Vancouver’s Tyson Media has added former Great Pacific Media exec Ed de Rivaz to its senior team.

Effective this month, Rivaz joins the company as SVP of factual and series, working with founder Tyson Hepburn on the company’s unscripted slate.

Rivaz formerly served as a development executive at Thunderbird Entertainment subsidiary GPM, where he worked on series such as Deadman’s Curse, Gut Job, Wild Rose Vet and Mud Mountain Haulers.

Prior to joining GPM, he held executive producer roles at Anaid Productions and A+E’s History Channel, and also worked in production roles at BBC Worldwide.

Tyson Media has produced the factual series Pets & Pickers and My Pet Ate What?, with the latter wrapping production in July. The company is in the works on a pilot project for another animal-based series on veterinarian schools, in partnership with the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Calgary.

Hepburn said Rivaz’ past experience on Wild Rose Vet builds on Tyson Media’s work on animal-driven stories, adding that he brings “vast experience on both sides of the media aisle as a broadcast executive and production development lead.”

Photo by Anita Lee