QinetiQ appoints Richard Ackerman as President of QinetiQ Canada

Homeland September 21, 2020

QinetiQ appoints Richard Ackerman as President, QinetiQ Canada

QinetiQ has appointed an experienced senior executive, Richard Ackerman, to lead realignment and renewed focus as the new President of its Canadian business.

Mr Ackerman was previously Vice President at L3Harris, where he spearheaded several strategic transformation activities to improve customer focus and organisational effectiveness.

This new role will lead the Canadian business’s integration with QinetiQ’s Target Systems business (QTS), forging closer alignment between the QTS teams in Ashford, UK, and Medicine Hat and Ottawa, Canada. Richard and the leadership team will seek to grow this business in all locations, delivering products and services globally.

QinetiQ Canada, headquartered in Ottawa, will place a particular emphasis on developing Canada as a home market – central to the QinetiQ Group strategy and core in better serving customers through establishment of single routes to market.

Mr Ackerman said: “Over the years I have watched QinetiQ go through a voyage of change, moving beyond its UK public sector roots to become an agile, global company. It has always been full of high-quality people with excellent customer relationships, and has a reputation for unparalleled technical excellence. This, coupled with its commitment to mission-led innovation, makes QinetiQ a highly credible platform for Canadian domestic and international growth, as well as an exciting company to join.”

Steve Wadey, CEO of QinetiQ Group Plc, said: “Richard has a proven track record of transforming businesses in ways that benefit companies and their customers, and he instinctively understands our mission-led innovation strategy. His integration of QTS with our Canadian business will broaden QinetiQ’s footprint in the region and support the delivery of services from both our Ashford and Medicine Hat locations. It will also create new avenues for the introduction of our global products to the Canadian market. Richard’s experience and philosophy are well aligned with QinetiQ’s objectives and he is a fantastic addition to our global team.”

QTS is QinetiQ’s physical threat representation business, acquired from Meggitt in 2016. It provides unmanned air and surface targets for live-fire training and weapon system testing and evaluation.

QinetiQ Canada is headquartered in Ottawa and delivers a wide range of products and services on behalf of QinetiQ Group to the Canadian defence and security market.