Equestrian Canada has had a revolving door of CEOs over the last decade and Yves Hamelin is the most recent addition to the list. Hired as interim-CEO in September 2019 after the departure of the previous CEO, Richard Mongeau, Yves had already been working for EC for several months as a consultant on an Organizational Review. In that role, he was tasked with analyzing infrastructure, human resources, governance and operational configuration which made him privy to EC’s inner workings and made for an easy transition to CEO. The suggestions from the Organizational Review are expected to be revealed later this year and their implementation is one of the key objectives outlined in his job description.
Yves has a deep understanding of sport, having been the High Performance Director for Canada’s short-track speed skating team from 2006 until 2014, during which time the team won eight Olympic medals and 40 world championship medals. For the last five years, he’s been the Director at Calgary’s Olympic Oval, the first covered speed skating oval in North America.
In addition to the organization review, another key priority for Yves is furthering EC’s Strategic Initiatives Plan (SIP) which outlines EC’s priorities for 2018-2022. Key areas targeted for development include Coaching, High Performance, Athletes, Officials, Competitions and more. Part of that work was revealed this past fall with the announcement of EC’s new Coach Licensing Program. Designed to ensure that all coaches meet minimum standards such as background checks and SafeSport training, the program will be phased in this year. Coach Certification – the evaluation of technical skills specific to equestrian sports – is a separate piece of coaching development which is being enhanced with all modules expected to be ready within a year.
Two years into the five year plan, there are several major initiatives that haven’t had much progress. Read Horse Sport’s complete report and interview with Yves here.
Foreseeable Future
“We have multiple objectives to ensure we are in a position to fully support our Strategic Initiatives. First and foremost we must realign our staff and governance structure for optimal functionality and performance. Furthermore, we want to:
• Empower our leaders/staff and stakeholders to develop a better integrated framework and communication.
• Set our Olympic preparation for optimal performance.
• Develop a 5 year plan for EC and a comprehensive business plan moving forward.”
Mission Possible
“In 5 to 10 years I am planning to continue mentoring sport organizations toward excellence and best practices. In the event that my journey with EC should continue until 2024 and beyond, then I will be ensuring continuous improvement towards quality and safe participation as well as podium performance for our riders/drivers.
“I envision improvement in the High Performance framework to support our riders and coaches; to develop a quality and attractive sport product to sustain growth in participation; and, last but not least, to develop and improve our system to be a fully aligned part of the Equestrian sport system wherein it would be seen as a reference for the quality of sport and industry practices.”
