Mike Mullane

Former Space Shuttle Astronaut

Col Mullane was a child of the space race and embarked on his own rocket experiments at an early age. He holds a Master’s of Science Degree in Aeronautical Engineering. Upon his graduation, he was commissioned in the United States Air Force. As a Weapon Systems Operator aboard RF-4C Phantom aircraft, he completed 134 combat missions. Mullane was selected as a Mission Specialist in the first group of Space Shuttle Astronauts where he completed three space missions before retiring from NASA and the Air Force.

Since his retirement, he has authored some popular books like Liftoff! An Astronaut’s Dream, Do Your Ears Pop in Space? and Riding Rockets: The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut. Colonel Mullane has established himself as an acclaimed professional speaker and has educated, entertained, inspired and thrilled tens of thousands of people from every walk of business and government with his incredibly unique programs.

Col Mullane has been conferred with many awards, including the Air Force Distinguished Flying Cross, Legion of Merit and the NASA Space Flight Medal.

Troy Crosby

Director General Defence Major Projects Sector

Troy Crosby retired from the Canadian Forces in 2008 after a 23-year career during which he served as Senior Maintenance Manager at the Aerospace Engineering Test Establishment, and Weapon System Manager and Project Manager for Tactical and Medium Altitude Long Endurance Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. Troy assumed his current role with Public Services and Procurement Canada in June 2017 as Director General, Defence Major Projects Sector.

As a civilian, Troy has served as the Director of Operational Services at the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, and the Project Manager of the Next Generation Fighter Capability Project in the Department of National Defence. He was appointed as Director General, Major Project Delivery (Air), overseeing project managers charged with the acquisition and delivery of major weapon systems for the Royal Canadian Air Force. In September 2015, major acquisition projects in support of the Canadian Army were added to the portfolio and the division was renamed Director General Major Project Delivery (Air and Land).

He is a graduate of the Collège militaire royal de St-Jean (BSc), the University of Tennessee (MSc), the Empire Test Pilots’ School and the Canadian Forces Command and Staff College.

Roch Huppe

Comptroller General of Canada

Roch Huppé was appointed Comptroller General of Canada effective October 23, 2017.

As Comptroller General of Canada he is responsible for government-wide direction and leadership for financial management, internal audit, federal assets and acquired services (project management). He also leads the Enabling Functions Transformation for the Government of Canada, including the Financial Management Transformation.

Mr. Huppé entered the public service in 1992 when he joined Global Affairs Canada and where he held various positions within the Financial Services Division. Prior to being appointed Comptroller General, Mr. Huppé occupied the role of Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Commissioner, Finance and Administration Branch at the Canada Revenue Agency. He has also been the Chief Financial Officer at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, where he ensured sound financial management and provided leadership on all corporate planning, risk management and evaluation functions.

Mr. Huppé holds a bachelor’s degree in Finance from the Université du Québec, a Masters in Public Administration from l’École nationale d’administration publique de Gatineau and is a Certified General Accountant as well as a Chartered Professional Accountant.

Claude Rochette

Assistant Deputy Minister (Finance)/Chief Financial Officer, Department of National Defence

Mr. Rochette was appointed Assistant Deputy Minister (Finance) / Chief Financial Officer of National Defence (DND). In this capacity, he serves as the strategic financial advisor to the Deputy Minister and the Investment and Resource Management Committee. Prior to joining DND, Claude was the Vice-President, Comptrollership Branch and Chief Financial Officer at the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the Director General of Finance and Chief Financial Officer at the Communications Security Establishment (CSE). 

Claude joined the Canadian Armed Forces in 1984. He served in a number of senior executive positions and retired as the Comptroller of the Canadian Armed Forces and Deputy Chief Finance Officer of National Defence in 2010.

In May 2015, Claude was declared winner of the 2015 Award of Excellence in Public Sector Financial Management – Financial Leadership (CFO) awarded by the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada.

Lisa Kimmel

President & CEO, Edelman Canada

As President and CEO of Edelman Canada Lisa’s fresh, collaborative and authentic approach has resulted in award-winning programs for clients. Lisa is a member of Edelman’s Global Management Team, and was recently named chair of Edelman’s Global Women’s Executive Network (GWEN), championing programs and policies to help Edelman reach its global target of a 50/50 split in male/female leadership by 2020. She has also been inducted into the Women’s Executive Network (WXN) Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada Hall of Fame

Lisa is Vice Chair of the Ted Rogers School of Management (TRSM) Dean’s Council at Ryerson University, and sits on the Board of Directors for The Harbourfront Centre and Speed Skating Canada. Passionate about supporting future leaders, she is actively involved with mentorship programs through the Women’s Executive Network, American Marketing Association and Women in Communications and Technology (WCT).

