It's our people who make the difference.
Our employees embody our values: Integrity, Teamwork, Innovation and Commitment. Every single individual on the Calian team works exceptionally hard to meet our client needs. We are proud of our people and all they accomplish every day to help Calian grow, stay relevant and maintain our viability.
Our Leadership Team

Kevin Ford
Chief Executive Officer

Kevin Ford was promoted to Chief Executive Officer in April 2015. Prior to becoming Calian's CEO, Kevin served as Calian's Business and Technology Services Division President for over 4 years.
"Teamwork, integrity and commitment are values that have guided me throughout my career and continue to drive me today" says Kevin. "Calian is in a unique position to leverage a solid foundation and I am excited about our future potential. We have strong diverse services offering with the proven capability to deliver both domestically and globally".
Kevin's enthusiastic leadership style and team building skills have created a motivated environment in which total customer satisfaction is the ultimate goal. He focuses his considerable energy and talents working with the Calian management team on execution of the companies four pillar growth framework of customer retention, diversification, innovation and continuous improvement.
Prior to joining Calian, Kevin has worked in professional services for over 30 years, including 11 years at IBM as a Partner in Global Business Services.

Patrick Houston, CPA (CA)
Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Corporate Secretary

Patrick Houston is a Chartered Professional Accountant with more than 15 years of experience and an extensive background in corporate finance, international operations, mergers and acquisitions and public markets.
As CFO, he oversees the accounting, business support, financial planning and analysis, treasury and tax functions at Calian. Patrick places an emphasis on the continuous development of a finance function which enables the Company to achieve its profitable growth ambitions, and maintaining a high level of integrity and transparency.
Prior to joining Calian in January 2019, Patrick began his career in public accounting with Deloitte, before moving on to DragonWave, a Canadian based high-tech company listed on the Nasdaq and TSX.

Jerry Johnston
Chief Information Officer (CIO)

Jerry has over 35 years of experience in management at Calian and other high-tech companies in the Ottawa region. Since joining Calian in 1992, he has held a number of leadership positions, including Director of Engineering, Vice President, Outsourcing, Vice President, Operations and Vice President, Training. Each of these roles required a focus on performance excellence, customer satisfaction, and service offering evolution. As CIO, Jerry brings this same focus to Calian Group Ltd. by appropriately integrating enterprise risk management, process management and information technology. These enablers allow Calian to achieve growth targets while maintaining its reputation for delivery excellence.

Sue Ivay
Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO)

At the heart of Calian’s long-term growth is its people. Under Sue’s leadership Calian’s HR team is focused is on developing and executing a talent management strategy in support of the Company’s overall business plan and strategic direction.
Sue joined Calian in 1999, gaining progressive management experience and a deep understanding of Calian’s diverse business by working within its service lines. She joined the Human Resources team in 2014 and drove key HR initiatives such as leadership development, business unit partnership and compensation strategies. Sue has distinguished herself as a trusted thought partner, change champion and devoted employee engagement advocate; she accomplishes this through a fierce desire to bring out the best in people. Having played key roles in integrating acquisitions, she seeks to unlock employee potential and strengthen Calian’s brand as an employer of choice.
A University of Waterloo alumnus, Sue advocates for performance excellence, collaborative work environments, and people development through strong leadership and succession planning. Sue was appointed CHRO in 2019.

Seann Hamer
Chief Technology Officer (CTO)

Seann Hamer is Calian’s first Chief Technlology Officer and is responsible for developing, executing and communicating our customer facing technology roadmap and driving our innovation agenda. He is the advisor to the senior leadership team on product development, acquisitive growth strategies and R&D priorities including the Calian Innovation Playbook.
Mr. Hamer has over 35 years of experience in the satellite and cable networks industries as a result of numerous technical and business positions he has held over his career at Calian. He previously held dual roles as the VP, Communications Products and VP, Marketing and Development in the Calian Advanced Technologies division. He was a driving force in the creation of a successful and growing products business.

