Profiles
Peter Wallis
Vice-Chairperson
Mr. Wallis is the immediate past President and CEO of The Van Horne Institute. He is the President and CEO of Peter Wallis Consulting Limited specializing in advice on transportation policy and economic development in the fields of transportation, supply chain and logistics.
Mr. Wallis’ career has included senior positions at Canadian Airlines and in Ottawa as Legal Counsel for the Canadian Transport Commission and Executive Assistant to two federal Ministers of Transport. Mr. Wallis is a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada and also serves on the Board of the Calgary International Film Festival. He is past President of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, past Vice-Chairperson of the Calgary Homeless Foundation, past member of the Board of Directors of the Fort McMurray Airport Authority as well as Past Chairperson and member of the Board of Directors of the Calgary Airport Authority. He serves as Honorary Consul for Mongolia in Alberta.
Mr. Wallis has been awarded an honorary life membership by the Air Transport Association of Canada (ATAC). He was born in Toronto, Ontario, and holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto, a Bachelor of Laws from Osgoode Hall and a Master of Laws from the University of London (England).
Dora Koop
Director
Ms. Koop holds a law degree from the University of Alberta and a Master of Business Administration from McGill University. Ms. Koop is certified by the Institute of Corporate Directors with the designation ICD.D. She is currently the Managing Director of McGill Centre for the Convergence of Health and Economics (MCCHE) and the International Masters in Practicing Management Program and consults on management and governance issues. Previously, she held senior level positions in several companies and organizations, including FONOROLA Inc. and the federal government. Ms. Koop is a current board member of Ten Thousand Villages, a fair trade retail organization. She has been a director on the board of MCC, an international relief organization and served on the Executive Committee of the Institute of Corporate Directors, Quebec Chapter.
Lieutenant-Colonel (retired) Jean-Marc Dufour
Director
Lieutenant-Colonel J.M. Dufour was born on March 13, 1952 in Ville de la Baie, Quebec. Upon completion of his secondary studies he enrolled in the Canadian Forces in April 1970. Following his occupational training in communications, he served in Valcartier as a non commissioned officer until 1974, when he was accepted for officer training. Since being commissioned in the Air Weapons Controller classification in 1975, Lieutenant-Colonel Dufour has held a number of operational appointments within the North American Air Defence System (NORAD). Most of his service has been in the NORAD environment, including North Bay, Ontario; Duluth, Minnesota (USA); and Canadian Forces Station Senneterre, in the Abitibi region.
Lieutenant-Colonel Dufour commanded Canadian Forces Station Mont-Apica, Quebec, from 1984 to 1986. From 1986 to 1987, he attended and successfully completed the Canadian Forces Command and Staff College course in Toronto. He was posted to Colorado Springs, Colorado (USA), from 1987 to 1992, where he served as Chief, Air Defence Operations Center, and Assistant Command Director of the NORAD Command Centre.
He was posted to 16 Wing St-Jean as Wing Administration Officer in 1992 and assumed command of 16 Wing and CFB St-Jean on July 6, 1994. He proceeded to Haiti on a United Nations mission on March 1, 1995, where he served as Director of the Civil Affairs Bureau until August 1995, when he was posted to 3 Wing Bagotville as Wing Administration Officer. In July 1997 and for the next 3 years, he was assigned the duties of Chief of Protocol and Foreign Liaison at the National Defense Headquarters in Ottawa. In 2001, Lieutenant Colonel Dufour graduated from the Inter American Defense College in Washington DC. From there he was appointed as the Canadian Defence Attaché for Central America and the Caribbean at the Canadian Embassy in Mexico. He retired in July 2004 after 34 years of service with the CF. In May 2006, he is appointed director of the Bagotville airport and industrial aeronautic development within Promotion Saguenay.
In December 2011, his Excellency the Governor General in Council appointed him as Director of the board of directors of the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA).
He is the current President and CEO of Quebec Air Transport association (AQTA).
Allan Rowe
Director
Mr. Rowe holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia and a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the University of Western Ontario. He served as the Chief Financial Officer of Chorus Aviation Inc. from 2004 to 2011. Prior to this, Mr. Rowe served as the Chief Financial Officer of Fishery Products International Limited, and in various senior financial executive roles with the Empire Company Limited. Mr. Rowe has significant experience with mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, planning and business development, business turnaround and management of organizational and cultural change. Mr. Rowe has been appointed to CATSA’s Board of Directors as a nominee of the National Airlines Council of Canada (NACC).
