The Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa and Lockheed Martin Canada signed a partnership agreement last week that will support the development of the first curriculum in Canada for complex project management and defence procurement studies.
The agreement, which included a $50,000 donation, follows the launch in May of two Executive Master of Business degrees, one in complex program leadership and the other in strategic procurement, based on a program developed by the Queensland University of Technology of Brisbane to address defence procurement issues in Australia.
Doug Dempster, executive director of Telfer’s Centre for Executive Leadership, said Lockheed Martin’s support would bolster complex procurement leadership and help “build a better bridge between academia, government and industry.”
Noting that one of the three pillars of the government’s defence procurement strategy calls for streamlining the process, Charles Bouchard, Lockheed’s chief executive, said the curriculum was needed to achieve that goal and that the company would be supporting it with speakers as well as a donation to kick start a larger fundraising effort.
Alain Doucet, the assistant Dean of external relations with Telfer, said the aim of the new program would be to worth with the private and public sectors so that “both sides of the [procurement] equation are in the classroom at the same time.”
For more on the program, please see: https://vanguardcanada.com//complex-project-management-a-strategic-imperative/