Hall of Fame award brings achievements of Southlake CEO to new heights
Toronto, June 13, 2012 – Canadian astronaut Dr. Dave Williams has become the first hospital CEO to be inducted into Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame (CAHF).
The announcement of the induction of Dr. Williams, president and CEO of Newmarket, Ontario-based Southlake Regional Health Centre, will be made tomorrow at the CAHF annual gala and dinner ceremony in Montreal.
According to the CAHF, inductees to the Hall of Fame are recognized for playing integral roles in the development of their respective aviation fields and contributing to Canada’s development through these roles.
“CAHF always strives to select the best, most deserving individuals for induction into Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame and this year we certainly have a bumper crop,” said Tom Appleton, current board chairman of Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame. “Dave Williams is a multi-talented individual who has done Canada proud, internationally recognized not only in aerospace circles but also in medicine and on the frontiers of science.”
A pilot who earned both commercial and multi-engine licenses and enjoyed aerobatic flying, Dr. Williams joined the Canadian Space Agency in 1992 and made two flights on the Space Shuttle, in 1998 and 2007. He logged more than 687 hours in space during his career, with a record-setting 17 hours and 47 minutes performing spacewalks, including installation work at the International Space Station. Having also lived and worked in the world’s only underwater ocean laboratory, he became Canada’s first dual astronaut and aquanaut in 2001.
Between his two space flights, Dr. Williams held the position of director of the Space and Life Sciences Directorate at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. With this appointment, he became the first non-American to hold a senior management position within NASA. He concurrently held a six-month position as the first deputy associate administrator for crew health and safety in the office of space flight at NASA headquarters in 2001.
Dr. Williams, a leading physician who has held senior positions at several Ontario hospitals, became president and CEO of Southlake Regional Health Centre last July. In his position at Southlake, Dr. Williams applies what he has learned from the aviation industry about quality, safety, teamwork and high-reliability organizations, to bring the hospital to new heights.
Along with Dr. Williams, other Canadians to be inducted into the CAHF tomorrow are: Nils Christensen, founder of Viking Air and Second World War pilot; Air Marshal Harold “Gus” Edwards, a First World War pilot with the Royal Naval Air Service; and Pierre Jeanniot, former president and CEO of Air Canada and former director general of the International Air Transport Association.
Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame is located in the hangar at the Reynolds-Alberta Museum in Wetaskiwin, Alberta, south of Edmonton. Founded in 1973, members – of which there are currently 204 – have come from across Canada and led extraordinary lives as military and civilian pilots, doctors, scientists, inventors, engineers, astronauts and administrators.
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