Vanguard Magazine

3rd Annual Conference 42 APRIL/MAY 2023 www.vanguardcanada.com G A M E C H A N G E R See the full interview online Q How did you start out in this industry and how has it brought you to where you are today? My father was in the Canadian Air Force and I grew up around the military – it's always been a part of my life. I have a deep respect for the men and women who serve. The work we do at ELCAN helps provide allied forces around the world with world-class capabilities that enable them to achieve their objectives and get back home safe. This is very meaningful for all of us at the company. Throughout my career I have always looked for opportunities to contribute more to the business, to support those around me and to develop my leadership skillset. ELCAN has consistently provided me with that training ground and over the years the opportunity to take on new chal- lenges and broader responsibilities. Q What is your role at your organization today? My role as Associate Director of Business Development and Program Management is to support the team. I provide my team with clear objectives and ensure they have the tools and resources required to meet those objectives. I started my career in Business Devel- opment and it's fantastic to return to the function in a leadership role. I love rep- resenting Raytheon ELCAN, listening to our customers and determining how we can best provide value and evolve our capabilities to better meet their future needs. Q What was your most challenging moment? When I was Program Manager for our Specter line of Rifle Sights, we were competing for a large international pro- curement that was pushing our technol- ogy into new and challenging domains. We had a short turnaround time to pro- vide a range-ready prototype and a sig- nificant amount of work to get through in order to compete. The Rifle Sight team, fully supported by the rest of the organization, pulled together and after several extremely challenging months, and many late nights, shipped our pro- totypes on time and ready to perform. We lost this particular opportunity, which was very difficult for all of us, but to me it showed what we could accom- plish as a team when we have a clear ob- jective, strong leadership and a willing- ness to do whatever it takes to get the job done. Q What was your A-HA moment or epiphany that you think will resonate most with our reader, tell us that story? Early in my career at ELCAN I was shown an email we received from an ac- tive duty US Marine. He was deployed overseas and carrying one of our Spec- terDR rifle sights. He was engaged in a gun battle and an incoming round di- rectly struck the front of his optic. Not only did he credit the sight with likely saving his life but he described that de- spite the damage it received, he could still actively and accurately engage the enemy. For me, this story brought home the importance of what we do. That lives are literally at stake and that it is our duty to make the most rugged, high quality and high performance products possible. Q What is the one thing that has you most fired up today? This team… the whole ELCAN team. The culture that we're building here at EL- CAN, the values that we're demonstrating and the potential that this company has to influence the industry and ultimately im- pact the end-users. The pieces are all in place now – we have the people, the technical expertise and the manufacturing capability – we just need to execute. Q What is a habit that contributes to your success? Discipline, and by that I mean self-disci- pline. I have realized that being motivated and driven gets you most of the way but discipline gets you through. Discipline is the fuel that enables you to meet your ul- timate goals. To me, discipline means doing the right thing even if you don't feel like you have the time or motivation to do it; consis- tently showing up, especially when it's hard, is the only way to be truly successful. Q How is your organization changing the game within your industry sector? Our objective is to be a strategic partner- of-choice for our key customers. We are aligning our technology road map, our manufacturing capabilities and our engi- neering capabilities, around our custom- ers' needs. We have established a Customer Experi- ence Team that is focused on developing authentic customer intimacy to ensure we are investing strategically to maximize the value we can offer. Q What are some of the biggest impediments to innovation in your industry sector? We are actively investing in innovation. The challenge is ensuring that we are aligned with our customers and end users. We want to ensure we are investing in the right technologies and capabilities at the right time to be ready to meet our cus- tomers' needs in the future. SEAN DIENING ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, PROGRAM MANAGEMENT AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT RAYTHEON ELCAN

• Cover