MONTREAL — The Canadian Space Agency has a woman at its helm for the very first time. The Trudeau government approached long-time public servant Lisa Campbell to take the reins of the agency, and she thus becomes the first woman to lead the organization since its inception in 1989. Campbell succeeds Sylvain Laporte, who was president of the agency beginning in 2015, and comes from Veterans Affairs Canada, where she was a senior executive for about two years. But it's the three years she spent managing some of Canada's largest and costliest military projects as an assistant deputy minister of defence and marine procurement, from 2015 to 2018, that will be most relevant for her new position. New projects at the CSA include finding ways to protect Canadian and allied satellites from attack, expanding Canadian industry expertise and participation in space, and participating in the US government's plan to establish a small space station around the moon. Established in March 1989, the Canadian Space Agency is responsible for managing all of Canada's civil space-related activities. -- this report by The Canadian Press was published Sept. 3, 2020.
