The new head of the Alliance of Canadian Defence Companies has personal and professional motivations for wanting a stronger domestic defence sector. Dasha Cohen, who took on her new role as executive director of the fledgling Ottawa-based organization last week, says she’s champing at the bit to work with ACDC’s more than 200 member companies […]
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The new head of the Alliance of Canadian Defence Companies has personal and professional motivations for wanting a stronger domestic defence sector.
Dasha Cohen, who took on her new role as executive director of the fledgling Ottawa-based organization last week, says she’s champing at the bit to work with ACDC’s more than 200 member companies as they try to play their part in beefing up Canada’s sovereign defence capabilities.
It’s an issue close to her heart. For Cohen, a native of Kyiv who moved to Canada 13 years ago, war is not just hypothetical — it’s a reality that hits close to home as the conflict in Ukraine rages on.
“My whole family is in Ukraine and a lot of my peers are on the front lines,” says Cohen, who now lives in Toronto with her husband and two children.
Launched in February, ACDC is co-chaired by Eliot Pence, founder and CEO of Ottawa-based Dominion Dynamics, and Paul Ziade, co-founder and CEO of Calgary’s North Vector Dynamics.
The group bills itself as “an industry-led trade association” that will lobby government on its members’ behalf and “foster deeper co-ordination across the defence supply chain” as Canada looks to bolster its defence infrastructure in vulnerable areas such as the Arctic.
Cohen, who ran her own communications consulting firm before joining ACDC, brings a mix of technical expertise and the soft skills required to forge relationships between industry and government officials.
Cohen earned an aerospace engineering degree in Ukraine, where she worked in aviation operations and other fields. She switched gears when she moved to Canada, studying public relations at Humber College before embarking on a career in communications at institutions such as Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University).
At Ryerson, Cohen lobbied industry and government officials about the importance of funding research and capital projects. As a consultant, her clients included defence-tech companies looking to secure federal contracts.
“I’ve always been really interested in how government works and how it interacts with an industrial base,” she says.
That experience should serve her well in her new job. Barely two weeks in, Cohen has hit the ground running — she’s already met with more than a dozen ACDC members in an effort to better understand the barriers they face when trying to do business with the Department of National Defence.
“It’s been really eye-opening to hear some of these stories,” she says.
Cohen spent her first week as executive director in the National Capital Region visiting some of the region’s 300-plus defence-tech enterprises. She believes many Ottawa firms that haven’t traditionally focused on defence are eager to play a bigger role in the industry, citing one business she toured, Brawn Construction, as an example.
“They’re not EllisDon,” she says. “They don’t have the $50-$100-million projects that some of these other giant construction companies have, but they can be such a wonderful partner.”
