Entrepreneur Ian Greenberg, co-founder of Astral Media and a member of the BCE board of directors, died Monday at the age of 79.

Ian Greenberg co-founded Astral, with his brothers, in Montreal in 1961. When the company began its transformation from a photography retailer to an innovator and global distributor of content in the 1990s, Mr. Greenberg took over as Chief Marketing Officer. Management and chaired for 16 years prior to the acquisition of Astral Media by BCE in 2013.

Gordon Nixon, Chairman of BCE Inc. and Bell Canada, in a press release, “Canada has lost a business visionary and media legend, and at Bell we have lost a wise, kind, and friendly colleague.”

“I am extremely proud to know and work with Montrealer colleague Ian Greenberg, who is a mentor and a daily source of inspiration for me. (…) I have always been impressed by his work acumen, natural integrity and sense of humor,” wrote Mirko Bibić, President and CEO of BCE and Bell.

A member of the Canadian Broadcasters Hall of Fame and Canadian Business Hall of Fame, Mr. Greenberg was awarded the 2007 Ted Rogers and the Rogers Graham Velma Award for his contributions to Canadian broadcasting.

He and his brothers received the Eleanor Roosevelt Prize for the Humanities for their support of charitable causes. He was a member of the Canadian Board of Chief Executives and Governor of the Jewish General Hospital of Montreal.