Mission: To lead YVR’s board and executive management team in dealing with the myriad strategic issues facing the airport
Assets: Senior-level industry experience in all facets of the North American aviation business
Yield: Steady leadership in an industry that’s often in crisis mode
By Andrew Petrozzi
Being a frequent flyer in her youth might not have been the deciding factor in choosing her career path, but it provided Mary Jordan, 51, with early insight into an industry she has come to know inside and out.
Prior to becoming the new chairwoman of the Vancouver Airport Authority (VAA), the non-profit organization that operates the Vancouver International Airport, Jordan had spent six years as a VAA board member while taking on challenges outside the aviation industry.
In July 2006, she joined Laidlaw International Inc. (NYSE:LI) as executive vice-president, human resources and internal communications. Prior to that, Jordan was the provincial executive director of the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control in Vancouver.
Both positions marked a departure from the decades she had previously spent in the aviation industry in executive management roles for Air Canada, Canadian Airlines and American Airlines.
In her last aviation role, Jordan was named senior vice-president, international and British Columbia, for Air Canada in November 2001.
She said she was delighted to have been invited to join the airport authority board in 2004.
“I was a customer of YVR in my role at Canadian Airlines and Air Canada. I’ve dealt with many, many airports during my career, and YVR is very impressive in terms of how the management team works with their airline customers.”
She sees providing leadership to the board and focusing its executive team on the challenges facing the industry as key roles in her new position.
“My background is somewhat helpful because I can understand the industry from that perspective,” she said, “and really help ensure we’re doing all that’s possible to be partners with our key customers in their strategic plans, which will hopefully benefit them, the airport and our communities.”
By the time she arrived in B.C. in 1996, she had received her MBA from the University of Texas in Austin and had spent several years working for American Airlines and Canadian Airlines’ Calgary-based regional carrier.
Initially working in finance and HR, she was subsequently named vice-president, HR, in Dallas, Texas, before being asked to take on an operational role at an American-affiliated regional airline in California.
“That two-year assignment [for Canadian Airlines] turned into a four-year assignment. By then I had fallen in love with Vancouver and decided to stay and not move back to Texas.”
In 2001, she took a job with Air Canada in Vancouver.
Born in New Brunswick to American parents, Jordan, who is a dual citizen, said she moved 14 times before she was 18 and spent several years at an Irish boarding school.
“I travelled by myself great distances at a young age,” she said. “I got a very early introduction to travel, certainly from a passenger perspective.”
Even though she joined American Airlines straight after securing her MBA, aviation was not her only interest, but the energy and passion she found in the industry encouraged her to stick with it.
“There was just so much going on, and I thought this is something I want to be part of,” she said of the aviation industry. “You can pick up a newspaper and whatever is on the front page is likely to affect your business: the economy, the weather, conflict in the world, volcanoes erupting, disease, you name it. You’ve got to be nimble. You’ve got to be really ready for change and plan for change and expect it.”
Focusing on Asia and “underserved markets” there and developing YVR as not only a transit point for North America and Asian passengers, but also as a “premier connecting hub” for people travelling from Central and South America to Asia are other opportunities for YVR.
Jordan added that increasing non-stop service into “a number of major European cities” is also important.
“Some of that is a question of air policy,” she said, “and we’re going to continue to advocate for air policy change and liberalization where that make sense, but also we want to make sure we’re doing everything else to position YVR to be the premier gateway, because that really benefits the economy.”
Working with local tourism partners to advocate for changes to federal air policy to facilitate additional flights into YVR is one of Jordan’s priorities.
“My style will be to ensure we keep the focus on the strategic issues and we plan that well in advance so we have sufficient information to have a good discussion. I always want to make sure the quieter voices are heard and there is good discussion.”
Using the success of airport manager and developer Vancouver Airport Services as a model, the authority is looking at other areas of internal expertise that could be further developed as a business.
For Frieda Granot, senior associate dean, strategic development and external relations, at the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Jordan is a very loyal and committed individual who is not afraid to speak her mind.
“She is very pleasant to work with,” said Granot, who oversees the Sauder executive in residence program and previously worked with Jordan on another UBC board. “She looks for solutions rather than getting her way, which is great in board meetings.”
Jordan is a consensus builder, according to Granot, but she doesn’t shy away when hard decisions are needed.
“She will talk to get the issues dealt with and move toward a decision that everyone feels comfortable with.”
Jordan finds board work fulfilling. She sits on the boards of Coast Capital, the Insurance Council of BC, the Vancouver Opera and the Vancouver Aquarium. Jordan is also an executive in residence at the Sauder School.
“The most important thing any business leader can do is ensure that they’re putting the proper focus on their team,” Jordan said. “Having the right people in the right roles and providing the right level of support and challenge is really the way to accomplish results.”
Looking back on her careers, the time she spent in HR was some of the most important.
“I would encourage anyone to take an HR role and spend some time really thinking about workforce issues and reward systems and goal-setting and a lot of the things that HR in organizations is responsible for. It will help no matter what future roles you take because without the right people or the right team, it’s really hard to imagine how you can accomplish anything.” •