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Two years later, she was producing the Corporation’s flagship news broadcast, The National, while also managing human resources. “Working in a newsroom and going live to air taught me a lot about deadlines and stress,” she says. “I also learned I enjoyed the management side of things more.” By 1993, she was appointed director of External Production and Program Acquisitions, a post she held until 1998.
That was when she accepted an executive vice-presidency at the American branch of TV5, the international French-language television channel, where she would oversee operations in Canada, the U.S. and South America for over three years. TV5 presented a major administrative challenge. The company was experiencing major growth on two continents, where it had partnered with national broadcasters from France, Switzerland, Belgium, Quebec and the rest of Canada. Each organization naturally had its own objectives, and Brunet was mandated with navigating the financial intricacies of funding and commercial revenues as they came on stream under the various governments.
From 2001 to 2003 Brunet served as a partner and executive vice-president at Distraction Formats, which acquires and sells media production formats in 50 countries. Today she divides her time between teaching marketing of arts and culture at HEC Montréal and sitting on the 12-member board of the CBC. In this capacity, she also serves on the audit committee that assists the board in reviewing financial information provided to Parliament and other stakeholders, corporate control systems and the audit process. Additionally, she is president of the public support committee, formed to foster the Corporation’s stakeholder relations. “It’s a big issue for a public broadcaster,” she says. “We need the support of the people.”
Along the way Brunet also earned an MBA from HEC Montréal, which she says deepened her understanding of business and systems, and a PhD from the University of Warwick in England, where she studied creative production in the television industry. Looking back, Brunet realizes she has often been the first woman to hold most of her positions and laments how few board members of major organizations are female. “There is still a glass ceiling in most industries,” she admits. “But progress is always possible. I believe my education and experience together have contributed to my success. The key is to work hard and always improve yourself through education so you are prepared to make the most of any opportunity.”
NATHALIE MARGET, CMA
All young musicians dream of getting their big break — that one life-changing phone call.For Nathalie Marget, CMA, it was just such a call that brought her into the music world, working for MTV in the Big Apple. Yes, the parties are incredible. And yes, she’s that much closer to the stars. Marget’s life changed when a New York recruiter contacted her in April 1999. “It was at the exact moment I was pondering my next career move,” she says. The Montrealer, who had studied accounting at Concordia and received her CMA certification in 1997, had been working in public accounting at Ernst & Young for four years.
In August 1999 she walked into a soaring office tower on Madison Avenue and began a year-and-a-half-long stint as a senior internal auditor for Sony Corporation, mainly for Sony BMG Music Entertainment. “I learned a lot about how CDs are made and marketed,” she says, “and how music companies both make money and in turn pay the artists.”
A bigger door opened in 2001, when Viacom — which owns Paramount and DreamWorks movies, the MTV channels, VH1, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon, among other media ventures — brought Marget onboard as assistant manager in their own internal audit department.
“I was able to gain experience in all the divisions,” she says, “and I worked on operational audits. This meant looking at all the operational processes, what’s involved, how the business executes its strategic planning, how do we ensure we get money from advertisers. It was so exciting to be in such a changing environment.”
– Nathalie Marget
From there she was promoted to manager of Internal Audits, where she focused on internal investigations by working with computer systems such as general ledger and accounts payable. Following the Enron scandal and ensuing Sarbanes-Oxley Act on accounting reform, large corporations such as Viacom were required to institute stringent internal controls.
“Because of the whistleblower regulations component of the Act, we had a legal compliance department responsible for monitoring calls from employees who suspected fraud within the company,” she says. The legal compliance office would then deputize Internal Audit to investigate calls and take action on those that they found valid. Equipped with both a CMA and Certified Information Systems Auditor designation, Marget was in an unusually strong position to quantify the dollar value of alleged improprieties. She found her skills in high demand.
In 2003, she played a part in compiling the high-profile case against the controller of a TV affiliate station in Chicago. The controller was eventually charged with misappropriating nearly USD 2 million in station money. Investigating other cases meant a great deal of travel, and Marget visited offices throughout the U.S. and abroad, going as far afield as Australia.
By January 2006, she had tired of life on the road. She accepted a transfer to MTV back in New York, where she is now director of internal controls for the finance operations group. This group oversees licensee compliance — so that Mattel Spongebob toys meet their guidelines, for instance — as well as the collection and management of royalties. Her group also deals with so-called “participation management,” making sure actors, writers and other talent are paid their full share of the proceeds from show airings, song downloads, toy sales and the like.
The young executive credits her CMA training for teaching her the strategic thinking that has made her career possible. Just look where it has taken her. “The old cliché about New York, that ‘if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere,’ is true,” she says. “It’s tough, but once you establish yourself, it gives you a boost in confidence that I feel will last a lifetime. I’m not sure where I go from here, but I’m looking forward to finding out.”
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