Michele Bedford
Chief Commercial Officer (CCO)

Prior to starting her own consulting firm, Michele held senior marketing, sales, and operations roles at Microsoft. Most recently as Chief of Staff - Modern Workplace Global Sales, where she oversaw sales operations for the global technical sales team. Most of Michele's tenure at Microsoft was focused on partnering with government organizations to utilize technology to accomplish their mission, including progress towards UN sustainable development goals, and smart city initiatives. This focus was maintained through her leadership of the global government marketing efforts, and later as Managing Director of Microsoft’s federal government sales practice.
Prior to her time in the US, Michele was a product marketing lead and competitive analyst for Ottawa, Canada-based technology start-ups; guiding products from initial design specifications, through development, production and deployment. A graduate of Clarkson University (New York, USA), Ms Bedford holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering, Management & Marketing.

Patrick Thera
President, Advanced Technologies

Patrick joined SED (now Advanced Technologies) in 1985 after completing an honors degree in Computer Science at the University of Saskatchewan. SED became a part of Calian in 1990. Throughout his extensive career within the organization, it was the variety of technical challenges, the commitment to our customers, and the opportunity for travel world-wide, that spurred him to grow in his career. Starting as a software developer on Canada’s Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking program, he quickly realized importance of the work we do in this organization and of its potential for growth. Through progressive roles in the organization Patrick’s responsibilities grew until he became president of Advanced Technologies in 2012.
“We make a difference for our customers every day,” says Patrick Thera, “this drives our commitment to excellence, our innovation and the support that we demonstrate as a team.”
Headquartered in Saskatoon, SK, Patrick has grown an amazing multi-discipline team of engineers, technologists and production staff, in offices across Canada and Europe, capable of taking on the most difficult technical challenges.

Gordon McDonald
President, Calian Health

As President of Calian Health, Gordon McDonald leads one of Canada's largest national health services organizations which, for more than 14 years, has managed healthcare professionals and health programs as well as primary care and occupational health clinics. Gordon is focused on helping customers deliver and manage high-quality health care services for long-term, short-term, cyclical or temporary health care services. A professional engineer, he has over 27 years of experience in engineering, IT, management, health services and business development.
Gordon joined Calian's Health Services team in 2016 and assumed the role of Director as well as Program Manager for Calian’s Health Services Support Contract for the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF). He led Calian's successful bid for the Health Care Provider Requirements contract to provide health care services for the CAF, RCMP and Veterans Affairs Canada, and subsequently assumed the role of Service Delivery Manager for that contract in September 2017.
Gordon assumed the role of Vice President in 2019 and that of President in 2020. He is responsible for Calian's Health Services operations, with a team of over 1,000 health care providers, operations managers and client delivery personnel across Canada.

Sandra Cote
President, IT and Cyber Solutions

As Calian's President of IT and Cyber Solutions, Sandra Cote is responsible for the development and delivery of services that aid our customers in achieving maximum success from their information technology infrastructure. Our goal is to deliver expertise and products to our customers that harness the significant power from their IT investments. For Sandra, the Calian customer experience is always top of mind. Sandra believes in driving deep relationships with customers and partners that are ultimately empowered by the talented people on her team.
Sandra's broad range of sales and management skills were honed over a 30 year period working for various Information Technology focused companies, including SAP, Sybase and Digital Equipment. Sandra stays current with emerging trends in the information technology space, through active participation in the Information Technology Association of Canada.

Don Whitty, CTDP
President, Learning

Don is a Certified Training and Development Professional (CTDP) with a passion for learning, technology and innovation. He brings learning industry expertise from national and international markets and has extensive business experience helping clients innovate learning, close competency gaps and achieve and maintain compliance.
Don joins Calian understanding the learning and development landscape beyond the company’s current markets. He has run programs for pharma, publishing, telecom and oil and gas, and has large private enterprise experience having worked on the learning programs of many Global clients.
Throughout his career, Don has undertaken visiting faculty engagements at universities in Canada, the United States and Ireland, and has conducted research on next-generation learning including gamification, augmented reality and knowledge engineering. Don was CEO of Mosaic Technologies before serving as Director of Information and Knowledge Management for Suncor Energy from 2009 to 2015, and then Chief Learning Strategist for Tata Interactive Systems until the end of 2017.
Our Team

Environment & Nuclear
Dr Hani Al Anid

Dr. Al Anid is the Director of Nuclear Engineering at Calian. He completed his Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering at the Royal Military College of Canada, and his Bachelor of Science in Engineering Physics from Queen’s University. Dr. Al Anid has gained extensive experience in the nuclear industry and has taken part in the planning, development, and execution of a wide range of projects within Calian Nuclear’s core areas of expertise: nuclear safety analysis, environmental protection, and emergency preparedness.

