Brigadier-General Dave Anderson joined the Canadian Forces in 1980 and was transferred to the Regular Force in 1988. After completing the infantry phase training, he was posted to Second Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI) for his first of many command tours in 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group (1 CMBG). He commanded companies in 3 PPCLI, was the Commanding Officer of 1 PPCLI from 2006-2008, and was the Commander of 1 CMBG from 2012 to 2014.

His extra regimental service included tours in both the Stormont Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders and the Rocky Mountain Rangers as an advisor. From 2014 to 2016, he was appointed as the CF Liaison Officer to the Pentagon in Washington, DC. His operational experience includes deployment to Cyprus, Bosnia, and Afghanistan in 2005-2006 for which he was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal. From 2016 to 2017, he was deployed in Iraq on Operation INHERENT RESOLVE. Upon his return from Iraq, he was appointed to his current position.

BGen D.J. Anderson
Director General Readiness, CJOC

Sharon Woods is a member of the Senior Executive Service (SES) and currently serves as the Director and Program Manager for the Cloud Computing Program Office (CCPO) in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), Office of the Chief Information Officer. CCPO is responsible for the acquisition and execution of the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) program. JEDI is DoD’s pathfinder, General Purpose enterprise-wide cloud initiative that will provide the foundational commercial cloud technologies to support the warfighter. Previously, from 2016 through 2018, she served as the General Counsel for the Defense Digital Service (DDS) where she provided legal counsel and bureaucracy hacking expertise for a team of federal government technologists working on high impact challenges at the Pentagon. Prior to joining DoD, she was an attorney for the U.S. Department of the Navy, specializing in information technology acquisitions. She holds a law degree from the Washington College of Law, American University and a bachelors from Johns Hopkins University. She is an avid chess player and Star Trek fan, and relaxes to heavy metal.

Sharon Woods
Director and Program Manager for the Cloud Computing Program Office (CCPO) in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), Office of the Chief Information Officer

Christiana Cavazzoni joined Canada’s federal government in 2009, after spending a number of years in the telecommunication and surveillance industry with Nortel and MacDonald Dettwiler. Currently, she is a senior executive with Canada’s Department of National Defence, in the field of Data Innovation and Analytics providing leadership in advancing digital principles and implementing new capabilities.

As a senior executive with a background in technology and business transformations, her experience in digital and business strategy development and implementation spans both private and public sectors. Throughout her career, she has initiated technology transformations across government departments including health, public safety, innovation, culture and arts, sports and official languages. Among these efforts, she has led the launch of some innovative technology programs focusing on data analytics, cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence, and automation.

Christiana Cavazzoni
Director General Data Strategy And Innovation, DND

Colonel Vandahl participated in the Reserve Entry Scheme Officer training with the Canadian Grenadier Guards and then joined the 1st Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment at Wolsely Barracks in London, Ontario in 1989. He later joined the Canadian Special Operations Forces community in 2001, serving in command and staff positions at the Dwyer Hill Training Center and the Force Development Directorate of Canadian Special Operations Forces Command Headquarters in Ottawa, where he was awarded a CDS Commendation for his work there.

He commanded the Canadian Joint Incident Response Unit (CJIRU – CBRN) from July 2009 to June 2012, after which he joined the Office of the Minister of National Defence as Senior Military Assistant. He has served in the Strategic Joint Staff and was most recently the Special Advisor to the Commander of the Canadian Joint Operations Command. In August 2016 he returned to CANSOFCOM as the Director of Force Development.

Col E.S. Vandahl
CD, Director Force Development, CANSOFCOM

Richard Fawcett is a retired colonel who served 34 years in the Canadian Armed Forces and is now The Director of Business Development, Land and Joint Solutions at General Dynamics Canada.  During his military career, Col (Ret’d) Fawcett served in a variety of command and staff appointments, serving in Canada and internationally with both NATO and the United Nations.  A graduate of the Royal Military College with a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering and a Master Degree in Public Administration.  Command experience included commanding officer of the Canadian Forces Joint Signal Regiment, Commander Canadian Forces Base Kingston and Commander of the Canadian Task Force in the DRC.

