Peter Saunders

Director General NORAD Continental Defence Modernization Royal Canadian Air Force

Mr. Saunders enrolled in the Canadian Forces 23 March 1990. Over the span of his somewhat atypical and discontinuous career, Mr. Saunders enjoyed operational postings flying and instructing on his beloved Sea King Helicopters at 443 (MH) Sqn in Pat Bay, British Columbia; 423 (MH) Sqn, and 12 Wing Operations in Shearwater, Nova Scotia; culminating in Command of 406 (M) OTS. Throughout this period, he has served in HMCS Annapolis, HMCS Iroquois, HMCS Fredericton and HMCS Toronto and has deployed throughout the Middle East. Staff postings to date include two stints in the Career Management shop, the last being a two-year sojourn as DMilC4; responsible for guiding, managing and, at times, cajoling some 300 high-maintenance LCols and overseeing the management of almost 10,000 other members of the RCAF. He also spent three years on a self-imposed educational posting (yes, self-posted) to the Chief of Programme office learning the corporate side of the Department of National Defence and working upon, among other things, analysing financial risk to the Departmental Investment Plan and taking a lead in drafting the next iteration of this document for governmental consideration. For the past six years, Mr. Saunders has ensconced himself in the Air Staff responsible for the management and development of a number of contracted training solutions for the RCAF. In his current role, Mr. Saunders retains oversight of RCAF contracted training programs whilst standing up and leading the RCAF component of NORAD modernization. Mr. Saunders is a graduate of the Joint Command and Staff Program at the Canadian Forces College and the Senior Course at the NATO Defence College. He holds a bachelor’s degree in science from Acadia University, a Certificate in Adult Education from Dalhousie University, a master’s degree in business administration from Heriot Watt University and a master’s degree in Defence Studies from the Royal Military College of Canada.