The NHL’s Ottawa Senators have appointed longtime newspaper executive Peter O’Leary as its new chief marketing officer and vice-president of ticketing. His appointment is effective Sept. 22.
O’Leary has more than 27 years of traditional and digital newspaper experience in Ottawa and Toronto. He arrives at the Senators from Torstar’s Metroland Media Group, where he was most recently GM of Metroland East.
He also spent six years as chief operating officer of Performance Printing, prior to Metroland’s $22.5 million acquisition of the company in 2011, and 13 years with the Ottawa Citizen, including time as vice-president of advertising.
“Peter comes to us with a terrific history of driving business in both traditional and digital media, and we believe that he will be able to help us make significant improvements to our marketing and ticketing teams to better serve both our fans and our partners,” said Senators’ president Cyril Leeder, in a release. “He brings experience, dedication and a great knowledge of the how to succeed in our local community.”
O’Leary is also active in the community, serving on local boards including the West Ottawa Board of Trade, the Snowsuit Fund of Ottawa (which distributes snowsuits to needy children) and the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario.
The Senators ranked 13th out of 30 NHL teams in attendance last year according to ESPN, averaging 18,108 fans per game (league leaders the Chicago Blackhawks averaged 22,623 fans per game). The team finished with a 37-31-14 record, and failed to quality for post-season play.
