President,
BMT
OMM, MSM, CD
Commander
Royal Canadian Navy
MSM, CD
Director General
Naval Force Development
Vice President Engineering Service, Babcock Canada
Head of Product Sales Submarines
Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems GmbH
AO, RAN (retd)
Director of Engineering at Navantia Shipyard of Cartagena
Vice President, Project Delivery, Seaspan, Victoria Shipyards
Director General of R&D Innovation, Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC)
Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems-Undersea Warfare, Chief Engineer
Software Developer, Rheinmetall Electronics GmbH
Chilean Navy (Ret’d)
Director, Babcock Canada
Director Naval Development, Saab Kockums
Copyright ©2022 Vanguard Canada Media
Darcy Byrtus
President, BMT
Darcy Byrtus is the President of BMT and has over 35 years’ experience in the International Defence industry in a variety of Operations, Major Crown Project (MCP) and Business Development positions.
Mr. Byrtus was appointed President of BMT in March 2014. He is responsible for the formulation, initiation and implementation of the direction, business strategy and policies of the company.
Prior to joining BMT, Darcy spent 16 years at General Dynamics Canada where he held several positions including the Project Manager for the Hydra Underwater Warfare system for the Royal Swedish Navy, Project Manager Canadian Maritime Helicopter Project and Director of Business Development for Naval Programs.
Prior to working at General Dynamics, Darcy served 22 years in the RCN as a Marine Engineering Officer and Naval Architect. He served in a variety of positions at sea, in the Naval Ship Repair Units and in MCPs including in the Canadian Patrol Submarine Project and as the Ship Systems Manager for the Canadian Patrol Frigate Project.
Darcy is the current chairman of the Canadian Association of Defence and Securities Industries Defence Policy Committee and is the Vice Chairman of the Board of the Canadian Marine Industries and Shipbuilding Association.
Darcy holds BSc in Physics & Physical Oceanography from Royal Roads Military College and an MSc in Naval Architecture and an MSc in Mechanical Engineering, both from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mr. Byrtus also holds a Certificate in International Corporate Direction from the Institute of Directors.
Anthony March
Vice President Engineering Service, Babcock Canada
Tony joined the Canadian Armed Forces in 1997 as a Marine Systems Engineer. Following graduation from the Royal Military College of Canada and completion of initial occupational training, he was deployed to the Arabian Gulf in HMCS Montréal part of Operation APOLLO, Canada’s contribution to the international campaign against terrorism.
In 2003, Tony volunteered for Submarine Service and completed his training and qualifying requirements in 2004 and then went on to serve as the Marine Systems Engineering Officer in HMC Submarines Victoria, Windsor, and Corner Brook. Subsequently, Tony completed a variety of offshore postings in Halifax and was selected for Post-Graduate Training in the UK. Posted to Ottawa, he held a variety of staff positions, culminating as the Deputy Director, Maritime Engineering Program Management (Submarines). In June 2018, he joined Babcock after serving 21 years with the Royal Canadian Navy. In January 2020, Tony took on the role of Vice President of Engineering Services.
Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee
OMM, MSM, CD
Commander Royal Canadian Navy
Vice-Admiral (VAdm) Angus Topshee is the 38th Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). His diverse academic background includes military and civilian institutions on three continents. He has deployed in ships around the world and has accumulated countless sea stories involving pirates, sharks, terrorists, volcanoes, whales, fires, and all the other things which make life at sea a true adventure. The highlight of his time at sea was his far too brief command of Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship (HMCS) Algonquin in 2009-2010 and, a close second, his three years in command of Canada’s Pacific Fleet. His shore postings include two tours in the Navy’s Strategy directorate as penance for all of his sea time, three years in command of Canadian Forces Base Halifax, and two years as the Deputy Director, Strategy, Policy, and Plans at NORAD and United States Northern Command Headquarters in Colorado Springs. He also deployed to Afghanistan for all of 2011 as the director of Afghan National Police Training within the NATO Training Mission Afghanistan. Over the course of his career, he has somehow been involved in Arctic issues at every one of his shore postings (except Afghanistan). Before taking command of the RCN in May 2022, VAdm Topshee had the honour and the pleasure of commanding Maritime Forces Pacific and Joint Task Force Pacific, located in Esquimalt, B.C.
VAdm Topshee’s career is enabled by his fantastically supportive wife, Audrey, and four tremendous daughters, Amy, Zoë, Charlotte, and Iris.
Cmdre J. S. ARMSTRONG
MSM, CD
DIRECTOR GENERAL NAVAL FORCE DEVELOPMENT
As the son of a career soldier, Cmdre J. S. Armstrong grew up in various army and air force bases throughout Canada, but calls Sault Ste-Marie, Ontario his hometown. He joined the Canadian Armed Forces as a Maritime Surface Officer in 1989. Upon completion of Naval Warfare Officer training in 1994, he joined the Pacific Fleet. Since then, he has served onboard HMC Ships on both coasts conducting a number of international deployments including NATO, WESTPLOY, Op AUGMENTATION, and Op ALTAIR. He has had the honour and privilege of commanding three of Her Majesty’s Canadian Ships during his command tour and deployed onboard HMCS Toronto as Commanding Officer for Op REASSURANCE in 2014-2015.
