Nancy Lee , MJ / 87

In November 2006, Nancy Lee left her position as executive director of CBC Sports to head up the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics broadcast team as chief operating officer of Olympic Broadcast Services Vancouver (OBSV). Owned by the International Olympic Committee, the OBSV is responsible for delivery of broadcast feeds, producing and transmitting unbiased live radio and television coverage of the games.

She will start with a staff of six and will build a broadcasting company that will eventually consist of 4,000. Lee draws on her experience from her years as the first women to run CBC Sports. During her tenure at CBC, she served as CBC/Radio-Canada’s chef de mission for the Olympic Games and other major international sporting events. In 2002, Lee was the first woman to lead the negotiating team for the acquisition of a top sports property for a major North American broadcast network. At the time, the Hockey Night in Canada deal between CBC and the National Hockey League was the largest sports-rights contract in Canadian history. Lee led the network to record-breaking Olympic and Hockey Night in Canada telecasts, negotiated broadcasting rights to multiple sports properties and increased the profile of women’s and amateur sport.

Lee received the “Trailblazer of the year” award from Canadian Women in Communications in 2002 and was named one of the Most Influential Women in Sport and Phycical Activity by the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Activity in 2007.