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.