Cmdre Armstrong has served in staff positions at Maritime Pacific and Canadian Fleet Atlantic Headquarters. He has served in the National Capital Region in Naval Force Development and as the Chief of Staff for the Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy.
Philipp Schön
Head of Product Sales Submarines
Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems GmbH
Philipp Schön has a background in Naval Architecture and Economics. He concluded his Diplomas after serving his Navy Service in the German Navy as a Navigator on board several surface vessels. He started his industrial career in Kiel at the project department of the civil shipyard Linedau. Shortly after, Mr. Schön moved back to the naval indus-try taking up a management role in Howaldtswerke Deutsche Werft, here getting his first experience in submarine technologies some 15 years ago.
Through a long period in London with the daughter company MarineForce International and a secondment to as the General Manager of the branch in Abu Dhabi, he came back to Germany taking on Business Development responsi-bility inside Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems for all Naval business. Since the merger of Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems and Atlas Elektronic in Bremen, Mr. Schön has been Head of Submarine Sales and also leads the departments re-sponsible for Requirements, Verification and Proposal Management.
Rear Admiral Rowan Moffitt
AO, RAN (retd)
Rowan had an unusually varied career in the Royal Australian Navy spanning four decades, followed by a commercial career for almost another decade.
His early career was spent mostly at sea, culminating with frigate and destroyer commands before he moved into Defence’s senior leadership group in 1999. He was promoted to Rear Admiral in 2002, serving as the Deputy Chief of Navy (and Comptroller) then as the Fleet Commander during widespread and challenging operations across two thirds of the globe. A role as the Deputy Chief of Joint Operations followed, in which he was responsible for managing operational activities of the Australian Defence Force, including combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and humanitarian and disaster relief operations at home and abroad. He concluded his military career as the inaugural Head of Australia’s Future Submarine Program, from 2009 until 2013.
On retiring from full time naval service, he joined professional services firm Ernst&Young as the partner leading the Oceania Defence Account through a period of major growth. He retired from EY in mid-2019. Rowan now works freelance in strategic advice and counselling, stakeholder engagement, executive leadership development, coaching and mentoring as well as general consulting on matters that pique his interest.
Jaime Díaz
Director of Engineering at Navantia Shipyard of Cartagena
Jaime is a Naval Engineer, PDD IESE Business School. More than 20 years of professional experience in different industries based in Spain and UK.
Chris Earl
Vice President, Project Delivery,
Seaspan, Victoria Shipyards
Chris is a retired Rear-Admiral (RAdm) in the Royal Canadian Navy. He has broad experience in leadership, project management, and materiel readiness support to ship and submarine operations.
After graduating from the Royal Military College and completing his formal training in various ships and shore establishments, RAdm (Ret’d) Earl volunteered for submarines and completed several operational tours in both Oberon and Victoria Classes. Significant shore duty included tours in the Canadian Forces Naval Engineering School, Naval requirements, the Royal Navy submarine support organization, Project Manager for the Submarine Capability Life Extension project, Class Manager for the Victoria Class submarines, Director Maritime Equipment Program Management (Submarines), and as the Commanding Officer of Fleet Maintenance Facility CAPE BRETON – Canada’s military shipyard on the West Coast. During his last four years in uniform, RAdm (Ret’d) Earl served as the Chief Engineer of the Royal Canadian Navy and was appointed as the Chief of Staff (Material); the most senior military procurement and sustainment specialist within the Material group of the Canadian Armed Forces – ADM(Mat). ADM(Mat)’s function is to provide oversight and enables all activity necessary to support Army, Navy, Air Force, and Special Forces operations. During his tenure, RAdm (Ret’d) Earl led the Material group procurement and sustainment effort to support operations and the Government of Canada response during the COVID-19 pandemic and was recognized with a Vice Chief of Defence Staff commendation for his leadership in the execution of this critical activity.
Following 35 years of service to Canada, Chris joined Seaspan Shipyards in 2021 and assumed leadership of several important strategic initiatives for the company. In July 2022, he assumed his current role and has responsibility for all Naval maintenance programs and National Shipbuilding Strategy build support activities conducted at Victoria Shipyards.
Chris is a graduate of the Royal Military College, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, a Master’s degree in Defence Studies and is a graduate of both the Canadian Forces College Joint Command and Staff and National Security Programmes.
Philippe Hébert
Director General of R&D Innovation, Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC)
Philippe Hébert is the Director General of R&D Innovation for Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), where he is responsible for leading key innovation initiatives such as the Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) program. His role is to ensure that the Canadian Armed Forces/Department of National Defence have access to the most cutting-edge solutions from Canadian Innovators for their challenges.
From 2015 until 2022, Mr. Hébert was the Director General for Intelligence Policy and Partnerships with the Canadian Forces Intelligence Command where he oversaw and coordinated the development and promulgation of defence intelligence policies, directives and governance frameworks. He was also responsible for the management of defence intelligence partnerships with the Five-Eyes community, NATO, other allied countries, as well as with other federal government departments and agencies.
