‘We want to equip people, help people understand it's not a negative, it's an enabler for us,’ says head of HR at Vancouver airport
"There’s 550 companies who work at YVR, and 26,000 employees, all ensuring that you and your bag or your Amazon parcel gets on that plane and gets off that plane again," says Richard Beed, VP of people and culture at the Vancouver Airport Authority (YVR).
“We talk a lot about a team sport, but it’s a huge ecosystem.”
Since joining YVR in 2020, Beed has championed a talent-first strategy to reshape the airport’s approach in a variety of areas, including leadership development, digital transformation, and diversity and inclusion.
At its core, the strategy recognizes that YVR’s success — serving more than 26.2 million passengers in 2024 alone — depends on investing in people at every level.
“Whether it's digital or AI or other components, we want to effectively take our workforce and help move them forward over the next three to five years. We believe investing in our staff today, on that journey, is going to be more important than other organizations that just hire and replace roles," Beed says. "It’s about helping people evolve, so they stay relevant and fulfilled as the world changes around them."
Beed’s journey to human resources was shaped by an early realization about the centrality of people to organizational success. After earning a degree in resource science from Kingston University in London,...
Business The Managing Director of PWAN Plus Business Concerns Ltd, Prof. Julius Oyedemi has refuted allegations made by social media influencer, Scott Iguma, over the ownership and allocation of la...