CEO & President, MHI Canada Aerospace
FA: How has the industry changed since you began to work in aerospace?
JW: I’ve been in aerospace for twenty-five years, and I find the most significant change is that Canada has, unfortunately, gone from number three to number five in the industry. Partly because governments elsewhere have strongly supported aerospace, while sup- port from the Canadian government has diminished.
I started my career at McDonnell Douglas. At the time, the company had about 5,000 employees and 1.3 million square feet of factory space. Today, it’s just a parking lot which is disappointing because of the history and legacy behind the building. The site was the place where the Avro Arrow was designed and built. The Iroquois engine was constructed across the way with underground tunnels at Magellan, the second stop in my career. Today, Magellan is still there building engine components.
If I look over twenty-five years, I think that government support has diminished, which has led us to be a country that exports 80% of what we do in aerospace. The situation is not ideal because the industry could move and go anywhere. The federal and provincial governments are listening, but we need to work together quickly to utilize some tools to build the industry up again. On the positive side, we have organizations like the Ontario Aerospace Council (OAC), Aerospace Industries Association of Canada (AIAC), and DAIR trying to work together to build the industry.
FA: Where do you see the industry going?
JW: One thing that I never thought we would see in aerospace is the building of electric and hybrid technology. The innovation coming out of green technology and the air mobility side of the aerospace world is exciting to see. Hopefully, MHI Canada can get on board with Ontario and Mississauga to shape that fraction of the industry a little more. Having said that, we also need to ensure that our industry attracts and retains labour. Without this, we will be in trouble. With our technology and innovation moving forward and bringing work, we need to have the capacity. That’s why it’s critical to work harder than ever with the likes of DAIR and academia to build our attractiveness.
FA: How has MHI contributed to Mississauga, Ontario, and Canada’s aerospace industry? What does the future hold for the sector in the region?
JW: When MHI Canada came to Canada, they started with 90,000 square feet. When I started here in 2016, we had 270,000 square feet, and now we’re over 450,000 square feet. Initially, MHI’s strategy was to build airplanes in Ontario, not parts. But they realized a support system was in Ontario, which started with the Avro and continued with McDonnell Douglas and Boeing, Bombardier and De Havilland; since they had suppliers, they began to transfer parts. We’ve brought over 20,000 individual part numbers to North Ameri- ca, and we’re the largest on-load of Tier-one wings and fuselage to Canada. We’ve also brought 800 jobs to the Mississauga area. We don’t usually hear of jobs transferring from Japan to Canada, but the company realized the skill set was here, so MHI Japan brought the jobs over, and then we started onboarding suppliers. When I started in 2016, there were five North American suppliers; now, we are up to sixty-five North American suppliers. Ten of those part suppliers are from Mississauga.
We also want to help academics and suppliers grow, and we’re continually working with industries, colleges, and universities. I’m on the Mississauga Board of Trade, where we have MERG, a committee that talks about developing aerospace and manufacturing. One of the things we understand is that we have to get out there and engage with the colleges and universities to help build the industry and continue our growth.
FA: Has COVID pivoted MHI’s future plans?
JW: For MHI, the most significant plan pre-covid was to become self-sufficient from Japan. Many of our operations are done out of Japan, and we are slowly bringing that to Mississauga. Unfortunately, COVID has slowed down plans, but we are getting back on track. We are also looking to diversify our customer base. We are also working with OEMs to look into aerospace’s military and de- fence side to help fill in the cyclical gaps of commercial aerospace.
FA: How should aerospace be promoted to the next generation of Ontarians?
JW: When I started my career, I found aerospace intriguing, and I think we need to show youth the fascinating parts of our industry. Artificial intelligence and green technology are all at the forefront of research and development, which is happening in aerospace. Still, we don’t do a good job at showing young people that. Some may think aerospace is boring because it’s math and science, but we need to change the narrative and show that aerospace is everything and for everyone. There is a place for people going into mar- keting, finance, public relations, and event planning in aerospace. When it comes to industry promotion, I do think we’re still think- ing old school, but getting out on social media can be one way of showing youth what aerospace does and what it has to offer as an industry. We also need to get to the parents and the guidance counsellors at a grade school level to show off jobs and aerospace.
“… We need to change the narrative and show that aerospace is everything and for everyone.”
