Melinda Rogers-Hixon and Martha Rogers are exiting the board of Rogers Communications Inc. RCI-B-T as part of a settlement of the long-standing feud between members of the family that controls the wireless giant.
The settlement marks a detente in the family and boardroom conflict that pitted Edward Rogers, the son of the telecom’s late founder, and his sister Lisa Rogers against their sisters Ms. Rogers-Hixon and Martha Rogers as well as their mother, Loretta Rogers.
The clash spilled into public view in the fall of 2021 and rocked the country’s normally staid business community with disputes over replacing the CEO, reconstituting the board and exerting control over the telecom empire.
The standoff highlighted issues around corporate governance in family-controlled public companies just as Rogers was poised to expand its national presence by swallowing up Calgary-based Shaw Communications Inc. in a $20-billion deal.
The terms of the settlement were not disclosed on Wednesday. However, Ms. Rogers-Hixon said she and her husband, venture capitalist Eric Hixon, are “thrilled” with the outcome, which has “profound implications for our family’s future.”
“I’m excited that the settlement treats all members of our family fairly,” Ms. Rogers-Hixon said in an interview Wednesday.
“Moving forward, our greater family will be very supportive to each other in the initiatives that we each pursue and try to move past any disagreements,” she later added.
Ms. Rogers-Hixon said she looks forward to focusing on her other business activities, such as serving as a director of Bombardier Inc. and her role as a partner at Generation Transition Advisors, a global family business advisory firm.
Ms. Rogers-Hixon said she and her husband also plan to establish a family office that will invest in the Canadian and global capital markets, as well as in entrepreneurs tackling important social issues.
“Obviously it’s still early days,” she said. “We’re figuring out where we’re going to focus our investments in terms of sectors and geographies, but I’m envisioning a dedicated space built around the unique priorities and aspirations of our family.”
She and Martha Rogers remain shareholders of Rogers and will continue to support the company’s success, Ms. Rogers-Hixon said.
“I will always be a huge supporter of Rogers,” Ms. Rogers-Hixon said. “I’m just stepping down from one role, but I’m not stepping down from my other roles on the private and family side.”
All four of the Rogers siblings sit on the advisory committee to the Rogers Control Trust, which steers the company through its ownership of 97.5 per cent of the voting Class A shares.
In a post on the social-media platform X, Martha Rogers thanked people for their “well wishes on our ‘divorce.’ ”
“I’m grateful to return to my mom’s mandate to serving the community’s needs through the launch of the Loretta Rogers foundation,” she wrote.
Mr. Rogers thanked his sisters for their “numerous contributions to our company over many decades.”
“Their dedication to Rogers Communications has been integral to the company’s growth and is reflected in the passion with which our employees serve our customers across Canada every day,” he said in a statement.
The conflict that divided the Rogers family and the telecom’s board began with a disagreement over who should lead the telecom company that bears the family’s name.
Mr. Rogers, the company’s chairman, wanted to replace then-CEO Joe Natale with the telecom’s chief financial officer, Tony Staffieri. He began discussing the leadership change while the company was in the midst of a protracted regulatory review of its planned takeover of Shaw, which has since closed.
While Lisa sided with her brother, the chairman’s plan met resistance from the majority of the company’s board, including a handful of independent directors as well as his two other sisters and his mother, who has since died.
The dispute became increasingly heated, dominating headlines for weeks and ultimately landing in a B.C. courtroom when Mr. Rogers used his position as the chair of the Rogers Control Trust to replace the five independent directors who had opposed him without holding a shareholder meeting.
The B.C. court sided with Edward and the new board voted to replace Mr. Natale with Mr. Staffieri.
The feud reignited last October when Ms. Rogers and Ms. Rogers-Hixon launched a legal challenge to obtain board documents they claimed the company was withholding from them. They argued that the company was being “oppressive and unfairly prejudicial” toward them by refusing to give them access to the same information that other directors were privy to.
The company responded at the time by saying it had “rational” and “justifiable” reasons for withholding some board information from Ms. Rogers-Hixon and Martha Rogers.
Rogers said on Wednesday that the court case will be withdrawn as a result of the settlement.
Ms. Rogers-Hixon first joined the family business in 2000, after earning an MBA from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. She joined the telecom’s board in 2002 and became the senior vice-president of strategy and development in 2006. In 2011 she launched Rogers Venture Partners, a venture capital arm in Palo Alto, Calif., where she met Mr. Hixon and became immersed in Silicon Valley’s culture of innovation. She and Mr. Rogers both eventually gave up their operational roles within the company.
Martha Rogers never worked for the family company, opting instead to study naturopathic medicine. She joined the telecom’s board in 2008 and has served as the chair of its environmental, social and corporate governance committee since 2021.
Alexandra Posadzki