ORNGE has demoted a top executive who lied about having an MBA to investors who poured $275 million into the air ambulance service.

Rick Potter, who was ORNGE’s chief aviation officer, has been removed from the job, ORNGE spokesperson Jennifer Tracey confirmed Wednesday afternoon.

Potter, as top aviation official, was the designated “accountable executive” for ORNGE’s large new fleet of 10 helicopters and 10 airplanes.

ORNGE’s vice-president of aviation, Jim Feeley, will take over as “accountable executive” with responsibility for overseeing the fleet. He’s accountable to Transport Canada, which regulates air travel.

A recent Star story revealed that Potter lied about having an MBA from a Scottish university in a 2009 pitch to private investors.

In a statement to the Star Potter said former ORNGE boss Dr. Chris Mazza told him to say he had the degree because “it would look better in the prospectus.”

Potter’s future at ORNGE is unclear. For now he has been assigned the relatively minor role of handling the change over of the formerly outsourced helicopter bases from Canadian Helicopters to ORNGE. That changeover is complete March 31.

Meanwhile, Employees at ORNGE were slated Thursday to get a pep talk from the new boss who cleaned up eHealth, the electronic health records agency dragged through the mud in 2009.

The brass at ORNGE had turned to eHealth chief executive Greg Reed to help point the way for staff and the organization to regroup in the midst of an ongoing public relations nightmare.

But suddenly on Wednesday — after an inquiry from the Star — a spokeswoman at eHealth said Reed had “respectfully declined” the invitation because “he felt it was not the right time.”

Heather Brown, of eHealth, said it would be “premature” to for Reed speak to ORNGE staff because the agency is still in “transition,” she added.