The Ottawa International Airport Authority has hired a senior executive at Canada Post to be its next leader.
The organization that oversees Ottawa’s airport announced Monday morning that Susan Margles has been appointed president and CEO effective next January. She will replace Mark Laroche, who is retiring at the end of December after 12 years in the role.
Margles, who earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and an MBA in finance from McGill University, has spent nearly two decades at Canada Post.
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For the past five years, she has served as the Crown corporation’s chief people and safety officer, overseeing human resources, labour relations and government affairs. Before joining Canada Post, Margles worked for the federal government, where she held senior positions in various departments, including finance, transport and industry.
“I am honoured to join the Ottawa International Airport Authority and work with this talented team,” Margles said in a statement.
“The airport is essential to the region’s economic growth and position as the capital city of a G7 nation. I look forward to building on its successes helping to create an even brighter future for the airport and pursuing new opportunities for aviation innovation, growth and sustainability to better serve the Ottawa and Gatineau communities.”
Margles will join an organization that is still recovering from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which battered the global aviation industry.
But YOW is bouncing back.
Major Canadian carrier Porter Airlines is aggressively expanding its presence at the terminal, and last year Air France re-established transatlantic routes from YOW with direct flights to Paris. In addition, Air Canada announced earlier this year it will resume non-stop flights from Ottawa to London Heathrow beginning next spring.
A number of other major infrastructure projects are also underway or nearing completion at YOW, including a new LRT connection on the Trillium Line and a 178-room hotel that will be linked to the terminal and is scheduled to open in late 2025 or early 2026.
Airport authority chair Bonnie Boretsky, a retired senior executive at Canada Post who worked with Margles for years, described the incoming CEO as a “strong, authentic leader” who stood out for her intelligence and communication skills.
Like Laroche, a former high-ranking municipal bureaucrat who headed the Canada Lands Company before landing his current role at the airport, Margles does not come from an aviation background.
But Boretsky said she expects her former colleague to be a quick study in her new job.
“Leadership skills are pretty much the same one place as another,” she told OBJ in an interview on Monday.
“What we were looking for was a strong leader, an experienced leader, more than we were looking for aviation experience, because we saw what great success Mark had even without aviation experience. There’s a strong leadership team in place. They are ready and able to help Susan get up to speed, as they did with Mark.”
Meanwhile, Boretsky had nothing but praise for Laroche, calling YOW’s longtime leader a “visionary” who kept a firm hand on the tiller during the COVID-19 crisis.
“He didn’t let anything go off the rails,” she said. “A lot of what we’re doing now, we were just getting underway before the pandemic. All of those things that we see today are the result of his vision and his excellent work and dedication to the airport and to the Ottawa-Gatineau region.”
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