KEYNOTES
.png)
President, Boeing Canada and Boeing Canada Operations Ltd.
AL MEINZINGER
Al Meinzinger joined the Boeing Global team in June 2024 as president of Boeing Canada and Boeing Canada Operations Ltd.
​
As the country leader for Canada, Meinzinger leads Boeing’s business interests across the country, which include nearly 2,000 full-time employees, 500+ Boeing suppliers, and all Boeing commercial airplanes and defence aircraft.
​
Meinzinger also provides leadership oversight of Boeing Canada’s community sponsorships and company contributions programs. Meinzinger’s ongoing priorities include defence procurement, supplier discovery, sustainable aviation, and key innovation, research and development opportunities in Canadian industry and academia.
​
Meinzinger is a former Commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), most recently serving as its longest-serving Commander in the last 60 years. In this role, he was responsible for providing the Canadian government with effective air and space capabilities to meet national defence requirements and led one of the branch's largest modernization efforts.
​
Prior to joining Boeing, Meinzinger held various RCAF leadership positions, including Director of Strategic Joint Staff and Deputy Commander, in addition to being Commandant of the Royal Military College of Canada. He also served in the U.S. as a member of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Northern Command where he was instrumental in refreshing its national Arctic strategy, and in Afghanistan as Canada’s Air Wing Commander where he oversaw the delivery of air capabilities in theatre.
​
Meinzinger is a graduate of the Royal Military College of Canada and Queen’s University.
DEFENCE SPEAKERS
.png)
President, Canadian Global Affairs Institute
DAVID PERRY
Dr. David Perry is the President of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, host of the institute’s Defence Deconstructed Podcast and a co-director of the Triple Helix MINDs Collaborate Network. He is the author of multiple publications related to defence budgeting, transformation and procurement and a columnist for the Canadian Naval Review.
He received his PhD in political science from Carleton University where his dissertation examined the link between defence budgeting and defence procurement. He is an adjunct professor at the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary and a research fellow of the Centre for the Study of Security and Development at Dalhousie University. He was previously the Senior Security and Defence Analyst of the Conference of Defence Associations Institute and Deputy Director of Dalhousie University’s Centre for Foreign Policy Studies. Embassy Magazine and The Hill Times has named him one of the "Top 100 Influencing Canadian Foreign Policy.”