ST. PAUL, MINN. – Minnesota native, Brian Ryks, is being recommended by the executive committee of the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) to replace Jeff Hamiel as Executive Director/CEO, who will retire May 16, 2016. The full commission will meet March 21 to confirm his appointment.
Brian Ryks will return to Minnesota with experience working at a variety of airports.
Ryks was born in Lakeville, Minnesota, and received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Criminal Justice Studies at St. Cloud State University in 1990. He worked at MAC as a noise and operations technician, and went on to become a noise abatement manager at Stapleton and Denver International Airports in Denver, Colo. (1990-95). He became airport manager at Aberdeen Regional Airport in Aberdeen, S.D (1995-97); and St. Cloud Regional Airport, St. Cloud, Minn. (1997-2002). In 2002, Ryks was named executive director of the Duluth Airport Authority, Duluth, Minn. (2002-12); then executive director and chief executive officer at Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, Mich. (2012 to present). Among his credentials, Ryks is a general aviation pilot.