Our conversation will touch on how we might fully embrace the innovative energy "trapped" within this SMB community, reimagine Defence procurement as a cornerstone of Canada's innovation ecosystem - not just for Defence but well beyond - essentially finding ways to leverage necessary and desirable Defence investment to enable the SMB sector to evolve to fill the "missing middle" and cross the chasm from small-medium to large, sustainable businesses that can scale beyond defence and reach a global export market.

Bio:

Chris Pogue has been engaged in the defence sector, in Canada, and internationally, for almost 40 years - having graduated from Royal Roads Military College in 1985, he served in the Royal Canadian Air Force attaining over 4000, C-130 flight hours, has worked within the Defence Research and Development community in both Halifax and Ottawa, was Flight Commander at the Canadian Forces School of Aerospace Studies, finishing his military career developing future warfighting concepts at the CF Experimentation Centre.  In 2003, Chris shifted into the defence industrial sector in Canada - having served as President of CAE Professional Services from 2005-2010 delivering simulation-based engineering services and growing the team from a small business to over 500 staff, operating in 6 countries - he has also served as Vice President of General Dynamics Mission Systems from 2010-2018 across in a wide-array of leadership roles including Land and Joint operations delivering to both the Canadian and UK Army C3 systems, international growth in the M East and establishing GDMS-Canada’s Public Safety and Security offering based on the SHIELD digital platform.  More recently, Chris served as President of MacDonald-Detwiller and Associates (MDA) Government Space sector – delivering space-based imagery from Radarsat to global customers in both defence and commercial markets, robotics and autonomous systems including the iconic Canadarm to the International Space Station (ISS) and MDA’s defence systems business delivering Unmanned Aerial Systems capability, naval in-service support, and as the Electronic Warfare (EW) Systems Integrator for the Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) fleet. Chris was appointed President and CEO of Thales Canada, in September of 2021 with responsibility for Thales operations in Canada, serving with over 2200 employees across Canada, and delivering capability to the Canadian Defence, Aerospace, Digital Identity and Security, and Urban Transport markets.  Thales Canada serves as the prime contractor for the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) Arctic Offshore Patrol and Joint Supply Ship In-service Support (AJISS) contract, a multi-year, performance-based contract to deliver Digital Transformation capability to the RCN and is the Electronic Systems Integrator (ESI) for the Joint Supply Ship (JSS) and several Coast Guard vessels and ice-breakers as part of the National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS) in Canada.  In addition, Thales Defence and Security Canada serves the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) with space-programs, such as the MEOSAR ground stations program and advanced AI-enabled data/imagery analysis in conjunction with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), as well as on-going support to several Land Forces programs focused on C2, Digital Crew for armoured vehicles, IR and optical imagery systems, and next-generation, digitally-enabled battlefield C2 and intelligence systems.