In December 2004, Col (Ret’d) Fawcett was awarded the NATO Meritorious Service Medal, in 2007, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Military Merit, in 2010 he was awarded the RCMP Award of Distinction and in 2012 he was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Col (Ret’d) Fawcett’s favorite pastimes include hockey, scuba diving, building stuff and spending as much time as possible at his cottage.

Col Richard Fawcett (Ret'd)
Director of Business Development, Land and Joint Solutions, GDMS

LGen (Retired) Mike Day joined the Canadian Forces in 1983. He spent majority of his career as an Operator within Canada’s Counter Terrorist and Special Forces community commanding both JTF 2 & Canada’s Special Operations Forces Command. Mr. Day was deployed operationally to Africa, the Balkans, the Middle East, and Afghanistan.

He has served in a variety of Senior Staff appointments including the Canadian Armed Forces Senior Military Officer in the Defence Policy Group, and the Chief Strategic Planner for the CAF. Mr. Day has a degree in Political Studies from the University of Manitoba and a Masters of Arts in War Studies, from the RMC of Canada.

LGen has received the Canadian Meritorious Service Cross, US Legion of Merit, US Special Operations Command Medal and the Polish Silver and Bronze Medals. After retiring, he currently consults many companies, is a Fellow of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, and is the President of the PPCLI Charitable Foundation.

LGen D. Michael Day (Ret'd) CMM, MSC, CD, MA

In his current position, Eric is a scientific advisor to the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces to ensure that they have access to the most cutting-edge solutions for their challenges from Canadian innovators.

Eric started his career in August 1992 with Defence Research & Development Canada (DRDC) as a Defence Scientist in the Flight Mechanics Group of the Precision Weapons Section at the Valcartier laboratory. Here he held several positions in the weapons field of study.

In May 2006, he was appointed Director, Science & Technology Air, in Ottawa, where he managed the Air Force S&T Program portfolio. He was later appointed Director of Defence Research and Development Canada’s Centre for Operational Research and Analysis (CORA). In 2014, he took up the position of Defence R&D Counsellor at CDLS in London. Upon returning to Canada in July 2017, he was appointed to his current position and selected to develop and lead the implementation of the Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) initiative.

Eric Fournier
Director General Innovation, IDEaS, DND

Leah practices, studies and publishes in the field of national security law in addition to her position as Lecturer of International Affairs at Carleton University. She is also an SJD candidate at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law researching the application of criminal, constitutional and international law to state conduct in cyberspace.

Leah previously served as Counsel with the Department of Justice in the National Security Litigation and Advisory Group where she appeared before the Federal Court in designated proceedings and the Security Intelligence Review Committee.  Before being called to the Ontario Bar in 2016, Leah clerked for the Honourable Justice Mosley of the Federal Court of Canada. And prior to attending law school, Leah served in the Canadian Armed Forces for 10 years as an Armoured Officer and was deployed to Afghanistan in 2010.

Leah and Craig Forcese are the co-authors of National Security Law, 2nd edition, forthcoming from Irwin Law in 2020.

Leah West
Lecturer, International Affairs, Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University

Captain(N) Gillis enrolled in the Canadian Armed Forces in 1999 through the Direct Entry Officer program. He has since served in different roles including instructing in the naval education system, as a project director in Director Naval Requirements, as Deputy Chief of Staff for the Maritime Component Command and Chief of Staff (Operations) for the Atlantic Fleet. His key sea postings include operational deployments on HMCS Iroquois, HMCS Halifax, HMCS Athabaskan and HMCS Toronto.

In 2016, he assumed the post as the 15th Commanding Officer of HMCS St. John’s. His command included a high impact contingency operation off the Syrian coast for which he was recognized with the Meritorious Service Cross and NATO Meritorious Service Medal. In his current role, he is accountable for the development of operational capability requirements for naval forces and project directorship for the acquisition of equipment necessary for the RCN to succeed at sea

Capt (N) S.R.K. Gillis, MSC, CD
Director Naval Requirements, RCN

Jessica Davis began her career in intelligence analysis with the Canadian Military, then transitioned to a policy role at Global Affairs Canada before becoming a team leader with Canada’s financial intelligence unit, FINTRAC. Her last role in government was as a senior strategic analyst at CSIS.

