By Lambda Staff

Broadcast journalist and author Steve Paikin will succeed Aline Chretien as Laurentian University’s new chancellor, taking over the job from Aline Chretien.

Paikin is perhaps most well known as the anchor and senior editor of the current affairs program The Agenda, on TVO.

He has spent more than 20 years at TVO, working in several capacities, and has also served  as a moderator in provincial and federal leaders’ debates during several elections. In 2012, Paikin marked his twentieth year hosting TVO’s current affairs programming. Before TVO, he worked for several news outlets, including CBC News and the Hamilton Spectator.

Paikin has a local connection to the Sudbury area: his wife, Francesca Grosso, was raised in Sudbury and his father-in-law, Dr. Roberto Grosso, was a former chair of Laurentian’s board of governors.

“I am truly honored to be chosen for this important position and I was overjoyed to accept Laurentian University’s invitation,” Paikin said in a release. ”My wife Francesca was also delighted by the invitation and said that her father would have been tremendously proud. Roberto did so much to help build Laurentian University in its early years, and our family wishes he could be with us to celebrate this wonderful news.”

Furthermore, the university’s senate and board of governors unanimously endorsed Paikin’s appointment as university chancellor. His five-year term as chancellor will begin on Oct. 26, 2013, during the university’s fall convocation ceremonies in Sudbury.

In 2012, Laurentian granted Paikin an honorary doctorate of letters.

“We are proud to honour Steve Paikin as part of our Laurentian family,” said University President and Vice-Chancellor Dominic Giroux, of Paikin receiving the honorary degree. “His commitment to citizen engagement through educational broadcasting is inspiring, and his reputation as a journalist is sterling. He is a most deserving recipient of the Doctorate of Letters.”