Jean La Rose is a First Nations citizen from the Abenaki First Nation of Odanak in Québec. He was honoured with a traditional name by a respected Elder in Manitoba, Fred Kelly. The name Animiki was given to him as representing the spirit that drives him forward. Animiki is Thunderbird in the English language. He grew up in Ottawa where he studied Journalism at Algonquin College and obtained his Bachelor of Arts in Social Communication at the Université St. Paul. He has worked for a variety of federal government departments such as Secretary of State (now Canadian Heritage), Treasury Board, Health Canada, External Affairs (now Global Affairs) and a few others. He joined the Assembly of First Nations in 1994 and served three National Chiefs (Ovide Mercredi, Phil Fontaine and Matthew Coon Come) until 2002.
He was the Chief Executive Officer of APTN, the first national Indigenous broadcaster in the world, with programming by, for and about Indigenous Peoples from 2002 to 2019. He is now the President/CEO of Dadan Sivunivut, the parent company of Nagamo Music Publishing, AnimikiSee Digital Productions, AnimikiSee Distribution, First Peoples Radio, Red Music Rising and All Nations Network, all companies set up by APTN during his 17-year tenure at the network. He serves on a variety of boards, such as Indspire, Indigenous Screen Office, ‘Namgis Business Development Corporation, La Cité Collégiale in Ottawa and others. His focus is on developing opportunities for Indigenous Peoples in Canada that will allow the communities to achieve the full economic potential they have been denied since colonization.

Speaking on: Meet a Distributor; Indigenous Screen Summit Pitch Forum #2: drama series; Meet a Distributor