Andrew Baker named next chief executive officer of Alpine Canada

Andrew Baker hopes to reap what he's helped sow as the next president and chief executive officer of Alpine Canada.

He will replace Therese Brisson, who, after six years, moved on to become CEO of Skate Canada.

Baker held various jobs at the Canadian Olympic Committee for 21 years and was most recently the COC's chief external affairs officer. He will join Alpine Canada in September.

Alpine Canada oversees alpine and Para alpine racing and ski cross. That involves roughly 15,000 registered racers and 5,500 coaches in 200 clubs across the country, according to the organization's 2025 annual report.

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A pair of women's giant slaloms are scheduled for Mont-Tremblant, Que., in December. A World Cup ski cross is slated for March at Craigleith in Ontario.

Baker joins Alpine Canada at the start of another Olympic quadrennial toward the 2030 Winter Games in the French Alps.

The 43-year-old from Montreal was involved in the COC's lobbying on behalf of national sport organizations for increased core funding.

The federal government announced in April an injection of $755 million into high-performance sport over the next five years, and dropping to $118 million annually after that.

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Of that, $660 million over five years and $110 million after that goes directly to national sport organizations like Alpine Canada.

"It's a really exciting time for sport in this country," Baker said. "What attracted me was the history of the sport and just the history of excellence in the sport, but also the current excellence that you see across all three of the disciplines with alpine, ski cross and Para alpine.

"I've been working with the Canadian Olympic Committee for a number of years and in recent years, we've been advocating for the potential that existed in sport if we better funded it and better supported our athletes for their performance, but then for them to inspire the next generation.

"This advocacy work, to put it into action and to help, working with a national sport organization, bring that potential to life, that's something that was just really, really exciting."