Kevin Lemke, General Manger of SkyAlyne, inherited a fascination with aviation from his father, who ran the Pratt and Whitney PT-6 test cell when he was born. When Kevin graduated from high school, the best path to university and aviation was to join the military and attend RMC. Kevin’s day-to-day role is primarily focused on SkyAlyne successfully moving the Future Aircrew Training (FAcT) program forward. FAcT is a massive and complex program. The first five years involve designing and implementing a complete renewal of the RCAF aircrew training ecosystem.
What is the one thing that has you most fired up today?
Seeing the coming together, and public release, of the paint schemes and official RCAF designations of the fleets of FAcT aircraft is tremendously exciting and huge moment for the RCAF and FAcT program. The way in which this work was accomplished shows the very best of collaboration between the SkyAlyne and RCAF teams working on the program – from developing the livery concept, to refining it with the aircraft manufacturers and RCAF, to working hand-in-glove on the announcement plans. Seeing this announcement take place also brings home the fact we are making real and significant progress on core elements of this program; there are real aircraft that are actively being manufactured today, and the first one will be on Canadian soil, in full RCAF colours, in mid-September.
How is your organization changing the game within your industry sector?
SkyAlyne, together with the RCAF, is building a program that the world wants and needs. There is an urgent need to train aircrews all around the Western world. Moreover, we are also building on a program model that world wants and needs, and full credit to the Government of Canada for developing it. Everywhere we go, we hear military leaders from around the world talk about the urgent need for collaborative programs, where industry and military work alongside each other in a flexible way to deliver the outcomes that our Armed Forces need in a rapidly evolving world. Old contracting models are too rigid and too slow to keep pace with the changing world; through FAcT we are adapting and keeping up as the environment around us changes. It’s up to all of us working on the FAcT program, across organizations in both industry and government, to now demonstrate that this type of model really does deliver. I’m proud that SkyAlyne is demonstrating that we can be a trusted, open, collaborative partner for our Air Force, and together we can overcome the challenges in front of us.
What technologies, business models, and trends will drive the biggest changes in your industry over the next two years?
Without any doubt – collaboration. Industry, military, and government have to expand collaboration, and it needs to happen fast. We need to realize that, regardless of the logo on our business cards, we are all on the same team trying to advance the same big-picture interests. Whatever new challenges come along, it will absolutely require a collaborative approach to addressing it or deploying whatever new technology can help. Other ways of working are simply too slow, too limited, or too inflexible to address the security issues facing our world today. I am immensely proud to be leading an organization where each and every individual member of our team understands this, and works to operationalize true collaboration, every day.
What is the best advice you received?
My first boss when I joined industry, Michael Coughlin, was a fantastic mentor. He taught me a great many things, but one that really stands out was when he told me to slow down and let the people have their full say. He helped me realize I was so anxious to get things done, that once I knew what a person was suggesting, I would move to solution and decision. Many of them wanted to provide more rationale and explanation, and even when I already agreed with them, I needed to let them finish so they really felt I had heard them. It was advice I needed and really benefited from.
How did you start out in this industry and how has it brought you to where you are today?
I inherited a fascination with aviation from my father, who ran the Pratt and Whitney PT-6 test cell when I was born. When I graduated from high school, the best path to university and aviation was to join the military and attend RMC. That lead to a fantastic career as an Aerospace Engineering Officer, mainly on the iconic C-130 Hercules fleet. This in-turn provided a natural path into the Canadian aerospace industry, providing in-service support to the RCAF. Working in a variety of engineering, program management, operations and executive roles in four different companies provided me with the breadth of experience to take on the challenge of leading SkyAlyne, where we are delivering one of the most diverse and complex defence programs the Government of Canada has ever contracted.
What is your role at your organization today?
The General Manager role at SkyAlyne is the company’s senior executive position. The role is akin to CEO-type positions, where I report to our Board of Directors and am responsible for the overall performance of the organization. Day-to-day this means my role is primarily focused on SkyAlyne successfully moving the Future Aircrew Training (FAcT) program forward.
What was your most challenging moment?
It’s not really a single moment, but the first year with SkyAlyne has unquestionably been the most challenging and engaging period of my career. SkyAlyne was formed to deliver the Future Aircrew Training (FAcT) program for the RCAF and only stood up as a stand-alone commercial entity in April 2024. FAcT is a massive and complex program. The first five years involve designing and implementing a complete renewal of the RCAF aircrew training ecosystem. This includes acquiring five new fleets of aircraft, designing and building over 50 large simulators, completely redesigning the training courseware with the RCAF, designing and building the facilities at the Wings, and IM/IT cloud infrastructure that will support the training for the next 25 years.
What was your a-ha moment or epiphany that you think will resonate most with our reader, tell us that story.
The start-up challenge highlighted above means SkyAlyne is really operating like a startup. We have had to ruthlessly prioritize to ensure we achieved the FAcT deliverables, while also building the FAcT Enterprise. My “a-ha” moment came in preparation for our second program review meeting. I realized that almost every other entity in the Enterprise was mature, well established, and often process driven organizations. Those capabilities and systems are fantastic and are why they are all part of Team SkyAlyne, but what we are all doing requires a bit of a change of mindset.
How has innovation become engrained in your organization’s culture and how is it being optimized?
SkyAlyne is a new organization, and so we have the advantage of being able to build our own culture from the outset. Anything we do, it’s the first time we’ve done it; this creates a fantastic opportunity to pool together our individual experiences and collectively build something new. The point we’re at now is optimizing the things we’ve been trying – we are building the repertoire of experience, alongside our partners in government, to see what works in the best interests of the FAcT program.
What are some of the biggest impediments to innovation in your industry sector?
I think the biggest impediment to innovation in the Canadian aerospace and defence sector is that historically, industry hasn’t been engaged soon enough. Industry engagement has tended to come after requirements definition have already been completed. The people doing that requirements definition are very knowledgeable on the capability being replaced but just don’t have access to knowledge on the innovations that can be applied to next generation capabilities. This means that sometimes requirements are so specific that industry can’t provide truly innovative solutions. I think our government is realizing this and are already pivoting to address this through the selection of strategic industry partners early in the process to help develop well integrated requirements that open the door for innovative approaches to provide the desired outcomes.
What is your parting piece of advice?
I have two that come from the Founders Mentality we are working under and talked about earlier. First: never be afraid to practice “ruthless prioritization”. Each person only has so much time in any day. Make the decisions you have to in order to progress the items that truly matter most. Second: make decisions with the best available information and then move on; don’t let yourself get stuck always chasing some additional piece of information that prevents you from making decisions. And if you need to revisit a decision later down the road, if new information emerges, be open to that.