At the same time, I think there needs to be a concentrated effort on putting the word out. It’s one thing for me to do through MHI Canada, but we need to think about what we can do in Ontario. Getting the word out there is essential, but we must do it together and figure out how to be smarter and better as a team to get the message out.
FA: As the first female CEO and President of MHI Canada, can you talk about your career path in aero- space and what led you to the role you’re in today?
JW: I didn’t have a dream to be an aerospace engineer in the least bit. I decided to go to Queen’s University engineering because the program started with a general first year, and I later decided to study mechanical engineering. When I graduated, I knew I wanted to work in either aerospace or automotive. I don’t know why but I found those were interesting industries. I was eventually offered a job as a financial analyst at McDonnell Douglas. I did get questioned about taking a financial analyst role when I worked hard to get an engineering degree. I later found out I was offered the position because of my engineering background. At the time, McDonnell Douglas was looking for someone with technical knowledge to understand the shop floor and admired how engineers think. I was at McDonnell Douglas for four years before I went to Magellan, and that’s when I went into production planning.
Seven years ago, the previous President’s CEO called me up, and he wanted me to come in and talk about becoming the Vice Presi- dent of Operations. I was supply chain at the time, so I was hesitant, but then they had an opening for a supply chain role. Today, I’m doing the job he envisioned I could do, but I lacked confidence in myself.
From a career standpoint, I would have never thought I would be here as the first female President and CEO of a Japanese subsidi- ary. I just progressed up the ladder from when I was a financial analyst and had many people who had faith in me. There were a few bumps in the road, especially as a female. Looking back, the only thing I regret is not having more faith in myself, and that’s what I tell everybody – if somebody sees something in you, have faith in yourself because they may see something that you might not see in yourself.
“From a career standpoint, I would have never thought I would be here as the first female President and CEO of a Japanese subsidi- ary. I just progressed up the ladder from when I was a financial analyst and had many people who had faith in me.”
FA: What is the value of working with DAIR?
JW: If I had to use two words to describe DAIR, it would be collaboration and innovation. DAIR working with organizations to move forward in an exciting time for aerospace has been great for us and has supported our sector. DAIR’s ability to help companies like ours innovate and collaborate with OEM’s, Tier-ones, small to medium enterprises, and the government has been great for us and has strengthened Ontario’s competitiveness.
To learn more about MHI Canada Aerospace, visit them on linkedin.
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Project Title: Research & Design of an Optimized Rotor Alloy for Aircraft Eddy Current Brake Applications
Project Description: The technology behind Aeroflux's innovative contactless brakes is based on the principle of eddy current braking. Whereas a typical friction brake decelerates an aircraft through friction generated by bringing a moving and non-moving surface (the stator and the rotor) in contact with one another, an eddy current brake does so without the need for any physical contact between the stator and the rotor. Currently, there are alloys present to perform the work but with limited success on life and consistent performance. An optimization of a current alloy or development of a new alloy will be required to provide consistent performance metrics and meet target life expectations for commercial applications.
Environmental Impact: Frictionless eddy current brakes do not wear, and no brake replacements are required. Eddy brakes produce half the lifetime CO2 emissions of traditional friction brakes.
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Project Title: Development of Process to Phase-Out Hexavalent Chromium Compounds from Anodizing and Plating Processes
Project Description: Brampton Processing is developing a process to phase-out toxic Hexavalent Chromium Compounds from its anodizing and plating processes. The goal of the project is to eliminate toxic hexavalent chromium emissions into the environment and replace it with less toxic trivalent chromium emissions.
Environmental Impact: Reduced toxic emissions in anodizing and plating processes for metal finishing in aircraft manufacturing. This new process will reduce occupational health risks.
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(samuel.com/burloak-technologies)
Project Title: Development of Tungsten Additive Manufacturing & Heat Treatment Processes for Canadian Aerospace
Project Description: The development and use of tungsten powder is very nascent for laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing (AM) technology. With recent demand for AM tungsten development within the aerospace/defence industry in Canada for purpose-driven weight balancing parts for helicopters, as well as radiation shielding for electronic components, this project will serve to create an all-Canadian solution to meet this demand. It will develop AM processes at Burloak necessary for the use of tungsten, and the tungsten powder will be sourced locally through Tekna in Canada, which is beneficial for security purposes, as other major suppliers of tungsten come from Russia and China.
