Mr. Glenn Rainbird is a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force Commander’s Council having recently completed a tour as Honorary Colonel of 8 Wing Trenton, ON in December 2011.
Honorary Colonel Rainbird was born in Belleville, ON, received his BSc in civil engineering and an MBA from Queen's University. He began his business career in marketing at Imperial Oil in 1970 and held executive positions in financial management and public affairs. In 1986 he joined Nortel Networks as vice-president of public relations and in 1992 became president and CEO of TRLabs, Canada's leading research consortium in information and communications technology.
Honorary Colonel Rainbird retired from TRLabs in 2001 and served as chairman of the Edmonton Regional Airports Authority until the end of 2003 when he relocated to Ontario. Currently he serves as chairman of Veridian Corporation, an electric power distributor, as a member of the board of the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, a federal crown corporation responsible for security at Canadian airports, as a member of the advisory board of the School of Business at Queen's University and, most recently as a member of the Air Command Advisory Council.
Honorary Colonel Rainbird has been honoured for his leadership in developing Canada's internet capabilities and for his contributions in furthering industry-university collaboration. He is an officer of the Order of Canada and recipient of the Canadian IWAY (Information Highway) Award and the Hewlett-Packard Forum Award. In 2000 Alberta Venture magazine named him one of the 50 most influential people in Alberta.
An avid cyclist, Honorary Colonel Rainbird logs thousands of cycling kilometres annually and has completed some of the challenging mountain segments of the Tour de France. He and his wife live within sight and sound of 8 Wing Trenton. They have one daughter and three grandchildren.
