Symposium Speakers Short Bios
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SYMPOSIUM SPEAKERS SHORT BIOS James BEZAN Member of Parliament for SELKIRK-INTERLAKE, Canada Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence, Canada Mr. Bezan was raised on a farm near Inglis, Manitoba and is a graduate of Olds College in Alberta. Mr. Bezan and his wife Kelly have three daughters; Cortney, Taylor, and Cassidy, and live on a farm by Teulon, Manitoba. Mr. Bezan is a member of the Teulon and District Lions Club and his family is active in their church. In addition to being a cattle producer, Mr. Bezan has held various positions in agri- businesses, as well as owning an export and consulting company. On June 28th, 2004, Mr. Bezan was first elected to the House of Commons in the 38th Parliament as a Conservative Member of Parliament to represent the riding of Selkirk- Interlake. During his time in Opposition, Mr. Bezan held the positions of Associate Agriculture Critic and Executive Member of the Canada-Europe Parliamentary Association. With the support of his constituents, Mr. Bezan was re-elected on January 23rd, 2006, October 14, 2008 and on May 2, 2011 to represent Selkirk-Interlake for four consecutive terms. Mr. Bezan is proud to be a member of the Conservative Government lead by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. As a member of government Mr. Bezan has served as Chair of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food; Chair of the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development; Chair of the Manitoba Conservative Caucus; Chair of the Canadian Section of the Inter-Parliamentary Forum of the Americas (FIPA); and Secretary of the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Group. In first session of the 41st Parliament, Mr. Bezan served as the Chair of the Standing Committee on National Defence, and was re-elected as the Secretary of the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Group and executive member for the Canadian Section of ParlAmericas. During the 41st Parliament, James founded the Canadian Parliamentarians for Democracy and Human Rights in Iran, which is an all party group. Member of Parliament Bezan was presented the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012. On September 19, 2013, Mr. Bezan was appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence. He began the 2nd session of the 41st Parliament with this role. 1 Prof Dr Sven BISCOP Director of the Europe in the World Programme Royal Institute for International Relations-Egmont, Belgium Prof. Dr. Sven Biscop obtained his degree in political science/public administration at Ghent University (Belgium) in 1998, winning the best thesis award for his work on European defence. Awarded the Paul-Henri Spaak PhD scholarship of the Fund for Scientific Research – Flanders, he defended his dissertation in 2002, published as Euro-Mediterranean Security: A Search for Partnership (Ashgate, 2003). Currently he is the director of the Europe in the World programme at Egmont – the Royal Institute for International Relations, the think tank associated with Belgian Foreign Affairs, which he joined in 2002. His research focuses on the foreign, security and defence policy of the European Union and its Member States. Sven also teaches, at Ghent University (since 2003) and at the College of Europe in Bruges (since 2007). He represents Egmont in the Higher Studies in Security and Defence, a course for security practitioners organized with the Belgian Royal Higher Institute for Defence, and is a member of the Executive Academic Board of the EU’s European Security and Defence College (ESDC). Sven chairs the jury of the annual European Defence Agency – Egmont PhD Prize in European Defence, Security & Strategy. With Richard Whitman, Sven co-edits the European Strategy & Security book series for Routledge. He is the editor-in-chief of Egmont’s journal Studia Diplomatica and its Egmont Papers, and a member of the editorial board of the journals Internationale Spectator (Netherlands), European Security (UK), and The International Organisations Research Journal (Russia). Born in Willebroek (Belgium) on 10 February 1976, Sven now lives in Brussels with his husband Aberu, amid a great many books, military paraphernalia, and chinoiseries. Unfortunately they travel too often to keep a cat. 2 Richard COHEN President of RSC Strategic Connections Inc. Former Senior Defence Advisor to the Minister of National Defence Richard Cohen is President of RSC Strategic Connections Inc. This independent company provides political and operational advice and planning to the private sector on a wide range defence and security matters. Richard is a graduate the Royal Military College, Kingston, with a degree in Chemical Engineering. Richard was Cadet