Environmental Impact: Compared to convential manufacturing methods, additive manufacturing provides a reduction in material waste, energy usage and machine emissions.
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Project Title: Care by Air – Transport of Time Critical Medical Supplies by Remotely Piloted Aircraft (Drone)
Project Description: The project is a collaboration between Drone Delivery Canada, DSV Air & Sea Inc – Toronto, McMaster University and Halton Healthcare Services Corporation. Through a pilot project, the partners will explore the viability of using remotely piloted aircraft (drones) for the delivery of isotopes and other vital medical supplies from point of production to patients in hospitals, with the aim of alleviating supply chain uncertainties in the transportation of these medical products.
Environmental Impact: Reduced CO2 emissions from less reliance on traditional aircraft for delivery.
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Project Title: HEBÉ Hydrogen Storage and Management for Use as Aircraft Fuel
Project Description: HEBÉ Hydrogen is developing techniques for sealing of underground cavities so that green electrolytic hydrogen produced at pressures of up to 35 bar(g) can be safely stored for future processing. A key challenge is to find an affordable way to install underground storage in the most difficult geologies on earth. HEBÉ has partnered with Petra, as the leading trenchless boring expert, to reduce the cost of undergrounding and to make it economically viable. As part of the project, HEBÉ will use Petra’s knowledge in scaled-up cost and technical models. It is anticipated that engineering and field validation works will generate intellectual property registration opportunities for HEBÉ Hydrogen. The project would demonstrate up to two methodologies in this proof-of-concept effort.
Environmental Impact: The hydrogen-storage repositories will provide 100% availability of green fuel on-site for air transportation in all remote regions.
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Project Title: Engineering Design of a Hybrid Power System Novel Power Distribution Scheme
Project Description: Horizon Aircraft is developing a unique hybrid electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) aircraft. To take off and land vertically, the aircraft uses an array of electrically driven lifting fans located in both the main wings and the canards that draw significant power during this short phase of flight. As such, it is beneficial to have a power distribution schema wherein electrical power for vertical flight is routed from two distinct sources: (1) directly from the generator that is part of the main hybrid electric power system; and (2) from an on-board battery array.
Environmental Impact: Use of electrical and battery power in hybrid systems will reduce requirements to use emission-causing fuels.
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Project Title: Development of Lithium-ion Battery for Small Drone and UAV applications
Project Description: This project is to develop a 5 Ah lithium-ion battery for testing in a small unmanned fixed-wing drone application. Solid Ultrabattery anticipates that high energy-density lithium ion or lithium metal batteries more than 400Wh/kg will be required for aerospace and drone applications, due to high energy demands during takeoff and cruising stages of flight under inclement weather conditions. The initial battery will target 400Wh/kg as a starting point. The goal is to develop a small 5 Ah building block for a much larger battery that can be developed in the future for substantially larger flight vehicles.
Environmental Impact: Use of lithium batteries will reduce environmental emissions compared to use of traditional fuel sources.
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(ova.ai)
Project Title: PhygitalX - Remote Training, Unrestricted
Project Description: PhygitalX is a software used on the latest extended-reality hardware, combining the best of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) to remove the requirement for physical travel in training sessions for aerospace manufacturing or maintenance, while preserving the integrity of the learning experience (a feat otherwise impossible with VR-only or AR-only software). Remote training activities are no longer compromised or restricted – everyone, regardless of physical location, has holistic engagement and presence. Cost savings are significant when remote training sessions are just as good or better than in-person sessions.
Environmental Impact: Reduction of environmental emissions by making high-quality training possible without the need for travel.
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A. Berger Precision Ltd.
High precision machining and manufacturing of components and highly complex assemblies.
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AirStart Inc.
Supplier of OEM and aftermarket airplane parts and components to the global aviation and aerospace industry.
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Aerospace Metal Finishing Inc. (AMF)
Surface finisher specializing in coating, passivation, anodizing etc. of fabricated metal parts.
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Aversan Electronics Manufacturing Inc. (Aversan EMI)
Manufacturer specializing in high complexity electronics assemblies.
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Avion Technologies Inc.