Jessica is now the president and principal consultant with Insight Threat Intelligence and works to bring evidence-based solutions to the private and public sectors to counter illicit financing and terrorism. She has also published extensively and is most recently the author of Women in Modern Terrorism: From Liberations Wars to Global Jihad and the Islamic State (2017).

Jessica Davis
President & Principal Consultant
Insight Threat Intelligence

In her current role, Jodie is responsible for expanding Accenture’s business presence in the AI ecosystem, attracting top talent, and bringing innovation and global AI expertise to Canadian clients across all industries. She works with clients to develop AI strategies, discover sources of value and implement AI solutions. Jodie also leads Accenture’s collaboration with business partners, government and academia and oversees Accenture’s investments in the Canadian AI ecosystem.

During more than 25 years at Accenture, Jodie has developed deep expertise in management consulting and technology consulting. She has served clients across several industries where she has helped some of Canada’s largest organizations to develop strategies, business solutions and operating models that deliver added value to both customers and shareholders.

Jodie is also a co-host of the award-winning podcast series The AI Effect.

He was posted to the Canadian embassy in Washington DC in 2012 and commanded the Canadian Forces School of Communications and Electronics on his return. In June 2019, he was appointed to his current position.

Jodie Wallis
Managing Director for AI and Applied Intelligence,
Accenture Canada

Colonel Yannick Lemieux joined the Canadian Forces in 1992 and was initially posted to 5 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group, in Valcartier, Québec. He was deployed to Bosnia in 2002, as the Signals Officer of the 2e R22eR BattleGroup. He also served in the first contingent of UN peacekeepers sent to the Islamic Republic of the Sudan in 2005. In 2008, he was part of the UN Peacekeeping Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He took command of 1 CMBG HQ & Sigs Sqn in 2010 and deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan as the Commanding Officer of the Mission Termination Task Force HQ & Sigs Sqn in 2011 and received the Meritorious Service Medal.

He was posted to the Canadian embassy in Washington DC in 2012 and commanded the Canadian Forces School of Communications and Electronics on his return. In June 2019, he was appointed to his current position.

Colonel N.Y. Lemieux, MSM, CD
Director Land Command Information, Canadian Army

Major Jason Furlong is an Air Combat Systems Officer with the Royal Canadian Air Force. After graduating with his wings in 1997, his first tour was with the 405 Sqn in Greenwood flying on the CP140 Aurora. He has had subsequent tours with the Royal Air Force and the US Navy flying on the Nimrod and Poseidon aircraft respectively. Working within the Air Staff at NDHQ, he is currently the Project Director for the RPAS project. He has degrees in Electrical and Software Engineering and is a registered Professional Engineer in the province of Ontario.

Maj Jason Furlong, MASc, CD
Project Director – RPAS, Directorate of Air Requirements 8, DND

Eric started his professional career 22 years ago in broadcast television production and live event. After a few years working with public and private production houses, he made the jump to the audio-visual world bringing his broadcaster experience to videoconferencing and multimedia presentation facilities. He dedicated 13 years to Terraview Consulting as a technical coordinator, videoconference specialist, acquiring skills into network management and network infrastructure deployment. In late 2015, he went on his own as a consultant and worked with the Department of National Defence and Shared Services Canada as a project manager and technical expert for Multi-Level Audio-Visual Presentation Systems. He joined DND as an employee in 2018 becoming a Senior Project Manager working under DG CYBER/DJCIS. With DND he has achieved various mission-critical and large-scale deployment throughout the country.

Eric Lariviere
Project Manager, DG CYBER, DJCIS

DND

Michael has more than 30 years of experience in security and information systems in both the federal government and the private sector. In his current role, he provides cyber solutions to domestic and international government and commercial customers, delivers quick-reaction mission solutions, and provides support to high consequence special missions. He also supports the U.S. President's National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee; is a member of the Rhode Island Homeland Security Advisory Board; the Chair of the Advisory Board to the Kogod Cybersecurity Governance Center at American University; and is a founding member of the AI Security Alliance.