Alan Mayer

Strategic Business Development, General Dynamics Mission Sytems, Treasurer- ICEAA Canada Chapter

Alan is the current Treasurer of ICEAA Canada and recipient of ICEAAs “Parametrician of the Year “award.  He started his career working on the space shuttle, runs his own program management consulting firm and is currently employed by General Dynamics.  He is currently changing the business development culture to be more efficient, win more often and execute closer to plan using performance metrics, price to win and pricing strategies.  He is quite fond of the PRICE, SEER and ProPricer estimating tools.

Juaná S. Collymore PMP, PSP, CCEA

Senior Operations Research Analyst, Government Accountability Office (GAO), Washington DC

Juaná Collymore is a senior schedule and cost analyst for GAO’s Center for Technology and Engineering, where she is responsible for evaluating cost processes and performing schedule analyses generated by programs across a myriad of federal agencies. She has over 19 years’ experience in the fields of schedule estimating and technology auditing.

Before joining the GAO, Juaná was a Master Scheduler with Chevo Consulting, where she provided subject matter expertise in proper scheduling for major federal IT investments, including the Affordable Care Act. Before IT consulting, she managed schedules and project controls for various local major construction projects including the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, Dulles and National Airports and Fort Belvoir Community Hospital. She has contributed to the development of several GAO best practices guides including the Cost Estimating and Assessment Guide, the Schedule Assessment Guide, and the Agile Development and Implementation Guide (coming soon).

Juaná has a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Howard University and a Masters of Cost Estimating and Analysis from the Naval Postgraduate School.

François Levesque

CCEA A/Manager, Department of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada

François has been working as a cost analyst since 2009, with a specialty in Activity Based Costing and Planning. Over 28 years of experience as a financial analyst within several departments of the Federal Government help him tremendously with estimates. 

He has a Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting Sciences from l’Université du Québec à Hull and is a Certified Cost Estimator/Analyst. 

He also is the A/Manager of INAC’s Costing Centre of Expertise, an organization responsible for developing cost estimation policy, tools and guidance for the department, in support of the CFO attestation process. The Centre is also responsible for:

• The establishment of a departmental costing community;
• Workshops and training sessions for this community;
• The new, integrated, departmental costing template;
• The internal services costing model;
• Assisting financial analysts in their costing challenge functions;
• Assisting programs in their costing functions

Ian Brown

Director of Operations and Systems Analysis, Galorath, Inc

Ian Brown currently serves as the Director of Operations and Systems Analysis for Galorath, Inc. Prior to joining Galorath, he spent almost 20 years at Booz Allen Hamilton leading the firm's Systems Estimation Capability. There he specialized in software measurement and analysis, systems estimation, software sizing, parametric analysis, and goal-question-metric (GQM) implementation. He has generated cost and schedule estimates and cost risk analyses on hundreds of software development and enhancement projects.

A Certified Function Point Specialist from 2001 – 2009, Ian served on the Board of Directors of the International Function Point Users Group (IFPUG) from 2004-2007. Ian earned a bachelors degree from Cornell University and a master degree in public policy from Harvard University. He has published articles on the topic of software estimation and measurement and has been a featured speaker on the topic at numerous international conferences.

Ian was also a contributing editor to Dan Galorath’s 2005 book Software Sizing, Estimation, and Risk Management: When Performance is Measured Performance Improves.

Chris Gauer

President- Major Projects, Infrastrcuture Ontario

Chris has almost 40 years’ experience working in the transportation field working on a wide range of major civil engineering projects. Since coming to IO in 2014, he led the Highways team and the Civil Roads and Transit group. Project initiatives include the Rt. Hon. Herb Gray Parkway in Windsor and the Highway 407 Extensions for MTO along with the Metrolinx LRT projects and the Go Regional Express Rail Electrification.

