Dat Nguyen

Dat Nguyen
Dave Dat Nguyen, founder and CEO of Thoi Bao Inc., Webnews Printing Inc., Lancotek Products Inc. Dat came to Canada in 1975 after his family fled South Vietnam near the end of the war. His family settled in Halifax and in 1980 he earned his bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the Technical University of Nova Scotia now Dalhousie University.
Dat worked for 18 years as a research material engineer for various companies in Ontario. In 2003 he founded Lancotek Products Inc., a successful manufacturer of fire retardant coatings and products. He has published more than 10 technical papers and co-authored three US patents on fire retardant materials.
In the Vietnamese community, Dat is known as the publisher of Thoi Bao newspaper, which he started printing from his basement in Toronto. In 1998 Dat started another initiative, Webnews Printing Inc., which is currently printing more than 100 community and ethnic newspapers throughout Canada and the United States.

Dr. Ostap Sokolsky

Dr. Ostap Sokolsky

Ben Viccari

Ben Viccari

Ace Alvarez

Ace Alvarez

Dat Nguyen

Dat Nguyen
Dave Dat Nguyen, founder and CEO of Thoi Bao Inc., Webnews Printing Inc., Lancotek Products Inc. Dat came to Canada in 1975 after his family fled South Vietnam near the end of the war. His family settled in Halifax and in 1980 he earned his bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the Technical University of Nova Scotia now Dalhousie University.
Dat worked for 18 years as a research material engineer for various companies in Ontario. In 2003 he founded Lancotek Products Inc., a successful manufacturer of fire retardant coatings and products. He has published more than 10 technical papers and co-authored three US patents on fire retardant materials.
In the Vietnamese community, Dat is known as the publisher of Thoi Bao newspaper, which he started printing from his basement in Toronto. In 1998 Dat started another initiative, Webnews Printing Inc., which is currently printing more than 100 community and ethnic newspapers throughout Canada and the United States.