Patrice Sabourin

Patrice joined the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) in his hometown of Quebec City. After a few years in the Air Cadets, he thought it would be a natural career choice. For the next five years, he studied Physics and Mathematics at College Militaire Royal in St-Jean. After completing his Communications and Electronics Engineering (CELE) training in Kingston, he was accepted into a postgraduate at institut national de recherche scientifique in Montréal. He had the privilege to work on the only Canadian tokamak. After completing his master’s degree, he was first posted to 71 communication group in St-Hubert. He was then posted for the first time to Ottawa to be employed as the Operations Officer for the National Services Management Center. Once promoted to Major, he had his first experience working in the project world and supported the implementation of Peoplesoft for recruitment. He was then posted to the Canadian Forces Network Operation Centre. He was then posted to 17 Wing Winnipeg as the Wing Telecommunications and Information Systems Officer. 

After a short 2-year posting, he was promoted to lLCol and then had two 1-year consecutive postings as the Technical Services Officer for Canadian Forces Support Ottawa and then to Toronto to attend the Joint Command and Staff College. In 2009, he got posted to Bagotville as the Wing Logistics and Engineering Officer. He was then posted for the last time to Ottawa in 2012 to the newly branded Directorate of Air Domain Development. 

Promoted to Colonel in 2014, he was posted to Director Cyber Force Development, the first in a series of postings where he would advocate for more investments in building a credible Cyber Force for the CAF. After commanding the Canadian Forces Information Operations Group, he was promoted to Brigadier General and started his first Director General position while also assuming the responsibilities of the Joint Forces Cyber Component Commander. Patrice completed his 36-year career in the CAF leading the newly branded Director General Information Capabilities Force Development. During his tenure, the Division was successful in being granted Expenditure Authority for all, but one Major Capital Project funded under Strong Secure Engaged and the insertion of new Capital Projects under NORAD Modernization. 

Patrice has had the privileged to serve Canada abroad in Afghanistan and in the Arctic at CFS Alert. His various jobs in IT Service Delivery and Cyber Security gave me the opportunity to travel Canada. He has had the opportunity to spearhead the development of the CAF Cyber Domain for the past nine years. It was particularly challenging to develop the first new domain for military operations in almost 100 years. It would not have been possible without the support of family, friends, colleagues and industry partners. 

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