His experience prior to IO over the past 20 years includes consulting work for private sector P3 project delivery and advising major government agencies in alternative delivery. Chris played a major role delivering major P3 highways in New Brunswick, the first Highway 407 expansion in Ontario and the Edmonton Anthony Henday Ring Road. As a P3 advisor, Chris worked with York Region on the Viva BRT and the Province of Manitoba on the CentrePort Canada Way project. Chris is a Professional Engineer in licensed Ontario and a Value Engineer Practitioner.

Lisa Campbell

Associate Deputy Minister, Veterans Affairs Canada

Lisa Campbell is Associate Deputy Minister, Veterans Affairs Canada. Previously, she was Assistant Deputy Minister, Defence and Marine Procurement, Public Services and Procurement, leading the organization providing military and marine procurement solutions for Canada. Ms. Campbell worked at Canada’s competition authority as Senior Deputy Commissioner responsible for reviewing mergers and business conduct. She also enforced civil and criminal laws for truth in advertising.

Ms. Campbell has litigation experience in the private and public sectors, in the areas of criminal, employment and constitutional law. She obtained a B.A. in Political Science from McGill University (1988), an LL.B. from Dalhousie Law School (1991), and regularly presents and writes about law and technology issues.  Proud parent of Madelon and Alex, Ms. Campbell is an avid outdoor sports enthusiast and supporter of community organizations.

Rick Collins

Technical Director, Technomics Inc.

Rick Collins is Technical Director and former President/CEO of Technomics, Inc., an employee-owned consulting firm offering a range of decision analytics services to the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Energy, Government Accountability Office and other U.S. Government clients, as well the Canadian DnD and Coast Guard. He has more than 38 years cost analysis experience, including 27 years in the private sector (9 at SAIC in the 80s and nearly 18 at Technomics) and 11 years in the Department of Navy (DON), specifically the Naval Center for Cost Analysis (NCCA).

Rick’s experience encompasses a varied mix of applied cost estimating and cost research projects covering most weapon system commodities and all U.S. Military Departments. He has been privileged to mentor and collaborate with some of the best and brightest cost analysts in the private and public sectors.  In 2010 he was awarded the ICEAA National Estimator/Analyst of the Year Award for Contributions in Management. In1998 he was awarded the DON Superior Civilian Service Award for his accomplishments coordinating DON cost research. He is currently a member of the ICEAA Board of Directors.   .

Rick has a master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Economics.  He completed a coast-to-coast bicycle trip from Washington to Maine last summer.

Brian Gifford

Senior Manager - Price Support Directorate, Acquisitions Branch, Public Services Procurement Canada

Brian Gifford is Senior Manager with Price Support Directorate, Acquisitions Branch, Public Services Procurement Canada. He is a Chartered Accountant, CA-CPA, and Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) with 35 years’ experience serving the public sector.  His experience includes Consulting & Audit Canada and KPMG, as a senior manager, and 5 years as a Chief Audit Executive.  Engagements ranged broadly and were conducted at over 30 different federal departments and agencies. 

Brian joined Acquisitions Branch in September 2008 tasked with the renewal of the Cost & Profit Assurance Program, a program designed to validate claims for payment on defence contracts. He is currently leading the work in Response to the review of Canada’s contract cost principles and profit policy. His latest work includes development of a Practitioners’ Guide for Pricing and an organizational study being conducted by KPMG to recommend management structure to support ongoing oversight and renewal of PSPC’s pricing practices.

Peter Braxton

Subject Matter Expert, Technomics Inc.

Peter J. Braxton is a Senior Cost Analyst at Technomics, where he currently serves on the Training and Outreach Team for the Cost Assessment Data Enterprise (CADE). He has also supported the Air Force Cost Analysis Agency, Naval Center for Cost Analysis, and Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army – Cost and Economics on data collection and cost research efforts, and Defense Acquisition University on curriculum development. Peter led the development of the Cost Estimating Body of Knowledge and has been recognized by ICEAA for Service to Society (2013) and Education (2007).

Dale Sherman BA, CDip(A&F), CCEA-P, CEng MIET, FACostE, MAPM

Managing Consultant-Cost & Risk, QinetiQ

Dale Shermon is a Cost Engineering in QinetiQ Advisory Service (AS). Dale has conducted consulting assignments in UK, Switzerland, Italy, France, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands. He was responsible for the creation of the Knowledge Based Estimating (KBE) philosophy, Cost Engineering Health Check (CEHC) and the TruePlanning for Concepts methodology.

