After a year of flying high, Robert Deluce, president and chief executive officer of Porter Airlines has landed the CEO Award of Excellence in Public Relations for 2009.
The award, presented by the Canadian Public Relations Society Toronto (CPRS), recognizes a CEO in the Greater Toronto area who excels in public relations practices.
Deluce has shown great leadership in terms of employee, stakeholder and community relations, said award chair Lawrence Stevenson.
"Porter is a great Canadian success story," he said. "Mr. Deluce is an example of someone who has really been able to mobilize his staff and company around a vision of being a regional carrier in Canada."
As the primary spokesperson, Deluce gets points for publicly supporting the airline, communicating its developments and remaining actively involved in the PR process, said Stevenson.
The airline has enjoyed a considerable amount of success this year expanding its fleet from six to 15 Bombardier Q400 aircrafts, serving 11 destinations across Canada and the United States, and doubled its employee roster to 800.
Porter also invested over $45 million in a new 150,000 sq.-ft. passenger terminal, phase one of which opens in January.
Past recipients of the CEO Award of Excellence include Loblaw Companies executive chairman Galen Weston, the United Way of Greater Toronto’s president and CEO Frances Lankin (2007), Roots Canada co-founders Don Green and Michael Budman (2006-2005), and the Toronto International Film Festival’s Piers Handling (2003).
Deluce will receive the award Jan. 19 at a gala luncheon at Toronto’s Fairmont Royal York Hotel.
