Education

I attended many elementary schools as my family moved across Canada, then Philémon Wright High School in Hull, where I followed the Pure and Applied Sciences program. In the mid-1970s computers were just emerging, and I wanted to study computer-aided drafting and design. At the time, the program I wanted was offered mainly in California's Silicon Valley. I was tentatively accepted, but it was more than my family could afford.

Instead, I spent about a year and a half at the English CEGEP in Hull, now Heritage College, then took a range of courses at Algonquin College while working. I also sat in on classes at Carleton University and the University of Ottawa simply because I was curious and had the time. That habit stuck: I took night courses throughout my DND career and have continued with online and distance learning ever since.

Before DND

Before joining National Defence, I:

• Worked for several years in home renovation and construction.

• Spent about three years with Zellers, completing its store manager training program.

• Worked for a mineral and assay company, maintaining equipment for both its rock-crushing plant and its assay chemistry lab. I designed the company's new rock-crushing plant and storage facility, including its vacuum plenum system, and managed its construction.

National Defence (just under 30 years)

• Engineering in the Air Office. I began as an Electro-Mechanical Engineering Technician, working on everything from parachute designs and aircraft paint schemes to radio and weapons designs. Along the way I taught myself programming and took night courses in computing. I also built a management information system that the Air Offices used to manage all of their projects, and was trained on Intergraph's systems and applications.

• Moving into IM/IT. That work led to a transfer to the directorate's IM/IT section. There I helped manage its systems and applications and took part in rolling out its first T1/T3 network and a fibre optic link between facilities in the Ottawa–Gatineau region. I also helped implement the Service Desk supporting NDHQ and the entire ADM(Mat) division, and served for several years as its Technical Services Specialist.

• Canadian Forces Housing Agency. I then spent about 13 years with CFHA, the agency created to manage and maintain DND's military housing across Canada. I started as a database administrator, developer and server administrator for its Lotus Notes/Domino and Oracle systems, across Microsoft and Unix platforms. I also helped set up CFHA offices on Canadian Forces bases from coast to coast. Over time I became a security specialist. I hardened the agency's systems, including through ethical "white-hat" testing in an isolated lab, and spent about two years in IT governance. I also represented the agency at Treasury Board Secretariat and Government of Canada security forums and committees.

• HCM/FELEX Security Advisor. In 2008, I became Security Advisor for the Halifax Class Modernization / Frigate Life Extension project, the upgrade and refit of Canada's navy frigates and their test and training sites. My role covered every aspect of security across the project: contractor sites, physical security, application design and IM/IT. I worked on facilities and systems at every level from unclassified to highly classified. None of it would have been possible without the outstanding people on the project team, at the contractors, and in the project's leadership.

I retired in 2017.

Certifications

Over my career I earned certifications across a wide range of IM/IT areas, many of them in subjects I had first taught myself:

• Networking: network design, development, and management

• Server operating systems: VAX, AIX, Unix, Linux and Windows

• Application development: Lotus Notes/Domino, Oracle, and C/C++/C#, and more.

• Security: CISSP, maintained throughout my working career