Dale was co-author of the “Cost Engineering Health Check: How good are those numbers?”, A Gower book published in 2017 (ISBN: 978-1-4724-8407-9) and the author of the Gower publication “Systems Cost Engineering” (ISBN: 978-0-566-08861-2) which was published in July 2009.

Dale was the first European to become an ISPA Certified Parametric Practitioner in 2003 and gained ICEAA Certified Cost Estimator / Analysis in 2015. He was the first European to be awarded the ICEAA Frank Freiman award in 2009 for “lifetime contributions to parametric estimating”. PRICE Systems Parametrician of the Year 2013.

Keith D. Hornbacher 

Senior Associate Hulett & Associates, LLC​​​​​​​

Keith D. Hornbacher, MBA, is Senior Associate, Hulett & Associates, LLC, and is the Principal Consultant, Hornbacher & Associates.  As an Affiliated Faculty member, University of Pennsylvania (Organizational Dynamics Graduate Studies, School of Arts and Sciences), he delivers seminars in quantitative project risk analysis methods, tools and management.  Three decade’s experience includes roles of vice president and managing consultant in the firm that pioneered Monte Carlo simulation of project risk.  North American programs where he deployed integrated cost-schedule risk analysis include aerospace/defense advanced tactical fighters and the offshore oil platform, Hibernia.

As a Hulett sub-consultant, his project experience ranges from Canadian oil sands mining and bridge re-decking logistics to schedule/risk analysis for the US GAO and NASA.  He applies and teaches the “risk factors” method described by Dr. David T. Hulett in his professional papers and books. Mr. Hornbacher often shares his experience with professional service organizations and educational institutions.

Julie Ireton 

Sr. Reporter, CBC Radio, TV Canada

Julie Ireton is a Senior Reporter for CBC in Ottawa, filing to cbc.ca, radio and TV for regional and network programming. During her years at CBC, Julie has received several awards for her original and enterprise journalism. She's also a two-time recipient of the Michner-Deacon Fellowship for Journalism. For the past two years, Julie has been investigating and reporting on the Phoenix payroll system failure, trying to get to the bottom of what happened and how Canadians are being affected. 

Joe Bauer

Solution Consultant, PRICE Systems Inc.

Joe Bauer is a Solutions Consultant with PRICE Systems.  Joe joined PRICE after twenty years of service in the US Air Force.  He is the primary technical support for Air Force customers, providing training, mentoring, and consulting in parametric estimation and data analysis.  He earned a Master of Science degree in Cost Analysis in 2009 from the Air Force Institute of Technology and an MBA in 2005.  Joe is a Certified Cost Estimator / Analyst (CCEA) with International Cost Estimating and Analysis Association (ICEAA).

Erin K. Barkel

Manager-Costing Policy and Training, Costing Centre of Expertise, Treasury Board Secretariat

Erin is a Manager at the Costing Centre of Expertise (CCE) where she is responsible for policy, training, and special projects in support of cost estimating across the Government of Canada. Prior to joining the CCE, Erin worked at the Parliamentary Budget Office and the Department of Finance where she produced and analyzed cost estimates for major defence acquisitions. A Certified Cost Estimator/Analyst®, Erin serves on both the international and Canadian boards of the International Cost Estimating and Analysis Association (ICEAA) and is a frequent presenter at ICEAA conferences and workshops. Erin holds a BASC in Industrial Engineering from the University of Toronto and an MBA from the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University.

Peter Weltman

Sr. Director- Costing and Analysis, Parliamentary Budget Office(PBO)

Peter has over 25 years of experience in business management and investment analysis. He is the President of the Canadian Chapter of  the International Association of Cost Estimating and Analysis (ICEEA). Within the government, Peter has held positions of varying degrees of responsibility with Industry Canada, Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) and the Treasury Board Secretariat. Peter came to the PBO from HRSDC, and prior to that, worked with an analytical team at the Treasury Board Secretariat engaged in the due diligence and oversight of major government-wide projects and fiscal pressures. Prior to joining the federal government, Peter spent a number of years as an investment analyst and financial advisor and has extensive experience in small business management, having held a variety of positions with a locally-owned food retailer.

Peter has an Honours BA in Political Science from the University of Western Ontario, and an MBA from the University of Ottawa.