It is with great pleasure that we announce the appointment of Rick Heyland as Chief Operating Officer (COO) for the Americas (North and South America).

In his new role, Rick will lead the Americas Business Units, with a primary focus on driving synergy and consistency:

• in our project implementation approach, quality and “step change” results;
• our business development approach and strategies; and,
• our focus on strong senior client relationships.

Rick will be charged with managing the growth of our Americas business and developing Business Unit Leaders and teams working within the Americas. In addition to the Americas, Rick will continue as a Senior Executive Team member sharing learnings, driving excellence and collaborating with our European, Russian and Asia Australia teams.

Rick has been an RLGer since 1989, joining RLG as a new MBA graduate from the University of Western Ontario. Rick's first project was in a large plywood and sawmill complex in Kelowna, British Columbia. Rick’s passion for coaching clients and driving performance excellence to achieve peak performance has been evident in the quality and significance of the results he has delivered. Rick has made many significant contributions to RLG’s growth over the past 27 years, including developing and leveraging business across a number of industries, starting up new Business Units, building long term client partnerships, and driving product and Project Manager development. As RLG’s first Training and Development Manager, Rick helped create our first structured training programs, and the foundation of our tools, processes and supporting materials and documentation. Rick has also lead our Global Client initiative for the past four years, and as a member of SET, has helped drive our commitment to one team, one culture.

Rick’s career with RLG has carried him from Project Manager, Team Leader, Training Manager, Business Unit Leader, Vice President, Regional Executive Vice President, and now COO, Americas. Along his journey, Rick has been a Best of the Best recipient, supervised or led several Best of the Best recipients and teams, and has been a three-time recipient of the Director’s Award. His journey has taken him from B.C.’s Okanagan Valley to Vancouver and to Salt Lake City, where he now resides with his wife, Cheryl. They have six children and eight grandchildren.

Please join us in congratulating Rick on this appointment.