Satellite
Dan Baril

Dan Baril has over 30 years of experience and has held a variety of technical and management roles with Calian, Advanced Technologies (formerly Calian SED). Dan is responsible for business development and project execution within Calian’s Gateway and Planning Systems’ business sector. Dan holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Saskatchewan.

Dr. William Barker

Dr. William Barker, Calian’s Chief Psychologist, has over forty-three years of experience as a clinical psychologist and over forty years’ experience working with law enforcement and other public safety entities. During that time he has performed over 18,000 assessments for psychological readiness of new recruits.

Public Sector|Aerospace & Defence
Greg Beauchamp

Greg is the Director responsible for Calian’s Digital Consulting business. Greg has over 30 years of industry experience providing both Consulting and Project solutions to clients who are undergoing Digital transformations. Greg’s team focuses on creating an imbedded team that utilizes the clients preferred methodologies creating a consultant experience that meshes and is easily handed back to the client.

Aerospace & Defence|Agricultural Technology
Russ Beaudin

Russ Beaudin has over 25 years of experience in the defence industry supporting various technical and management roles associated with the Canadian Army and key aspects of their tactical networks. Russ is now responsible for business development within the Calian, Advanced Technologies Test, Aerospace and Defence business sector. His primary focus is exploring innovative capabilities that can be developed and deployed across our customers platforms ensuring they are successful, regardless of their operational environments.

Public Safety & Security
Ian Becking

Ian Becking has had a long career in government service with both military and civilian aspects of Canada’s public safety. Ian has experience with emergency management exercises from counter terrorism live exercises with international partners, to technological trials involving social media and emergency management along with deployable public safety broadband technology in various locations in Canada and the US.

Michele Bedford

Prior to starting her own consulting firm, Michele held senior marketing, sales, and operations roles at Microsoft. Most recently as Chief of Staff - Modern Workplace Global Sales, where she oversaw sales operations for the global technical sales team. Most of Michele's tenure at Microsoft was focused on partnering with government organizations to utilize technology to accomplish their mission, including progress towards UN sustainable development goals, and smart city initiatives. This focus was maintained through her leadership of the global government marketing efforts, and later as Managing Director of Microsoft’s federal government sales practice.
Prior to her time in the US, Michele was a product marketing lead and competitive analyst for Ottawa, Canada-based technology start-ups; guiding products from initial design specifications, through development, production and deployment. A graduate of Clarkson University (New York, USA), Ms Bedford holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering, Management & Marketing.

Chris Bellman

Chris is a manager at Calian Nuclear with over 12 years of experience in project management, health physics and nuclear safety analysis. Chris has achieved a Masters (MASc) in nuclear engineering with a focus on health physics. He has performed safety analyses to support licensing activities for used nuclear fuel handling and dry storage facilities, transportation of used nuclear fuels in a Type B package, and the use of radioactive materials for research practices.

Aerospace & Defence
Howard Chaganis

Howard Chaganis is Director of Operations at Cadence-Calian. After gaining a BSc in Geography at Oxford Brookes University he moved to The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, gaining his commission with The Royal Green Jackets as an Infantry Officer and serving on operations worldwide. On leaving the British Army after 10 years of service, Howard Chaganis has concentrated the majority of his consultancy within NATO, with a particular focus on Scenario development and the command and control elements of large scale, complex exercising.

Aerospace & Defence
David Chupick

Dave Chupick brings to the team decades of combined training experience with the military and as a civilian working for Calian Group Ltd. He’s led and managed many diverse teams, working with clients to design, develop and deliver large complex exercises for the Canadian military, Canadian federal and provincial governments, the African Union and in support of NATO through exercises in the Canadian Army’s High Readiness Program. He’s also part of the project team continuing the evolution of the exercise development software – Calian MaestroEDE.
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