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Vrooman to lead Vancouver Airport Authority, YVR

“I know from experience that crises provide an opportunity for innovation, creativity and renewal.”


May 15, 2020  By Wings Staff

Tamara Vrooman in July 2020 became the first woman to lead Vancouver International Airport, as CEO of its operating company, Vancouver Airport Authority. (Photo: VanCity Community Investment Bank via Simon Fraser University/Wikipedia)

Vancouver Airport Authority named Tamara Vrooman as its next president and chief executive officer, effective July 1, 2020, succeeding Craig Richmond who announced plans to retire back in November 2019. Richmond led the organization, which operates Vancouver International Airport (YVR), for seven years.

“Tamara is a visionary executive with an exemplary track record leading large, complex institutions in both the private and public sectors, including through periods of enormous challenge, innovation and growth,” said Annalisa King, chair of the board of directors for Vancouver Airport Authority.

King also points to Vrooman’s operational and financial abilities, bold positions on sustainability and inclusion, and her nine-year tenure on YVR’s board of directors. “[This] will enable her to reimagine YVR as a benchmark airport of the future. With a career-long commitment to the betterment of British Columbia, she is the ideal person to lead YVR forward,” said King.

Vrooman joins YVR following 13 years as president and CEO of Vancity, Canada’s largest community credit union. The Vancouver Airport Authority notes she assumed leadership of Vancity at the beginning of the global financial crisis and transformed its business and service model, delivering record profitability and doubling its assets. Today, Vancity manages more than $28 billion in assets, with more than 2600 employees, and 530,000 members at over 60 locations.

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“I am honoured to lead the talented team that has made YVR the best airport in North America for 10 years running,” said Vrooman. “I look forward to working with them as we reimagine our business and how we operate in this challenging new environment as the world adapts following the COVID-19 crisis. I know from experience that crises provide an opportunity for innovation, creativity and renewal.”

Canada’s second busiest airport, YVR served 26.4 million passengers in 2019 with 56 airlines leveraging its infrastructure, connecting people and businesses to more than 125 non-stop destinations worldwide. In June 2018, YVR broke ground on a number of capital construction projects, which includes a target to complete what the airport defines as 75 major projects, totaling $9.1 billion over the next 20 years.

YVR breaks ground on 20-year, $9.1B expansion

Prior to joining Vancity, Vrooman served as Deputy Minister of Finance for the Province of British Columbia where she oversaw the government’s annual $100 billion borrowing and cash requirements and its $36 billion fiscal plan. She was named Business in Vancouver’s BC CEO of the Year (Major Private Company) in 2015. Vrooman was also recognized with the Order of British Columbia in 2019.

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