‘Competitors beware!’ says Alliance Atlantis head honcho Michael MacMillan of Phyllis Yaffe. And he ought to know, having faced her from the opposite side of the fence, before the merger of Alliance and Atlantis brought them together.

‘I’ll never forget in 1994 when we were both appearing before the [crtc] in the licensing process for new specialty channels – she was representing Showcase and I, Life Network. I was struck by her foresight and resolve to successfully lead the charge for a world-class drama service.

‘Again in 1996, I watched as Phyllis exercised a tremendous tenacity to secure a licence for History Television against incredibly stiff competition. These days, I’m more than delighted to call Phyllis my colleague. As the president of Alliance Atlantis Broadcasting, Phyllis is one of the highest ranked women in broadcasting, and she continues to demonstrate the very same intelligence and perseverance as we head into the digital world. Just recently, Phyllis led an incredible team of people at Alliance Atlantis Broadcasting to complete and successfully file numerous applications for creative, original and appealing new digital channels.

‘It’s hard to believe that any one person can pack so much into one day, but as far as Phyllis is concerned, the busier the better. She can hardly wait until we add more channels to the Broadcasting Group – it seems as if the seven channels that she already oversees are not keeping her busy enough.

‘In 1998, Phyllis was named Woman of the Year by Canadian Women in Communications. Her acceptance speech at the awards ceremony was one of the best I’ve heard in over 20 years of broadcasting, so much so, that we played a tape of the speech for the entire staff at Alliance Atlantis Communications.

‘Her speech encompassed all the qualities that contribute to Phyllis’ success – a wonderful sense of humor about her early days as a librarian, a unique ability to read and understand the world of content, and a fierce determination to achieve the highest results in whatever media she works.

‘Competitors beware!