Cercle canadien : Defense Panel

	Lindsey Kettel President Davie Shipyard Voir la bio
	Faith Rhodes COO and Canadian Market President Marconi Voir la bio
	Gaëlle Rivard Piché (Moderator) Executive Director Conference of Defence Associations Institute Voir la bio

Building Canada’s Industrial Sovereignty: Investing, Innovating, and Developing Talent for the Next Generation

Unprecedented investments in defence and industry are creating new opportunities for Canadian businesses. Discover how innovation, strategic partnerships, and the development of a highly skilled workforce can strengthen Canada’s competitiveness, support economic growth, and ensure long-term resilience. This session offers a practical perspective on the challenges and opportunities that will shape the future of Canadian industry.

Please note that the panel will be bilingual

Biography

Lindsey Kettel

Lindsey Kettel has been a key member of Davie’s senior management team since 2015. Initially joining as vice-president, business processes, she played a pivotal role in aligning Davie’s operations to support the successful delivery of CSS Asterix to the Royal Canadian Navy. Over the past decade, her responsibilities have steadily expanded, culminating in her appointment as President of Chantier Davie Canada Inc. in 2025.
Lindsey has been instrumental in shaping Davie’s strategic direction, notably through her leadership in securing Davie’s entry into Canada’s National Shipbuilding Strategy and driving the successful pursuit of the Polar Max contract.
As President, Lindsey oversees the operational execution of Davie’s corporate strategy and provides leadership across the company’s activities in Lévis, Montréal, and Ottawa. Her focus remains on advancing Davie’s role in Canada’s maritime sector and supporting the company’s continued growth and transformation.
Lindsey holds a Bachelor of Engineering and Management and an Executive MBA. She has been dedicated to the maritime construction, conversion, and repair industry since 2012, with prior experience at Babcock Canada and Seaspan Shipyards.

Faith Rhodes

Faith is the COO & Canadian Market President at Marconi Technologies. Marconi is a Canadian majority-owned and veteran-run, internationally operating defence technology company, headquartered in Montreal. Marconi designs, develops and builds field-deployable communication systems, with a supply chain that runs deeply across Canada, and notably Quebec and Ontario. Building on the legacy of Marconi Canada, the company draws upon more than 120 years of telecommunications innovation and technological leadership. Today, Marconi continues this tradition by developing advanced communication solutions that meet the demands of the defense and security markets, while showcasing Canadian expertise on the international stage.
Faith joined Marconi in 2021 with a mandate to develop the next generation of tactical radios while diversifying the product portfolio with beyond line-of-sight communication systems and maritime solutions. This mandate has since evolved to include a domestic focus on the Canadian market strategy and growth.
Before joining Marconi, Faith was an Associate Partner at EY, where she focused on Mergers and Acquisitions and prior to EY she was a Manager at CAE Inc., a global leader in the aerospace and defense sector, headquartered in Montreal.
Outside of Marconi, Faith is a board-member and mentor to women in leadership. She is a veteran of the Canadian Army, having served in Afghanistan as an Armoured Reconnaissance Troop Leader. She completed her undergrad at the Royal Military College of Canada, and her master’s degree in business administration at HEC Montreal.

Gaëlle Rivard Piché

Dr Gaëlle Rivard Piché is the Executive Director of the Conference of the Defence Associations (CDA) and the CDA Institute. With a doctoral degree in international affairs (Carleton University, 2017) and over a decade of professional experience in the Canadian defence and security sector, she combines operational expertise, strategic leadership, and extensive research experience.

Prior to CDAI, Gaëlle was a strategic analyst with Defence Research and Development Canada where she closely worked with the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command, and the North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado Springs. She is an affiliated expert with the European Center of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats and was a Fulbright research fellow in the International Security Program at the Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs (2014-2015).

Strong of her expertise on Arctic security and defence, hybrid threats, deterrence theory and practice, and Latin American and Caribbean security issues, Gaëlle has published in the Texas National Security Review, the Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs, the Canadian Foreign Policy Journal, International Journal, and Études internationales. She co-authored two books: Beyond the 60th Parallel: Canada's Special Operations Forces and Arctic Defence (with Nancy Teeple and Bradley Sylvestre, 2027) and the Newport Manual on Arctic Security (with Walter Berbrick and Michael Zimmerman, 2022).

Gaëlle also supports the education and professional development of military members and national security personnel as a lecturer at the Canadian Forces College and a training consultant with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Dedicated to fostering diversity in defence and national security, she was previously the co-chair of the Defense Women’s Advisory Organization’s U.S. chapter and Women in International Security – Canada.
 

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