Manufactures gears, precision components, and sub-assemblies for the aviation and space industry.
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BMP Metals (A division of Bempro Global Group Inc.)
Specialized in fabricated metal products with capabilities in punching, forming, welding, wet and powder coatings, milling and turning, electrical assembly, 3D plastic printing and mechanical assemblies.
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Brotech Precision CNC Inc.
High precision metal components manufacturer for the aerospace industry.
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CFN Precision Ltd.
Supplier of complex, precision-machined components, kits, sub-assemblies and testing for the aerospace industry.
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Cleeve Technology Inc.
Specializes in the supply, design, and manufacturing of electrical interconnect products, including but not limited to, wire harnesses, cable assemblies, boxes, panels and enclosures.
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Coordinate Industries Ltd.
Manufacturer of cable assemblies, wire harnesses, mechanical and electromechanical assemblies.
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Dellcom Aerospace
CNC milling and turning capabilities for small- to medium-size parts for the aerospace industry.
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Devtek Aerospace (Centre of Excellence)
Machining of medium- to large-size landing gear components.
www.herouxdevtek.com/en/operating-locations/landing-gear/kitchener
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Fleet Canada Inc.
Build-to-print aerospace manufacturer that specializes in airframe assembly, metal-to-metal bonding, etc.
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Shimco North America Inc.
Shim manufacturer and special processing of aircraft parts.
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Trinity Aerospace Corporation
CNC machining and aerospace engineering services.
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Tristar Coatings Ltd.
Manufacturer of solvent and waterborne primers and topcoats.
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(advancedmobilityproducts.com)
Project Title: Development of Safe and Reliable Rechargeable Energy Storage System (RESS) for a Solar Battery Electric UAS
Project Description: The project is to develop Safe and Reliable RESS for Superwake's Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) commercial applications. As Superwake begins its drive towards commercialization of its product, the need for conformity to regulatory standards is critical to the success of the product. This project focuses on a product conformity related to a regulatory framework such as Transport Canada Advisory Circular (AC) No. 922-001 – Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems Safety Assurance. More specifically, a more complex RESS is required in advanced operations such as beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS), flying in controlled airspace and near people.
Environmental Impact: Low carbon footprint and replacement of aero vehicles that run on fossil fuels. The use of smaller solar battery electric drones can replace some applications of small, manned utility aircraft used in commercial applications. The cost to operate these drones would be substantially lower using solar battery electric drones.
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Project Title: High Altitude Platforms –Autonomous Flight Powered Using Wireless Power Transmission
Project Description: The project is part of a feasibility study to fly an uninhabited aircraft for very long, multiday missions by providing it with power using a mix of wireless power transmission and solar power. Power is transmitted as microwave energy from a ground-based transmitter and sent to a receiver that is attached to the lower surface of the aircraft wing, which converts it to DC power. The DC power will be used to drive electric motors on the airplane for propulsion, to power the payload and control systems and to charge standby energy-storage units. The project includes modelling, wireless power transmission flight testing using small uninhabited aircraft and performing a life-cycle assessment of high-altitude platforms.
Environmental Impact: Reduced emissions using alternate clean power source.
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Project Title: Airline Fuel Efficiency using Predictive Analytics
Project Description: In this project, use of flight time metrics will in turn develop efficient fuel- consumption prediction models using the advances in data training & machine learning historical data sets, while also applying external variables such as winds, precipitation and traffic congestion.
Environmental Impact: The development of optimal flight paths will enable fuel savings, reduce emissions and carbon footprint of the industry.
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Project Title: Enabling Circular Economy through Autonomous Repair and Remanufacturing of High-Value Gas Turbine Blades using Intelligent Laser Directed Energy Deposition
Project Description: The project focuses on the repair and restoration process of high-value turbine blades by combining the principles of Industry 4.0 through intelligent LDED-PF based AM. Material characterization work in this project includes feedstock analysis, microstructural analysis, mechanical testing and Non Destructive Testing (NDT).
Environmental Impact: The energy consumption and carbon footprint of using LDED to repair and remanufacture a turbine blade is substantially lower than manufacturing a new turbine blade.
