Friday, June 19, 8:45 am – 9:45 am
National Cybersecurity Consortium 2026 Conference
BRIDGING SECTORS
SECURING CANADA
Panel: Defense Industrial Strategy: Challenges and Opportunities in Cyber with the Canadian Armed Forces
Canada’s evolving defence, AI, and procurement strategies have created a critical window to align CAF cyber investments with national innovation capacity. This panel explores how defence spending can accelerate dual-use research, build secure domestic infrastructure, and develop the talent pipelines needed for long-term cyber readiness. It asks how partnership models across academia, industry, and other innovation agencies can translate military needs into additional ecosystem capability.
Thank you to the University of Calgary and the University of Waterloo for sponsoring this panel and supporting this opportunity.
Daniel Blanc is a retired senior military Officer with 38 years of service. He has served various positions in all three Battalions of his Regiment and has been deployed on global operations.
After serving as an Infantry Company Commander in 2004, he spent the next eight years in Canadian Special Operations Forces Command. He returned to Ottawa in the Strategic Joint Staff in 2015 and was appointed as the first Director of the newly established Directorate of National Security.
From 2021 until 2025, Colonel Blanc served as the Chief of Staff Operations of Cyber Command, responsible for domestic and international cyber operations of the Canadian Armed Forces. Daniel is now the CEO of Wisdom Global Security (WGS), a full-spectrum national security, defence, intelligence and cyber advisory firm.
He is an advisor at the Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst/Toronto Metropolitan University and the MindShield Institute, the Director-General and Ambassador-at-Large for the INCYBER Forum Canada, and a member of the Scientific and Ecosystem Advisory Committee at the National Cybersecurity Consortium and the Board of Directors of the Ontario Defence Association. He continues to work with domestic and international partners in cyber and national security initiatives to include NATO and other allies.
Major General (MGen) Dave Yarker joined the Canadian Forces in 1989, graduating from the Royal Military College of Canada Kingston in 1993. He served with 2 Brigade as a Signals Officer.
He has been employed in project management and communications planning, and deployed as the Canadian J6 in Kosovo and Afghanistan. He has had the honour of command at 2 Canadian Mechanised Brigade Group Headquarters and Signals Squadron, the Canadian Forces Network Operations Centre, and the Canadian Forces Information Operations Group.
Since 2010, he has been employed in the cyber operations field, commanding at Unit and Formation levels and holding key staff and liaison positions, including with United States Cyber Command and Canada’s Communications Security Establishment.
In 2022, he was appointed as Director General Information Management Operations and the Joint Force Cyber Component Commander. In 2024, he assumed the role of the first Commander of the Canadian Armed Forces Cyber Command.
He holds undergraduate degrees in Engineering Physics and History, along with master’s degrees in Engineering Physics, Defence Studies, and Public Administration. MGen Yarker is married, and the couple lives in Ottawa with their son.