Melissa L. Coulson, CPA, CA, LPA
Director
Ms. Coulson is a Chartered Professional Accountant, Chartered Accountant and Licensed Public Accountant with more than 15 years of experience in public accounting and management finance. She graduated from Laurentian University with an Honours Bachelor of Commerce and trained for her designation with Ernst & Young, LLP in Toronto, where she became an audit manager prior to establishing her own full-range accounting firm. Ms. Coulson has been president, past president and treasurer of the Milton Chamber of Commerce and treasurer of the United Way of Milton. Ms. Coulson has been appointed to CATSA’s Board of Directors for a period of three years.
Paul Benoit
Director
Paul Benoit has more than 40 years of progressively senior management experience in the aviation sector, including as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Ottawa International Airport Authority from 1996 to 2013. Under his direction, the airport received numerous Airport Service Quality awards from Airports Council International, including being named first in North America and second in the world for airports serving between 2 and 5 million passengers.
Mr. Benoit has also held senior positions at Aéroports de Montréal, Transport Canada and Eastern Airlines. He has served on the boards of the Canadian Airports Council, Ottawa Tourism, the Canadian Aviation Museum, the Canadian Museum of Science and Technology and Vintage Wings of Canada. He was also founder and chair of Project Clear Skies, an Ottawa International Airport Authority program in support of local charity projects. Mr. Benoit was among the first recipients of an Order of Ottawa in 2012. Mr. Benoit has been appointed to CATSA’s Board of Directors as a nominee of the Canadian Airports Council (CAC).
William (Bill) Restall
Director
Mr. Restall has more than 34 years in the airport operations industry, most recently from 1999-2013 as President and CEO for the Saskatoon Airport Authority. He was actively involved in the successful transfer and privatization of the Airport. Prior to this, he had a 25-year career with Transport Canada, holding progressively more senior positions in airport operations. He is one of the first Canadians to earn the designation of an Accredited Airport Executive.
He holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Winnipeg and a Bachelor of Commerce (H) from the University of Manitoba. He has served on numerous Boards and Committees including most prominently with the Airports Council International – North America (ACI-NA), the Canadian Airports Council (CAC) and International Association of Airport Executives, among others. Mr. Restall has been appointed to CATSA’s Board of Directors as a nominee of the Canadian Airports Council (CAC).
Patricia Anne Kennedy
Director
Ms. Kennedy has been the Chief Financial Officer of the Pacific Flying Club since 2013. Before that, she was their Chief Operating Officer beginning in 1991. She has been involved in several organizations such as the board of the Private Career Training Institutions Agency of BC (2012-2014), as well as the Audit Committee and the Board of Directors (1999-2001) of the BC Aviation Council, the steering committee for Human Resources Development Canada’s Sectoral Study on Pilot Training in Canada (1999-2003), and the Certified Management Accountants (CMA) strategic leadership program (2003-2015). From 1997 to 2009, she sat on the Board of Directors of the Air Transport Association of Canada. She was its chairperson from 2001 to 2002 and was awarded an honorary life member status in 2012. She also sat on the board of directors of the CMA of British Columbia from 2008 to 2014, where she was chairperson from 2012 to 2013. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario and is a FCPA, FCMA. Ms. Kennedy was awarded with a CMA fellowship in 2007 and an honorary CMA life member status in 2014. She has been appointed to CATSA’s board as a nominee of the Air Transport Association of Canada.
Raf Souccar, LL.B., O.O.M
Director
Mr. Souccar has over 39 years of experience in security and organizational change. In June 2016, he was appointed to the Prime Minister’s Marijuana Legalization Task Force. The Task Force completed its report and submitted final recommendations in December 2016. From 2011 to 2014, he was the Chief Security Officer for the Royal Canadian Mint. Prior to this, Mr. Souccar held numerous senior level positions within the Royal Canadian Mounted Police retiring in 2011 as the Deputy Commissioner Federal Policing. In that capacity, he was responsible for Counter Terrorism, Drug, Organized Crime, Financial Crime along with all other RCMP federal responsibilities.
Mr. Souccar is a member of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, the Law Society of Upper Canada, the International Bar Association and the American Society for Industrial Security. Mr. Souccar also has extensive board and committee experience at the national and international levels. He has held executive positions with the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police and has been a member of both the International Association of Chiefs of Police and Interpol.
In recognition of his work, Mr. Souccar has received numerous honours, including the Officer of the Order of Merit of the Police Forces by the Governor General in 2007, the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 2002 and Diamond Jubilee in 2012. Mr. Souccar holds a Bachelor of Administration and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Ottawa and has completed the Director’s Education Program at the University of Toronto School for Business.
