CAAM Begins Search for New Executive Director Ahead of 2027 Leadership Change

Cana­di­an Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty (CAAM) has launched a nation­al search for a new Exec­u­tive Direc­tor as founder JR Ham­mond pre­pares to leave the role at the end of 2026.

Ham­mond, who found­ed CAAM in 2018 in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Nation­al Research Coun­cil of Cana­da, will com­plete an eight-year tenure on Decem­ber 31. He will remain involved in the tran­si­tion, sup­port­ing the Nation­al Board dur­ing the recruit­ment process and assist­ing the incom­ing leader in the new year.

Appli­ca­tions for the posi­tion opened on Sep­tem­ber 15 and will remain open until Octo­ber 1. CAAM’s inter­nal selec­tion team and Nation­al Board are expect­ed to review can­di­dates dur­ing the fourth quar­ter, with a tar­get start date of Jan­u­ary 1, 2027.

The organ­i­sa­tion said it is look­ing for a leader able to nav­i­gate the long-term devel­op­ment of advanced air mobil­i­ty (AAM), includ­ing the reg­u­la­to­ry, com­mer­cial and oper­a­tional chal­lenges that remain before the indus­try reach­es wider deploy­ment.

CAAM said its lead­er­ship tran­si­tion comes as the Cana­di­an AAM sec­tor moves from indus­try devel­op­ment towards oper­a­tional and com­mer­cial objec­tives. The organ­i­sa­tion will also explore poten­tial strate­gic merg­er oppor­tu­ni­ties as part of efforts to strength­en its posi­tion and sup­port the devel­op­ment of Canada’s AAM ecosys­tem.

Dur­ing Hammond’s tenure, CAAM grew to more than 250 mem­bers span­ning indus­try, gov­ern­ment, acad­e­mia, oper­a­tors, man­u­fac­tur­ers, air­ports and oth­er stake­hold­ers. The organ­i­sa­tion also con­tin­ued its activ­i­ties through the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic and helped host the inau­gur­al ICAO Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty Sym­po­sium in Mon­tréal in Sep­tem­ber 2024. The event attract­ed more than 1,700 par­tic­i­pants from 87 coun­tries.

Ham­mond said the organ­i­sa­tion had reached a point where its pri­or­i­ties and require­ments were chang­ing, mak­ing the lead­er­ship tran­si­tion time­ly. He added that he intends to remain involved in efforts to estab­lish com­mer­cial AAM oper­a­tions in Cana­da after leav­ing CAAM.

CAAM said its pro­grammes, mem­ber ser­vices, gov­ern­ment engage­ment and inter­na­tion­al com­mit­ments will con­tin­ue dur­ing the recruit­ment and tran­si­tion process.

Thomas Sleightholm

Thomas is a con­tent writer for eVTOL Insights, cov­er­ing all aspects of the glob­al Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty ecosys­tem. Got a sto­ry for him? Please send an email to editorial@evtolinsights.com

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