CANSEC

France Hébert is Vice-President and General Manager, Defence & Security (D&S) Canada for CAE. France leads the D&S business in Canada, shaping the vision and the operational and commercial strategy for the division, which includes 13 sites across the country and a team of 700 employees, many of whom are embedded with military units. France is also the President of SkyAlyne and the President of CAE Military Aviation Training (CMAT). She currently sits on the boards of the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI) and True Patriot Love, Canada’s leading organization in support of military members, veterans, and their families. As an influential leader, France is CAE’s representative for D&S Canada with the federal Government and Canadians.

France has over 30 years of experience working in defence and aerospace. Over the course of her career, France has held senior positions in strategy, business development and operations. She brings extensive leadership experience with a proven track record on complex billion-dollar programs. She successfully won business in Canada and abroad, being recognized with numerous awards. Prior to her current role, France was Head of Land C4ISR Business Area for General Dynamics Mission Systems Canada. She was fully accountable for the line of business including all aspects of execution, operations, and finance of the Canadian division.

Through her varied career, she was an officer in the Canadian Armed Forces and worked for three companies playing major roles in Canada, namely: Bombardier, Nortel, and General Dynamics Mission Systems – Canada (GDMS-C).

France is a Professional Engineer who holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Physics) from the Royal Military College of Canada. She has also received a certificate in Business Administration from McGill University and holds a Project Management Professional (PMP) designation. France has two children in university and lives in Ottawa with her husband. She is a second dan black belt in Tae Kwon Do and enjoys decompressing at CrossFit.

Abir Kazan has over 18 years of diverse management experience in the defence and aerospace industry, and in April 2018, she was nominated as the Senior Capture Manager for SkyAlyne Canada, on secondment from CAE Inc. Ms. Kazan joined CAE, Defence and Security in 2001 and has gained extensive proposals, project management as well as leadership experience. As part of her professional growth, she has undertaken various training covering leadership, capture and proposal management, proposal writing, price to win, project management, earned value, negotiation and most recently she was selected to partake in a “Defi 100 Jours” cohort from “L’effet A”.

Ms. Kazan started her career at CAE as a Proposal Manager. She was then promoted to lead a team of Proposal Managers and Cost Estimators. She has successfully led, managed and produced Canadian and international proposals including the Operational Training System Provider (OTSP) and the CC130J maintenance training provider as well as the UK MFTS Multi Engine Pilot Training.

Ms. Kazan has worked on various internal continuous improvement initiatives, a key one being the cost estimating process and tool taking the initiative from options analysis through to implementation. She has led the initiative and deployed it in Montreal and in the UK including change management and training to all key stakeholders.

In 2016, Ms. Kazan was nominated to become the project manager on the UK MFTS Multi Engine Pilot Training - for the delivery of the ground based training suite. In that role, Ms. Kazan has interfaced with the various stakeholders including Lockheed Martin RMS, the independent tester representing the UK MoD interests, Lockheed Martin UK, Babcock, Ascent and Embraer, taking the program to on time and on budget ready for training in December 2017. During her assignment on the UK MFTS program, Ms. Kazan has undertaken her PMP training and obtained her certification in December 2016.

Prior to joining CAE, Ms. Kazan worked in the telecommunication field at Nortel Networks as a Prime Verification Engineer. She earned her Bachelor Degree of Electrical Engineering from Concordia University in 2000.

Dr. Regan J. Patrick is the Chief Learning Officer for CAE Defense & Security, based in Washington, D.C. He is responsible for identifying, developing, and applying scientific methods, instructional strategies, and learning technologies in the design, implementation, and delivery of global training solutions. He is also responsible for assessing and establishing CAE’s Defense and Security multi-domain training strategies.

Dr. Patrick retired from the U.S. Air Force after a 26-year career as an officer and HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter pilot. He served multiple command and leadership tours, and has over 2,400 hours of flight time in the T-37, UH/TH-1H, HH-60G, CV-22, MC-130H/J, and F-16D. He participated in multiple contingency operations around the world, including Operations DESERT STORM, SOUTHERN WATCH, ENDURING FREEDOM, IRAQI FREEDOM, and Joint Task Force-KATRINA.

Dr. Patrick joined CAE in 2018 as Program Manager for the $250M KDAM ATARS contract, leading a team of over 300 employees to provide academic instruction and simulator training to 1,800 USAF aircrew students annually. He brings both an operational and academic perspective to CAE’s D&S team, focused on synthesizing innovative instructional design with leading edge educational technology to satisfy customer requirements in demanding, complex training environments.

He holds a Doctor of Education in Organizational Change and Leadership from the University of Southern California (USC), a Master of Aeronautical Science Degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from San Diego State University. He is a graduate of the USAF Air War College and a former Air Education and Training Command (AETC) Master Instructor. Dr. Patrick taught as adjunct faculty at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Worldwide Campus for 11 years. He is an IRONMAN triathlete.