Naval Engineer
Donald (Don) Wilson is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Marine Engineers and a former Royal Canadian Navy Chief Engineer. He began his professional career in 1954 as a Naval Cadet and retired from the Canadian Forces as a Navy Captain in 1986. During his period of service, he had a broad range of employment including overseeing the building of HMCS HURON and commissioning this new destroyer as the ship’s Engineering Officer. He also was the Commanding Officer of 2 Canadian Forces Technical Services Agency in Montreal from late 1982 to 1985.
Don was appointed to the Public Service of Canada as the Director General Quality Assurance in the Department of National Defence at the beginning of 1986 where he was responsible for the acceptance of most new equipment and the overhaul of in-service materiel for DND and for the US Department of Defence across Canada.
In September 1992, Don joined the Canadian General Standards Board (CGSB) as Chief Executive Officer. CGSB was then a provider of standards development, product certification and quality management system registration services to the public and private sectors.
In the summer of 1994, he retired from the Public Service after 40 years’ service.
Don is a member of the Professional Engineers of Ontario and the Canadian Institute of Marine Engineering (CIMarE). He is a Charter Member of CIMarE when the Institute was formed in 1976 and has held several positions on the CIMarE Council and in four of the Institute’s Branches from Victoria to Halifax, Montreal and Ottawa.
Don was one of the CIMarE members who established the Institute’s Mari-Tech annual technical conferences – gatherings hosted successively by all seven Institute Branches. The first event took place in Halifax in 1979 with the 40th event being hosted by the Ottawa Branch in 2019.
Jeffery J. Smith
(Co-Chair)
Professor and Lawyer
Jeffrey Smith is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Marine Engineering and a former Royal Canadian Navy Chief Engineer. Before becoming a law professor, he was counsel to the United Nations for law of the sea matters. Jeffrey’s current areas of research include marine safety, ocean environmental protection, and the effectiveness of global shipping governance. He advises marine classification societies on shipping legislation and the implementation of the NATO Naval Ship Code and was advisor to the government of Canada for contract matters in the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy (now the National Shipbuilding Strategy). Jeffrey’s recent publications include assessments of the Polar Code for Shipping and reviews of the IMO regime to regulate air pollution.
Derek Hughes
CanPM Consulting Inc.
Derek Hughes, CanPM Consulting Inc., is a senior project manager and retired military officer [35 years in Canadian Submarines and Canadian Patrol Frigates (CPFs)] with a range of experience in complex program management, marine engineering and complex systems engineering.
Marie-Claude Bureau
CMP
Senior Event Manager & Founder
Maestro Conference and Event Management Inc.
Marie-Claude is a Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) and has 20 years of experience in coordination and management positions and more than 15 years in event management. She has extensive experience in planning and successfully executing a wide range of events in North America, South America and Europe, including annual conferences, members’ meetings, symposiums, and international commemorative ceremonies.
Marie-Claude has in-depth expertise in registration, exhibition, promoting clients’ events to their target clientele, and guiding sponsors to maximize return on their partnership investments.
Marie-Claude is fluently bilingual, which allows her to work in both official languages without hesitation.
Marie-Claude holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing and International Management from Université de Montréal, École des Hautes Études Commerciales, Montreal, QC, as well as an Event Management certificate from La Cité Collégiale. She is an active member of CanSPEP and was vice-chair of the 2016 Annual Conference.
