Executive Certificate in Defence Market Strategy
The Opportunity
Canada has committed to sustained growth in defence spending and to an industrial strategy that favours Canadian suppliers and dual-use technology. For many commercial companies, defence is now one of the largest growth markets in the country — and one most leadership teams do not know how to enter. They hit the same four barriers: an unfamiliar vocabulary and culture, opaque structures for who buys and influences, long rules-driven procurement pathways, and no disciplined way to decide which opportunity is worth pursuing.
Certificate Summary
- Course Length: Five-day executive intensive
- Format: In-person
- Class Schedule: February 15 – 19, 2027
- Where: CU@Kanata, 350 Legget Drive
Understand
How Canadian defence buys — the five stakeholders at every table, the compliance floor, and how a requirement becomes a contract.
Dual-use application discovery
In working groups, identify a dual-use technology or solution, map its defence use case, and build an approach plan into the defence market.
Meet the field
A primes fireside, industry lead and one-to-one office hours — leaving with a tested plan and real conversations.
In partnership with:
Who Should Attend
CEOs, founders, VPs and senior business-development and strategy leaders of Canadian companies in software, AI, advanced manufacturing, telecommunications, security, sensing, space and related fields. A small number of seats are held for senior public servants and CAF members who work with industry. Entry is by application, to build a mixed, high-value cohort.
Learning Outcomes
- Working fluency in how Canadian defence buys — the five stakeholders at every table, and how a requirement moves from need to contract.
- A clear view of the compliance floor: regulation, data and AI governance, controlled goods, export controls and contracting structures.
- Direct access: a primes fireside, sessions with industry leaders, a site visit and scheduled one-to-one office hours.
- A cohort of peers and a practitioner network, with a path into L-SPARK’s year-round defence and dualuse programming.
What Makes It Different
Built around a group project: working groups identify a dual-use technology or solution, map its defence use case and build an approach plan into the defence market. Applied rather than lecturebased; built around access to buyers, primes and investors; a small selected cohort; and continuity after the week through L-SPARK. About a third of the program is delivered by outside voices — candid, practitioner-to-practitioner, on public information, and free of pitching.
Interested in Learning more?
Executive Certificate in Defence Market Strategy
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