Alumni profiles
B y M onica W egner
Philanthropy in Flight: A Most Uplifting Story Ed McDonald Engineer – Pilot – Entrepreneur – Philanthropist. It’s been a most uplifting career path for Ed McDonald, ’96 MBA.
E
d’s dream was always to fly. Even when he entered engineering out of high school, his eye was on the sky. A degree in mechanical engineering could only augment his future flying career he decided. Shortly after graduating with his U of A engineering degree in 1983, Ed joined the air force and was soon flying jets out of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, for five years full time and in the reserves for another ten.
Ed would go on to join Canadian Airlines in 1988, which would eventually merge with Air Canada in 1999, his present employer. Living in Edmonton, but based out of Toronto, Ed enjoys the perks of his international routes which today take him to Europe and Asia for his monthly commitment of 80 to 85 flying hours. Ed returned to the U of A to do his MBA after having his interest tweaked by the many business issues he encountered during the lengthy and arduous Air Canada/Canadian airlines merger discussions. “The possibility of Canadian going bankrupt was also a real possibility I thought, and management was also a natural career path for many engineers who want to do more than focus on the more technical side of things.”
4 ALBERTA SCHOOL OF BUSINESS • Fall/Winter 2007/08
Juggling a full-time program with a full-time flight path wasn’t too bad he says. At the time, he flew many domestic routes and remembers spending many productive layovers in Yellowknife working on assignments. His favourite assignment was working on a business plan for Professor Lloyd Steier’s class on entrepreneurship. He credits Lloyd for giving him the idea to go after another dream – to start his own business – related to what he knew and loved – airplanes – using both his engineering and business degrees – while still being able to offset the risk of a new business with the safety net of his day, or night, job. And so JetPro was born. The company which today has grown “out of control,” designs high-tech instruments for