Hailing from Alexandria to head Kyiv Post, nominated for Prime Minister’s Award

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As a graphic design student at St. Lawrence College (SLC) in his early twenties, Alexandria native Luc Chénier turned down an internship at a local newspaper, thinking the news industry was unimportant. not really for him. Today, some 25 years later, Chénier is the CEO of the Kyiv Post, a long-running newspaper in Kyiv, Ukraine.

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In office for just over a year now, Chénier has mostly worked with her team remotely since the start of Russia’s attacks on Ukraine in early 2022. Her family fled when she woke up in front of bombs falling near her home one morning. Chénier returned to Canada earlier this year, but said his spirit and soul remained in Ukraine the whole time.

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Eventually his family returned and resettled in Europe, but Chénier made another brief visit to Ontario last month.

‘It was good to be back in Cornwall,’ he said, later adding, ‘no matter how far I go abroad, it’s always nice to call home in Cornwall and in Alexandria. »

Chénier made the second trip to see his family and also attend the 2022 Premier’s Awards Gala, hosted by Colleges Ontario, where he was nominated in the business category. Although he didn’t walk away with the award, he was proud to have been nominated – despite his fiercely competitive personality, he said.

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« Looking back, it was really good to be reconnected with my school, » Chénier said. « (The nomination) made me feel like I was somebody, I was destined for bigger things, and they recognized that. »

Thinking back to his time at SLC, Chénier first got into graphic design simply because he wanted to design his own AC/DC album cover. Using his creative and networking skills, he then worked in Western Canada for several marketing agencies before traveling the world, where he landed in Ukraine on a whim, quickly finding work.
Chénier said he had a teacher – not representative of the rest of the school – who told him he would never be anything. Although this left him in a negative light, it ultimately motivated him in his career.

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“I love being told ‘you can’t’…it pushes me to take it to the next level. I love being the underdog – I complain about that, but I’m a champion underdog to a large degree.

Chénier has received widespread criticism – including threats to his personal safety – since returning to the English-language Kyiv Post, where he worked as CEO a few years earlier. He was recalled last November after 30 of the newspaper’s reporters and editors left the company after what he briefly described as miscommunication, and the majority of the batch formed competitor Kyiv Independent as a direct result. . The controversy received worldwide coverage, with conflicting reports being reported on how and why employees left the company.

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Regardless of what happened, Chénier’s goal is and was to move forward with a new tone. The Kyiv Post delves into digital media that incorporates respectable investigative journalism as well as positive stories that inspire hope.

« I’ve never worked so hard in my life…within a month we started posting again…we were blasting, we had global plans…and then the war started…we said, now we just need… to let the world know what is really happening (in Ukraine), » Chénier said, speaking of his team with the highest praise for their work. « I’m happy to say now that our numbers are only growing. and grow. »

« We are not the old Kyiv Post, but we are still true to what Kyiv Post has always been. We are just more refined and more balanced…you just have to tell the facts, what they are – good or bad – and let the reader decide (what he feels).

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Chénier is happy to see his team grow and said he will occasionally feature editorial content, including a recent article by Alisa Orlova that examines how schools have been affected by war across the country and what rebuilding the future of students will involve. While he says the job he is doing is a great undertaking, he thinks it is simply the right thing to do, especially given the struggles the country is currently facing.

Chénier believes the secret to his success in Ukraine can be attributed to his love and respect for the country, and the way he wants to see it prosper, bringing a wealth of experience, without trying to impose Western ideals.

« The biggest mistake you can make in Ukraine is to (underestimate), » Chénier said.

In 2023, Chénier looks forward to attending the World Economic Forum and seeing the Kyiv Post continue to thrive.

shoneill@postmedia.com