Wing Commander (head cadet) for his final year at RMC and received the Sword of Honour. Following graduation, Richard was awarded an Earl of Athlone Fellowship by the British Board of Trade to study for his Master’s degree in Nuclear Engineering at Imperial College, London. Richard is a graduate of the Canadian Land Forces Command and General Staff College, the Joint Services Defence College, Greenwich, and the NATO Defence College, Rome. From 1990-1991, as a British Army exchange instructor, he was Director of the Basic Tactics Course at the US Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Richard’s last appointment in the British Army was as Chief of the Military Cooperation Branch at NATO Headquarters, in Brussels. He founded and chaired NATO’s Military Cooperation Working Group which brought together senior representatives from all NATO and Partner nations. Richard returned to Canada in 2003 to found an independent defence and security advisory firm, RSC Strategic Connections, with Canadian and international clients. Richard also worked closely with the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI), primarily in the security area. In 2007, Richard joined the Office of the Minister of National Defence as Minister Peter MacKay’s Senior Defence Advisor. He served in this appointment until July 2011. Richard accompanied the Minister of National Defence on many overseas and Canadian visits and meetings. He advised the minister on a variety of issues including: the Canada First Defence Strategy; Canadian Forces involvement in Afghanistan, the air campaign over Libya and other international operations; defence policy in the Arctic; policy on major defence procurement issues; Canada-US defence cooperation; NATO and international bilateral defence relationships; domestic and international disaster relief operations; CF support to Public Safety and other government departments; National Search and Rescue policy; and DND legal and policy issues in Quebec and the Western Provinces, including energy exploitation on DND lands. In July 2011 Richard returned to the private sector. He is married to Eva Carina Cohen. They have two sons; Robin (8) and Julian (6). Richard speaks French, German, and Gurkhali. His hobbies include riding, mountain biking, skating, roller blading, cross country skiing, swimming, breeding and training Hanoverian horses and the occasional game of hockey! 3 Ambassador Marie-Anne CONINSX Head of Delegation of the European Union to Canada Marie-Anne Coninsx is the Ambassador of the European Union to Canada. She began her posting as the European Union's top diplomat in Canada in September 2013, after serving four years as Ambassador of the European Union to Mexico. Ambassador Coninsx has been an official of the European Union since 1984. She started her career in the European Commission at the Legal Service. During 12 consecutive years, she was Staff Member in the Cabinets of 3 Commissioners, dealing respectively with: External Relations and External Trade; with Internal Market and Relations with the European Parliament (EP); and with Development Policy. Ambassador Coninsx has an extensive experience dealing with multilateral issues, having served as Minister-Counsellor at the EU Delegation in New York (US) and thereafter in Geneva (CH). Prior to her posting in Mexico, Marie-Anne Coninsx worked at the External Relations Department at HQ, overseeing relations between the European Union and Latin America (from 2004 to 2009). Ambassador Coninsx studied law at Gent University in Belgium and did post-graduate studies specialising in international law and European law respectively at Cambridge University (UK) and at European University Centre in Nancy (France). Ambassador Coninsx is Belgian and her interests include painting, travelling and sports. She is fluent in Dutch, French, English, German and Spanish; and understand basics of Portuguese and Italian. Pierre DELESTRADE President and CEO, EADS Canada Inc. AIRBUS Group Pierre Delestrade, born in October 1957, has joined the AIRBUS Group in 2008 and been appointed as President & Chief Executive Officer of the AIRBUS Group Corporate office in Canada (EADS Canada Inc.). He has been based in Ottawa since this appointment. Prior to assuming this position, Pierre Delestrade has served for DASSAULT-AVIATION for more than 17 years where he worked for the Military and Civil Division. 4 His career began in 1982 with AEROSPATIALE where he worked for the Helicopter Division as an Engineer in charge of developing Fly By Wire control systems for Helicopters. He managed for more than 3 years the European “Active Control Technology” program involving concurrently Germany (MBB), Italy (AGUSTA) and UK (WESTLAND). He then joined DASSAULT-AVIATION in 1991 as a Flight Test Engineer for the RAFALE