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HEAD OF SALES
AIRBUS HELICOPTERS IN CANADA
SONJA WOODS
Sonja Woods began her career in government relations
and communications before moving into the aerospace
and defence sector. After moving in-house at Airbus
Helicopters in Canada, she led the H135 campaign for
the Future Aircrew Training program before taking on
progressively broader sales and leadership roles across
North America.
Today, as Head of Sales for Airbus Helicopters in Canada,
Woods leads the company's government and commercial
sales teams at a moment of significant change. Canada
is modernizing its defence and security fleets, while
new technologies are reshaping how crewed aircraft,
autonomous systems and digital networks operate
together.
Her leadership approach was shaped by overcoming
doubts about entering the industry without a
background as a veteran, pilot or engineer. Woods came
to see that leadership is not about being the foremost
technical expert in the room, but about creating the
conditions for different forms of expertise to succeed.
"As a leader, your job
isn't to know how to
do everyone else's job.
Your job is to surround
yourself with a diverse
range of expertise and
harmonize it."
For the full interview, see page 30