Mr. Hébert also worked for the Assistant Deputy Minister (Policy), serving as Director of Policy Development from 2007 to 2015. In that role, he led the development of the Canada First Defence Strategy and various policy frameworks on issues such as Arctic security, space and cyber. Before that, Mr. Hébert served in a number of positions at National Defence, including Special Assistant to the Deputy Minister and speechwriter for the Minister of National Defence and the Chief of the Defence Staff.
Mr. Hébert is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.
Jim Palmer
Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems-Undersea Warfare, Chief Engineer
A 1984 graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology with a Batchelor’s of Science in Electrical Engineering and a minor in Computer Science, Jim has been involved with submarine combat systems at Lockheed Martin since graduation. Initially working as a staff engineer on various U.S. Navy nuclear submarine programs, Jim rapidly developed over time into the lead engineer directly responsible for the architecture and engineering efforts on multiple international diesel submarine combat systems programs in Brazil, The Netherlands, Canada, and Spain. Most recently Jim was the Chief Engineer for the Australian Future Submarine Program combat system, responsible for the end-to-end design and integration of the combat system onto the selected submarine.
With nearly 40 years of working on submarine combat systems, today Jim is the Director, Chief Engineer for Undersea Warfare Programs across all of Lockheed Martin. He is responsible for coordination of architectures, implementation, development, acceptance across USW sensors, combat systems, vehicles in development or being pursued for new business by Lockheed Martin. Jim is honored to have the opportunity to share his expertise and discuss future submarine combat systems with the Deep Blue Seminar participants.
Robert Schaefer
Software Developer, Rheinmetall Electronics GmbH
He received his B.Sc. degree in nautical science from Wismar University of Applied Sciences in 2014 and M.Sc. degree in maritime management with distinction from Jade University of Applied Sciences in 2016. He is a licensed mariner as well as an officer in the personnel reserve of the German Navy Command. His research interests are dynamic modelling and simulation of marine craft and training system design. As software developer at Rheinmetall Electronics GmbH, he is working on maritime simulator projects.
Capt(N) Carlos Blamey
Chilean Navy (Ret’d)
A marine engineer by profession, whose career started in the Chilean Navy, where he served as a submariner, retiring in the rank of Captain(N). During his service he was the project manager for the Chilean Navy Scorpène Submarine building program in France and later the Submarine Program Manager responsible for the life-cycle management of submarines and their associated logistics, support agreements and upgrade initiatives in the Chilean Navy. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer with Ameris Chile Ltd, which is responsible for the technical team charged with the maintenance of the Scorpène-class submarines in the Royal Malaysian Navy.
Jake Jacobson
Director, Babcock Canada
With the Royal Canadian Navy until 1999, Jake served as a Combat Systems Engineer at sea and on the waterfront, as a Project Engineer specializing in Above Water Warfare, as the Head of Underwater Warfare, and as Project Manager for the $1.8B modernization of Canada’s air defence and command & control destroyers. He also served as naval representative to the United Kingdom and Ireland, and as the Commanding Officer of Canada’s Pacific Naval Dockyard.
Jake subsequently joined Lockheed Martin UK as the Deputy Commercial Director and Program Office
Manager for the £2.7B Royal Navy’s Merlin Anti-Submarine Warfare Helicopter program, returning in 2002 to Lockheed Martin Canada to lead the Maritime Helicopter Program (MHP) capture consortium and serve as the Director of Advanced Programs. In 2004, Jake joined General Dynamics Canada to lead the Canadian industry consortium for the pursuit of the Joint Support Ship, and served there in a series of appointments as Director Naval Programs, Director Air & Naval Advanced Programs and Director Air & Naval Strategy.
Jake joined Canada’s Department of National Defence as a public servant in 2007, serving through to 2012 as the Chief of Staff (Materiel Group), through the initial period of CF rebuild and the principal period of
Canada’s combat operations in Afghanistan. During his five year tenure, he drove a much-needed increase of over 1,500 DND engineering and procurement professionals, led the Government’s rapid procurement of medium-lift helicopters and advanced unmanned air vehicles for the CF in Afghanistan, initiated the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy, worked to improve and streamline procurement including the means to leverage procurement to the broader national economic agenda, and championed and oversaw the rapid growth, from $1.5B to $2.8B per year, in National Procurement sustainment expenditures.
Jake joined Babcock Canada in 2014 to lead the Babcock Defence & Security Sector in Canada, and in 2015 expanded responsibilities to encompass Government Relations, Strategy & Business Development, Marketing & Communications, and Industrial Benefits for the Marine, Land, Aviation and Nuclear Sectors. He retired from executive roles in 2020, and remains a Director on the Board of Babcock Canada.
Dr. Mats Nordin
Director Naval Development, Saab Kockums
Dr. Mats Nordin is a naval officer in the reserve. Trained as a Submarine engineer and salvage diver by the Swedish Navy, Mats now works as Director for Strategic Naval Development at Saab Kockums. He was previously Head of Submarine Department and Director Underwater Systems at the Swedish material administration (FMV) and Director of Engineering for Submarines and Ships Research and Development at the Swedish defense research institute.