On the passing of Bombardier’s James Hoblyn

Bombardier Aerospace announced today that one of its own, James Hoblyn, passed away on July 3. Hoblyn served as President, Bombardier Customer Services & Specialized and Amphibious Aircraft.

I first met James last year on my way to EBACE in Geneva. My colleague John Croft and I joined a small group of journalists and staff from Bombardier aboard a Global 5000 aircraft for the trans-Atlantic flight. We were all very much awake for the day-time crossing and had a lot of time to talk with one another. His warmth and enthusiasm for work and his love for his family was immediately apparent. During the downtime before he held on-the-record court in the jet’s mid-cabin, we talked tech and cars. Weeks earlier he had gotten a Mini Cooper, which he joked his teenage daughter wasn’t allowed anywhere near.

James had an affinity for technology and got a real kick out of the fact that I was live-tweeting and blogging the crossing on my iPad somewhere between two continents. He was a proponent of social media inside Bombardier, using his own internal blog, called The James Exchange – which he wrote himself – to connect with his employees, solicit feedback and cultivate dialogue. 

This industry spends much time discussing how social media is used outwardly, but James found a way to harness its power inside of Bombardier to nurture transparency and openness amongst his staff. Every time I would see him he would let me know how his experiment was going. Today, James’ Blog had 10,000 visitors from inside Bombardier and more than 120 comments have been left in remembrance. Bombardier Aerospace has 30,000 employees.

For conservative companies, such experiments can often backfire, but James was excited at the possibilities his blog held to build a more effective team. Whether he knew it or not, James Hoblyn was a pioneer in advancing corporate transparency.

James is survived by his wife Josée and their three daughters. He was 46.