Lieutenant-General Eric Kenny joined the Canadian Armed Forces in 1989 and graduated from the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) Kingston with a degree in Computer Engineering. He completed pilot training at 15 Wing Moose Jaw in 1995 and was selected to fly the CF-188 Hornet.

Following CF-188 pilot training, he served as a CF-188 line and instructor pilot, and flight supervisor at 433 and 410 Tactical Fighter Squadrons (TFS) in 3 Wing Bagotville and 4 Wing Cold Lake.

He has held a number of command positions, including Commanding Officer of 409 TFS in Cold Lake, Commander of 4 Wing Cold Lake, and Commander of 1 Canadian Air Division (CAD)/Canadian NORAD Region in Winnipeg.

His staff tours consist of Deputy Wing Operations Officer at 4 Wing, A3 Fighter at 1 CAD Headquarters in Winnipeg, Director Air Force Readiness at RCAF HQ in Ottawa, and Deputy Director J7 at NORAD-United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) Headquarters in Colorado.

As a Brigadier-General, he held the positions of Deputy Commander Force Generation at 1 CAD in Winnipeg, and subsequently as Director General Air Readiness at RCAF Headquarters in Ottawa.

He has deployed numerous times and participated in multiple operations. He deployed twice to Aviano, Italy, to participate in Operation ECHO (Bosnia) and Operation ALLIED FORCE (Kosovo) where he took part in combat missions, and he was the Deputy Director of the Air Operations Control Centre at the International Security Assistance Force HQ in Afghanistan. His deployed command tours include: Task Force Commander for Operation IGNITION in Iceland; Detachment Commander of the CF-188s, CC-130H Hercules and CC-150 Polaris in Trapani, Italy, where he took part in combat missions for Operation MOBILE (Libya); Commander Air Component Coordination Element in Poggio Renatico, Italy, also for Operation MOBILE; and Commander of ROTO 0 Air Task Force – Iraq for Operation IMPACT.

Throughout his career, he has accumulated 2,900 flying hours, 2,200 of them in the CF-188. He is a graduate of the NATO Tactical Leadership Program, Fighter Weapons Instructor Course, Canadian Forces College Joint Command and Staff Program, United States Air Force (USAF) Air War College, USAF Combined Force Air Component Commander course, US CAPSTONE course, and has a Master of Defence Studies from RMC.

He was promoted to Lieutenant-General in August 2022 and appointed Commander of the RCAF on August 12, 2022. He is retiring in the summer of 2025.

Jamie Speiser-Blanchet was born in Chicoutimi, QC. She joined the Canadian Armed Forces in 1990 at age 17 and graduated from RMC Kingston, in 1994 with a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Engineering. She went on to complete her pilot training in Moose Jaw, SK and Portage La Prairie, MB achieving her wings in March 1996. She next joined the Tactical Helicopter community on the Griffon Helicopter with 430e Escadron Tactique d’hélicoptères (ETAH) at CFB Valcartier, QC where she was the first female pilot.

In 2001, she was employed at 1 Wing Headquarters, Kingston, as the A3 Operations Task Officer before her posting to 403 (Helicopter) Operational Training Squadron (403 (Hel) OTS), in Gagetown, NB, in 2003. There, she was employed as a line pilot and Aviation Tactics Flight Project Officer prior to her appointment as Squadron Operations Officer. Operational deployments include UN and NATO peacekeeping tours in Haiti (Op STABLE) and Bosnia (Op PALLADIUM), and domestic missions in response to forest fires, floods and other regional emergencies.

Moving on to National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa in 2007, she served as a Military Assistant to the Minister of National Defence until 2010. At the Canadian Forces College in Toronto, she completed the Joint Command and Staff Program (JCSP 37) and earned a Masters in Defence Studies in 2011 before proceeding to 1 CAD Headquarters in Winnipeg, MB. As the Senior Staff Officer Tactical Aviation, she coordinated operational level support for the generation of the Canadian Armed Forces’ tactical aviation capability and was the operational airworthiness authority responsible for the CH-146 Griffon and CH-147F Chinook fleets.

Next, she assumed command of 403 Helicopter Operational Training Sqn in July 2014 and remained in Gagetown until 2016. As the Commanding Officer of 403 Sqn, she oversaw all CH-146 Griffon operational aircrew training for 1 Wing and other RCAF units. She subsequently worked as a Senior Staff Officer for the Canadian Forces Aerospace Warfare Centre prior to selection for the Defence and Strategic Studies Course (DSSC) at the Australian Defence College in Canberra, Australia. She graduated from DSSC in December 2017 with a Masters in Politics and Policy from Deakin University.

She then served as special advisor to the Chief of the Defence Staff at NDHQ before deploying to Kuwait in the autumn of 2019 as the Deputy Commander (Operations), Joint Task Force IMPACT. She was promoted Brigadier-General in July 2021 and appointed Commander National Cadet and Junior Canadian Rangers Support Group Headquarters. In July 2023, she was promoted to Major-General and became the Deputy Commander of the RCAF and will become the Commander in the summer of 2025.