He was the 2006 recipient of the People’s Choice Award for the ISE New England Information Security Executive of the Year and the 2007 recipient of the Security 7 Award for the Manufacturing sector.

Michael K. Daly

CTO, Cybersecurity and Special Missions
Raytheon

Leslie Bayford is the User Experience Design (UXD) Manager at Pleora Technologies, a leading provider of sensor networking technologies for the security & defense, industrial automation, and medical imaging markets. Leslie brings 20 years of experience and a passion for product design to her role to focus on fully understanding end-user problems to ensure new technologies solve critical issues.

In the military market, she uses extensive UXD research and verification techniques to create detailed scenes of vehicle crew members working in often dangerous and stressful environments. By understanding end-user challenges and goals, Pleora’s engineers can “see the problem” and use their experience and expertise to develop technology solutions that both solve critical problems and fit into existing environments. As a result, a vehicle crew can perform tasks more effectively, efficiently, and safely while reducing cognitive burden.

Leslie Bayford

UXD Manager
Pleora Technologies

Bruce is a leader in the IT security sector with experience of 30 years combining deep understanding and practical business applications.  Since 2005, his focus has been the development of data-centric solutions for Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), Canada’s global partners, and for industry.  Bruce’s work has married traditional defence-in-depth solutions with new solutions to establish perimeters around data.  He was instrumental in the establishment of Canada’s formal leadership of Data-Centric Security in NATO-led events such as Coalition Warrior Interoperability eXercise (CWIX), as well as multi-national, naval event Exercise Joint Warrior.

Bruce Carruthers

Chief Strategy Officer, Co-founder
CORD3 Innovation Inc.

Stephanie Carvin is an Assistant Professor at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. Her research interests are in the area of national security, foreign policy, critical infrastructure protection, terrorism, and technology.

In 2009, Stephanie was a visiting scholar at George Washington University Law School and worked as a consultant to the US Department of Defense Law of War Working Group at the Pentagon. From 2012-2015, she was an analyst with the government of Canada working on national security issues. Carvin frequently appears in the media to discuss issues related to security and is the co-host of the Canadian national security law and policy podcast “A Podcast Called Intrepid” with Craig Forcese. Her most recent book is Science, Law, Liberalism and the American Way of Warfare: The Quest for Humanity in Conflict, co-authored with Michael J. Williams.

Stephanie Carvin

Assistant Professor, International Affairs
Norman Paterson School of International Affairs,
Carleton University

MGen Earl D. Matthews (Ret'd) is Chief Strategy Officer, Verodin, Inc. responsible for building and executing Verodin’s global growth strategy. Before joining Verodin, he served as Vice President and General Manager of Enterprise Security Solutions for DXC Technology. He also served in the U.S. Air Force influencing the development and application of cybersecurity and information management technology. Throughout his three-decade military career, he held many assignments, including space, communications and cyber operations, plans and policy, resource and budget management, acquisitions and staff positions.
On multiple occasions, he has been selected by military leaders and White House officials to spearhead high-profile engagements and has received many prestigious awards as a result. This includes several Top Federal 100 Awards; the National Security Agency Frank B. Rowlett Award; and the Zachman Enterprise Architecture Award. As an expert on cyber, he is sought out to speak at conferences, advise key task forces, and testify before Congress.

MGen Earl D. Matthews (Ret'd)

Chief Strategy Officer
Verodin, Inc.

John Turnbull is a former Army Signal Officer with a strong background in Electronic Warfare and Signals Intelligence. He was the Director Land Command Systems Program Management during the launch of the Land Force ISTAR capital project. He is also a past commander of the CF Information Operations Group and DG Military SIGINT. After his military career, he joined at the Communications Security Establishment in the IT security business line for 5 years.
He retired from CSE in 2016 as Director General Cyber Protection, responsible for Cyber Assurance Standards and Policies for the Government of Canada. He is currently an associate with CFN Consultants working with clients in the IM/IT, cyber, ISTAR and EW domains.

BGen (Ret’d) John Turnbull CD

Associate, CFN Consultants