Bill Mahoney, Interim Chair of COPA’s Board of Directors, is pleased to announce that Christine Gervais (no relation to Bernard) has been appointed its new President and CEO. Christine brings with her over 20 years of experience in the field of aviation as a commercial pilot, an air traffic controller and, more recently, a manager in airspace and level of service management.

Christine holds a current commercial pilot licence which she earned with the Ottawa Flying Club’s Professional Pilot Development Program over 20 years ago. A follow-up float endorsement led to the start of her professional aviation career. She has flown the great de Havilland Beaver in Northern Ontario, a Grand Caravan from Africa to South America (and many more flights and aircraft in between). She completed her final professional landing as a corporate pilot.

Following the birth of her son, she successfully trained and joined Nav Canada as an air traffic controller and worked in the Ottawa control tower for nearly a decade. Fluently bilingual in English and French, for the last four years Christine has been dedicated to management at Nav Canada, with her most recent role in Level of Service. During this time, she gained comprehensive experience as a leader in a high-performance team and advanced her education in project management.

She has maintained her pilot licence recency requirements, both on floats and on wheels.

Christine brings with her not only significant experience in the field of aviation, but also professionalism and leadership skills. Her network has prepared her well to successfully assume the role of COPA’s President and CEO. In addition, her ambition, combined with her professional ethics, exemplifies that she is ready and capable of undertaking new challenges.

Her sustained passion for the wide, and sometimes wild, blue yonder will serve her well as COPA’s advocate to advance, promote and preserve the freedom to fly for all of General Aviation in Canada.

After the announcement was sent out to COPA members earlier this week via an email blast and on various COPA social media accounts, initial feedback has been positive, with positive, congratulatory comments addressed to both the outgoing and incoming CEOs.

Christine Gervais will be starting on June 22 and transition with Bernard Gervais for a few weeks.