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Project Title: Developing Ultra-lightweight Composite Propeller for Aerospace Applications
Project Description: The purpose of this project is to develop a low rotational mass moment of inertia propeller, which takes advantage of composite Tailored Fibre Placement (TFP) technology in conjunction with flexible tooling. Such a propeller will reduce the loads and stresses experienced by the aircraft powertrain – thereby extending the life of the powertrain components.
Environmental Impact: Lightweighting will create a reduction in greenhouse gases as we enable the reduction of weights and electrification of various transportation industries including aerospace, defence, Urban Air Mobility, UAVs and space vehicles.
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Project Title: Arctic Shoreline Mapping Pilot
Project Description: The purpose of this project is to supply the Department of Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) with high-definition aerial imagery and video of shoreline regions in the Canadian Arctic, which will be used to segment the shoreline into a digital model. Superwake will join a team from ECCC in the Arctic in Summer 2023 to test the effectiveness of their long-endurance solar-powered remotely piloted aerial systems (RPAS) for this application. This project is part of a larger effort by ECCC to evaluate various coastal mapping methodologies, comparing satellite imagery and RPAS to helicopter-based operations, which form the baseline.
Environmental Impact: Superwake RPAS offers a reduced fuel consumption in the operations, versus the current helicopter option.
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Project Title: Chromate-free, Solvent & Water Based Primers and Integral Fuel Tank Coating for the Aerospace Market
Project Description: This project will allow testing and certification steps to commence on Tristar Coatings blends of chrome-free water and solvent-borne products.
Environmental Impact: This project aims to eliminate the chromates in the primers which will greatly reduce the exposure of all workers involved in the manufacturing, spraying as well as in the shipping and repair processes. Water-based primers greatly reduce VOCs at the manufacturing and end-use points.
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Project Title: Developing a Passive Icephobic Coating for Dash 8-400 Propellers
Project Description: Ice is one of the significant challenges that the aviation industry faces. Ice increases the weight of planes, but more importantly changes the aerodynamic profile of wings and propellors. There are two main pathways to reduce the effects of ice: to actively control the ice through heat or mechanical energy during flights, or to provide a passive coating that will allow ice to shed at low kPa. Zentek has developed a patent-pending passive icephobic coating that will be assessed and optimized for the Dash 8-400 propellers.
Environmental Impact: A passive icephobic coating on a propeller will improve safety, reduce the energy of in-flight de-icing and reduce the complexity of the current active systems that require regular maintenance.
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Nancy Barber
President
Women in Aerospace Canada
An aerospace senior executive with over 20 years of in-depth experience in operations, supply chain, and program management, Nancy Barber has spent much of her career in a product development environment involving large-scale clean sheet commercial and business aircraft programs. Nancy owns her own consulting business, Barber Complete Consultancy Inc, and is currently active in the aerospace industry, focused on leadership development, mergers & acquisitions, commercial strategy, product strategy and business development.
Prior to Nancy establishing BCC Inc., she held the position of Chief Operating Officer, Bombardier Business Aircraft, responsible for planning, assembly, and delivery of the Learjet, Challenger, and Global business aircraft as well as the industrialization strategy of Bombardier’s operational footprint. Nancy also held the role of Vice President, responsible for the Global 7500 and Global 8000, and New Aircraft Studies, where she led proactive management or program milestones and cost commitments supporting the ramp up of the Global 7500 aircraft, the largest purpose-built business aircraft world-wide, and its successful entry into service in 2018.
Nancy is a passionate promoter of women in aerospace serving as a mentor, coach, and speaker. In 2020, Nancy was named one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women, and the Northern Lights Aero Foundation awarded her with the Elsie Award for Business in recognition of her outstanding contributions to aviation and aerospace in Canada.
In June 2022, Nancy was appointed President of Women in Aerospace Canada, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to expanding women’s opportunities for leadership and professional development as well as increasing their visibility in the aerospace community by creating a professional network in Canada and across the globe.
Nancy graduated with an Honors Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Waterloo and has successfully completed the Queen's University Executive Leadership Program. She is published in the Journal of Sport Management as well as the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
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Jean-Sébastien Coulaud
President & CEO
Fleet Canada
Jean-Sébastien Coulaud is the President and C.E.O. of Fleet Canada Inc. and was appointed to this position in July 2019.
