Jeff Ansell

Career

At age 17, with a goal of being on the radio, Ansell secured his first broadcasting job on CFMB an ethnic radio station that broadcast in two dozen languages. He then became a news announcer on the city’s rock station, CKGM before moving to CFCF-DT, Canada’s first radio station. At 19, Ansell relocated to Toronto, working as on air news broadcaster for CFTR.

After 2 years at CFTR, Ansell moved to CHUM Radio. He was morning news announcer on CHUM FM and afternoon news announcer on CHUM (AM). Ansell was also an interviewer on the In Toronto program, a daily one-hour public affairs program. In 1980, Ansell and his fellow CHUM reporter Tim Laing posed as drug addicts, wired with hidden microphones, to expose doctors accused of illicitly prescribing narcotics. The one-hour radio documentary Pillers of Parkdale resulted in Ansell and Laing’s nomination for the Michener Award, given by the Governor-General of Canada for Public Service in Journalism. They were also honored with the Radio-TV News Directors Association award for the most significant contribution to the improvement of news gathering in the country.

Acting on a tip from famed Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal, Ansell conducted a year-long investigation, exposing two Nazi war criminals living in Canada. The war criminals, Haralds Puntulis and Helmut Rauca. Collectively, Puntulis and Rauca murdered more than 16,000 innocent people during the Second World War. With a swastika and maple leaf on the cover, TODAY Magazine, a supplement in 18 Canadian newspapers, reported the story.

Following the Nazi investigation, Ansell joined CITY TV Toronto as a reporter and news anchor. In a 12 month investigation, Ansell uncovered abuse at a Toronto area nursing home, resulting in the closure of the St. Raphael Nursing Home. His documentary, Nursing Homes: The Promise of Age, led to legislative amendments to the Ontario Nursing Homes Act, which governs how homes are run.

In 1987, Ansell left CityTV to open his own company, Public Eye Network, which produced video news releases, produced TV shows and offered media training. Through Public Eye Network, Ansell produced and hosted The New Home Report on CHCH TV Hamilton and appeared on TVOntario’s Moneysworth.

Ansell served as senior vice president of Hill & Knowlton. Ansell provided communications and management counsel to the Canadian government, the Ontario government and private sector executives. He counseled CEOs of companies including Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, Nestle, IHOP and Boston Market. In addition, Ansell created Hill and Knowlton Canada’s media training department.

In l995, Ansell created Jeff Ansell & Associates, a firm specializing in media and presentation skills training. Ansell provided strategic communications counsel to the CEO of Pacific Gas and Electric Company, following the natural gas disaster that killed 8 people in the 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion in California.

He counseled PG&E Corporation’s CEO regarding the Erin Brockovich controversy that involved health issues in Hinkley, California.

From 1995 to 2008, Ansell was an instructor in the MIT-Harvard Public Disputes Program Dealing with an Angry Public sponsored by Harvard Law School.

In 2004, Ansell provided issues management counsel to White House director of communications Nicolle Wallace and Marc Racicot, former governor of Montana.

From 2002 – 2006, Mr. Ansell was a guest speaker at conferences hosted by U.S. based governmental organizations including the National Association of State Treasurers, the National Conference of State Legislatures and the Council of State Governments.

In 2010, Ansell and his co-author Jeffrey Leeson authored a book entitled When the Headline is YOU: An Insider’s Guide to Handling the Media. The publisher is Jossey-Bass.

Ansell advised the CEO of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics before, during and after the death of a Georgian athlete on the luge track. Following the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Ansell counseled a client with 25% ownership in the Deepwater Horizon project. Ansell counseled the CEO of the company prior to the executive’s testimony before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee investigating liability in the spill.

At the 2011 convention of the International Association of Business Communicators in San Diego, Ansell was invited to host the prestigious Gold Quill Awards ceremony.