Current Canadian Space Agency (CSA) President Sylvain Laporte’s extended term will come to an end on September 8, 2020. With less than a month to go before his term expires, will a replacement be named before he leaves? Or will an acting president be named as has happened many times in the history of the agency?
The search began in March shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic was declared. Laporte’s term was to have ended on March 8th but the CSA told SpaceQ at the time that “to ensure continuity in leadership of the Canadian Space Agency during the appointment process, M. Laporte’s appointment has been extended for six months.”
We should find out soon who will replace Laporte, whether an acting president is named or someone is selected. One thing is for sure, Laporte’s six month extension likely won’t be extended any further. In an email to SpaceQ, the Privy Council Office said “the current Order in Council will see Mr. Laporte’s term end on September 8, 2020.” While it is possible a new Order in Council is issued, Laporte has made it clear to SpaceQ he was leaving in September.
In an interview with SpaceQ in April, Laporte said one of the reasons why he was extending his term was to be “around while they do the competition so that I can move the critical files forward ” and to “provide some continuity when the new president shows up.” He also stated that he wanted to provide the “necessary debriefs” and “discussions so that the person doesn’t start from scratch.”
An orderly transition is important. In its history the CSA has had almost as many acting presidents as presidents. The issue with acting presidents is that no new programs can start. They act as caretakers until such a time as a new president is appointed. With Laporte leaving in September, and decisions on the fiscal year 2021-22 budget coming this fall, it’s critical to have a new president installed as soon as possible.
There is one name in the mix that SpaceQ has heard of, but so far has been unable to confirm. That of Luc Gagnon, the current Vice President Engineering at Intelerad Medical Systems. Prior to joining Intelerad, Gagnon was the first Chief Technology Officer at Shared Services Canada.
He writes in his LinkedIn profile about his experience the following: “Bringing 25 years of experience in the signal processing, healthcare informatics and telecommunication industries, with a deep understanding of telecommunication, cloud infrastructure, devops, cybersecurity, cryptography, software development, image processing, and artificial intelligence in speech recognition.”