Born in France, Jean-Sébastien was raised in multiple countries across Africa, Europe and North America. In 2006 he received an Aerospace Engineering degree from I.S.A.E. (Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace) in Toulouse, France. Later on, in 2015, he earned an MBA from the Ivey School of Business at Western in London, ON. He has 11 years of progressive experience in project management, manufacturing, logistics and operations leadership roles in the Automotive and Aerospace sectors. In 2015, he joined Fleet Canada as part of a succession plan for the then retiring President and C.E.O.
Jean-Sébastien and his spouse live in the Niagara region with their three children.
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Ron Ganis
Chief of Design
Landing Gear
Ron is currently the Chief of Design within the Landing Gear business at Collins Landing Systems located in Oakville, Ontario. He joined Collins Landing Gear in 1998 as a Systems Engineer and has since held multiple design & development related roles prior to joining the Chief Engineering Office as a Principal Design and Innovation Engineer in 2010. He holds a degree in Aerospace Engineering from Ryerson University and a Masters Certificate in Composites Engineering from the University of Connecticut.
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Dr. David Zingg
Professor
University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies
David Zingg is in his 35th year as a professor at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, where he was the Director from 2006-°©‐2016, and is currently the University of Toronto Distinguished Professor of Computational Aerodynamics and Sustainable Aviation. His research areas include aerodynamics, computational fluid dynamics, in particular high-order methods with the summation-°©‐by-°©‐parts property, and aerodynamic shape optimization. His current research is concentrated on applying aerodynamic shape optimization to the design of unconventional low-drag aircraft configurations motivated by the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from aircraft. Together with Harvard Lomax and Thomas Pulliam from the NASA Ames Research Center, Professor Zingg is a co-°©‐author of two well-°©‐known textbooks in computational fluid dynamics. He was awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in 2004 and is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering. Finally, he has supervised 42 PhD and 60 MASc students, many of whom hold senior positions in industry and academia.
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Dr. Fassi Kafyeke
Chief of Advanced Aerodynamics
Bombardier
Fassi Kafyeke has an Aerospace Engineering Master’s degree from Université de Liège (Belgium), a Master’s degree (Air Transport Engineering) from the Cranfield Institute of Technology (U.K.) and a Ph.D. (Mechanical Engineering, Aerodynamics) from École Polytechnique de Montréal (Canada).
Fassi Kafyeke joined Bombardier in 1982 and has had a long professional career, including 25 years in aerodynamics. For 15 years he has been Chief of Advanced Aerodynamics, responsible for the aerodynamic design of Challenger 300 and Global 6000 business jets, CRJ 700, 900 and 1000 regional jets and the Cseries single-aisle aircraft CS100 and CS300, now Airbus A220. Since 2007, he became Director, then Senior Director, responsible for the development of the strategic technologies that can be found on Bombardier aircraft (fly-by-wire, composite wing, new generation aerodynamics, etc). In 2020, he became Fellow Research, Innovation and Collaborations for Bombardier Aviation. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and has been active on many consortium boards, such as CRIAQ, GARDN, SA2GE and AERO 21. He is currently on assignment at Aero Montréal to lead efforts to set up the ZIAQ, the Montreal Aerospace Innovation Zone.
Dr Kafyeke received in 2001 the Grand Prix d’Excellence de l’Ordre des Ingénieurs du Québec (OIQ) and in 2009 the Prix Innovation of École Polytechnique de Montreal. In 2003, he served as President of the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute (CASI). He is a co-author of the book « Computational Fluid Dynamics for Engineers » and of several papers and lecture notes in Aerodynamics.
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Dr. Ibrahim Yimer
Vice President, Transportation & Manufacturing
NRC
Dr. Ibrahim Yimer is Vice-President of the Transportation and Manufacturing division where he oversees the Aerospace and Automotive and Surface Transportation Research Centres. Between September 2020 and 2021, he served in the same role in an acting capacity. Previous to this role he was Director General of the NRC's Aerospace Research Centre since January 2018.
Since 1999, Dr. Yimer has occupied a series of roles at the NRC, including Director of the Gas Turbine Laboratory, Program Manager of the Gas Turbine Aerodynamics and Combustion Group, and a Senior Research Officer. He began his career as a research scientist in the private sector with Fives North American in Cleveland, USA.
