Dr. W.F. (Tory) Payne, President

As co-founder and President of Routes AstroEngineering, Dr. Tory Payne is responsible for the direction and operation of the company. Tory brings over 35 years of management and technical experience in Aerospace and communications. His technical expertise includes systems engineering, hardware design, software design and communications. He is the key liaison with scientists and leads initial system study work. Tory designed and conducted the EMC test for the IML-SPE Space Physiology Experiment used by Dr. R. Bondar. He has managed the Company’s core projects, including Insect Habitat Facility to be flown on the International Space Station and the Upgrade for the Aquatic Research Facility.

Prior to founding Routes, Tory was Vice-President of Advanced Systems and Board Member at Canadian Astronautics Limited (now EMS Technologies Canada), where he managed the group responsible for defence electronics business area. He has also managed several applications of advanced technologies and has led satellite system and antenna design studies.

Tory also spent a number of years as the principal investigator and supervisor of three payload elements over various phases of the Communications Technology Satellite. Tory holds a B.Sc. Honours in Math and Physics from the Royal Military College in Kingston. He received his M.A. Sc. and Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Toronto.