Mark Halinaty has been appointed president and chief executive officer of Thales Canada.

Halinaty, who has lead the company’s defence and security business as well as overseeing its transportation, defence and Security, and avionics businesses, takes over from from Paul Kahn, who is taking another position with Thales in its U.K. operations.

A licenced professional engineer, Halinaty joined Alcatel Transportation in 1983 – the company was later acquired by Thales in 2007 – and worked on Alcatel’s automated communications-based train control system. With Thales, he has been involved in a wide range of projects and held a number of key commercial and technical positions, including managing director of Thales Rail Signalling Solutions in the U.K. He holds a degree in Engineering Physics from Queens University and an MBA from the University of Toronto.

“Our ability to partner with many Canadian companies to leverage technology transfers has positioned us as one of Canada’s best system solution providers that meets today Canadian defense industrial policy objectives,” he said.