Opening Ceremony Keynote Speaker: Wendy Gilmour
Former NATO Assistant Secretary General and Vice Chair of the CDA Institute
Wendy Gilmour served for 34 years in Canada’s foreign affairs and national defence departments, including: on secondment to NATO as Assistant Secretary General, Defence Investment; Canada’s High Commissioner (Ambassador) to Pakistan; Director General Trade and Export Controls; and Director General International and Industry Programs and Deputy National Armaments Director. She also served in Canadian diplomatic missions abroad in Zimbabwe, the United Kingdom and Nigeria; and on international peace operations missions in the Office of the High Representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and as a Political Advisor (POLAD) to the first three Commanders of NATO’s Kosovo Force in Pristina, Kosovo.
Post 9/11, she was assigned to the Canadian Joint Task Force South-west Asia in US CENTCOM, and subsequently to Ottawa as Director Peace Operations, i.a. supporting Canada’s deployment to ISAF, with responsibility for the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and as Director Sudan, with responsibility for Canadian support for the peace process in Darfur and South Sudan. She also served as POLAD to the Commander North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) in Colorado Springs, USA. Ms. Gilmour holds a BA (Honours) in Political Studies and History from Queen’s University at Kingston, and served in the Canadian Forces Primary Reserve as a Logistics Officer.
Closing Ceremony Keynote Speaker: Kerry Lynn Nankivell
Kerry Lynn Nankivell assumed the role of Director, NATO and Europe in the Policy Group of Canada’s Department of National Defence in April 2024. Her responsibilities include managing Canada’s defence policy and relationships with NATO, G7, the EU, Ukraine and 49 other bilateral partners across Europe, including the UK, Germany, France, and others.
Dr. Nankivell has more than 20 years in national security and defence with broad experience in both government and academia. At the Department of National Defence Headquarters, she previously served as the Director of Strategic Assessments, while in prior roles across government, she was a Deputy Director in the National Security and Intelligence Advisor’s Intelligence Assessment Secretariat at the Privy Council Office, and a senior analyst with the National Security team at Public Safety Canada. From 2008 – 2018, she worked as a defence academic with the U.S. Department of Defence’s Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies based in Honolulu, HI. She is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Corbett Centre for Maritime Policy Studies at King’s College London.
Dr. Nankivell earned a PhD in Defence Studies from King’s College London, MPhil in International Studies from Cambridge University, UK, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with International Relations from the University of British Columbia.
She lives in Ottawa with her husband and three children.