Dr. Yimer has successfully led the creation and implementation of various large-scale, R&D partnerships with industry and government stakeholders both nationally and internationally. He is a renowned expert in the field of gas turbine combustion and fuels with years of applied research in alternative fuels, combustion and optical diagnostics. He is well recognized in the science and technology community, having led and played instrumental roles in numerous leading international scientific associations such as ASME International, the International Forum for Aviation Research (IFAR), International Society of Air Breathing Engines (ISABE), and International Congress on Aeronautical Sciences (ICAS), in which he currently serves as a board member and national representative.
Dr. Yimer earned a BSc in Chemical Engineering from Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, followed by a MSc and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, while specializing in Low-emission Combustion. He currently serves as Chair and ICAO representative of IFAR and as a Director on the boards of WestCaRD, and Aero Montréal.
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Phil Arthurs
Director of Operations
DAIR
Serving as Director of Operations since 2018, Phil advances DAIR’s mandate by forming partnerships, funding programs, physical infrastructure development, academic/industry working groups, strategy, project management, as well as R&D, supplier development and other initiatives to support members and the aerospace industry.
Phil serves as co-chair of the Research and Technology Committee for the Ontario Aerospace Council and sits on the Program Advisory Councils for Toronto Metropolitan University’s (Formerly Ryerson University) Department of Aerospace Engineering and Centennial College’s School of Engineering Technology and Applied Science (Aerospace).
With over 15 years of experience in not-for-profit, government and private sectors, Phil has a strong commitment to the success and growth of the aerospace industry. Prior to DAIR, he worked for the aerospace section of the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development, as a Senior Advisor, Team Lead, and then Manager of the team whose mandate is to support and advance the aerospace, defense and manufacturing industries in the province. He has also worked for Dassault Systèmes (on location at the Boeing Company in Washington State) with a focus on the 787 aircraft, and as a Researcher for the Centre for European Policy Studies, a think-tank located in Brussels, Belgium.
Phil holds a B.Eng (Aerospace) from Toronto Metropolitan University (Formerly Ryerson University) and an MBA from the Ted Rogers School of Management.
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Paul Walsh
Professor
Toronto Metropolitan University
For most, Downsview Park is a vast, grassy escape from the urban heat of downtown Toronto—a cultural hub that has hosted legendary rock bands like AC/DC or the Rolling Stones. For Paul Walsh, it’s the home for Toronto Metropolitan University's new aerospace research cluster.
Walsh is leading the way in the creation of a new student-focused research space. Neighboured by Bombardier and Downsview Airport, the area will become a flourishing hub of aerospace activity. “They’ve had these clusters in Europe for decades,” explains Walsh. “So why aren’t we doing the same thing here?”
As an educator, Walsh focuses on helping students build the confidence they need to succeed in the industry. In the Capstone Design Course, industry professionals are brought in to watch presentations and provide invaluable feedback. “I tell them to rake the students over the coals—it’s the test of fire! At that point, they’ve earned their degree,” he smiles.
After holding the position of department chair for almost a decade, Walsh has earned his stripes. “It’s all about managing people and facilitating what they want to do,” he says. “You have to enable people to succeed, and I love doing that.”
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Guy Dulude
Portfolio Director
- Canada
Siemens Digital Industries Software
Guy is a seasoned professional with over 25 years of experience in the field of in the technology and manufacturing sectors. He currently holds the role of Portfolio Director at Siemens Digital Industries for Canada where he works with industry partners and customers on digital transformation initiatives and solution adoption.
With a background in mechanical engineering and computer science, Guy has extensive expertise with Canadian manufacturing companies and is committed to driving progress and making a positive impact in the industry and looks forward to connecting with like-minded professionals.
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KOSS AEROSPACE
Koss Aerospace provides complete manufacturing solutions to the aerospace and defense industries, offering high speed multi axis machining, assemblies, kitting, metal finishing and vertically integrated services.
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Pursuit Aerospace
Manufacturer of complex aircraft engine components that are developed through highly integrated processes.
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RAMPF Composite Solutions Inc
RAMPF Composite Solutions designs and manufactures complex composite components and structures for the aerospace, defense, consumer, medical and transportation industries.
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Vac Aero International
VAC AERO is a leading vacuum furnace manufacturer, vacuum heat treating and coatings service provider to Aerospace and high-tech industries worldwide.
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