LCol (Ret’d) Maryse Carmichael
Speaker Bio
At a young age, Lieutenant-Colonel (Retired) Maryse Carmichael was introduced to aviation by her family. As soon as she was of age, she followed in her three brothers’ footsteps and joined the Royal Canadian Air Cadets with 630 Squadron, in Quebec City, where she obtained both her glider and private pilot licenses.
She started her adventure as a military pilot in the Canadian Armed Forces in 1990. Over her 22-year career, she accumulated nearly 3,500 hours on three main aircraft types; the CT-114 Tutor, the CE and CC 144 Challenger and the CC-130 Hercules and was posted to ten Canadian Armed Forces bases throughout Canada.
In November 2000, Maryse made history when she was selected to fly with 431 Air Demonstration Squadron, the Canadian Armed Forces’ Snowbirds, becoming the Team’s first woman pilot as well as the first woman in the world to fly on a Jet Demonstration Team.
Maryse also served as a Qualified Flying Instructor with 2CFFTS, as the Operations Officer on 436 Transport Squadron, and as the Deputy Wing Operations Officer at 3 Wing Bagotville. The highlight of her career was to lead the men and women of 431 (Air Demonstration) Squadron, the Canadian Armed Forces Snowbirds, as their Commanding Officer from May 2010 to July 2013.
The recipient of many awards and an Honourary Diploma, Maryse was recognized in 2005 in the Top 100 as one of Canada’s Most Powerful Women by the Women Executive Network and in 2013 she was the recipient of the Elsie MacGill Northern Lights Award. She is a graduate of the Aerospace and Aviation Global Executive MBA from the Toulouse Business School in France.
LCol (Ret’d) Carmichael was inducted into Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame in October 2022 and the Panthéon de l’Air et de l’Espace du Québec in 2024.
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