Canadian Government Executive Radio – Details, episodes & analysis

In a market crowded with options, understanding which platforms truly safeguard sensitive government communications has never been more critical. In this episode of CGE Radio, J. Richard Jones speaks with Maaz Yasin, Global Head of Government Solutions - Secure Communications, Blackberry, and David Wiseman, Vice President of SecuSUITE, Blackberry, to break through the noise.

Listeners will learn:

• Why "secure messaging" alone doesn't guarantee secure communications
• The four key ways BlackBerry's platform goes beyond basic encryption to protect data
• How BlackBerry aligns with Canada's national defense priorities and the renewed focus on defense spending
• How the platform proactively addresses emerging threats—from AI and deepfakes to quantum computing

This conversation clears up brand confusion, establishes technical authority, and simplifies decision-making for government leaders tasked with safeguarding critical information. Whether you're a Chief of Staff, CIO, DG, or procurement professional, this episode provides actionable insight into why BlackBerry is the secure communications solution built for Canada in 2025 and beyond.

In this episode of CGE Radio, J. Richard Jones sits down with EY Canada's Janice Horne, Jen Mossop Scott, and Rohit Boolchandani to explore how digital credentials could play a pivotal role in strengthening Canada's economy and restoring its global competitiveness.

With Canada navigating a tense trade dispute with the U.S. and seeking ways to enhance productivity, resiliency, and interprovincial trade, our guests unpack how secure and trustworthy digital identity systems can be a key enabler of growth and unity.

We dive into:

• Why global rankings matter and how Canada can climb back up
• Lessons from India's Aadhaar system and what Canada could adopt
• How to get started in a complex digital policy landscape
• Ensuring citizen trust, privacy, and equity in adoption

Tune in for an insightful discussion on how governments can put citizen-centric digital trust at the heart of Canada's economic future.

Interview with Paul Zikopoulos – Vice President, IBM Skills Vitality and Enablement

In our latest episode of CGE Radio, J. Richard Jones speaks with Paul Zikopoulos, Vice President, IBM Skills Vitality and Enablement about artificial intelligence you can trust and deploy at scale in government / public sector.

Paul is a renowned writer and speaker on AI and Big Data, consulted by "60 Minutes" and NATO generals. Named on numerous global "Experts to Follow" and "Thought Leader" lists, he has authored 21 books and over 360 articles. At IBM, Paul directs strategic initiatives for the IBM Technology Unit's sales and learning programs. He actively promotes Women in Technology, winning IBM Canada's "Women in Technology Ally of the Year" and serving on several advisory boards. Despite his success, Paul stays grounded, always learning from his experiences and his daughter Chloë. Follow him on Twitter at @BigData_paulz.

IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting services provider, helping clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,800 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM's hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently, and securely. IBM's breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to their clients. All of this is backed by IBM's legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity, and service. For more information, visit www.ibm.com

In this episode:

• How public sector should organize to prepare for generative AI
• How Generative AI can help in Canada and abroad
• The practical use cases that IBM focusses its innovation around
• How IBMs work with AI differ from others
• And more!

In this episode of CGE Radio, J. Richard Jones talks with Jason Ducharme, Partner of MNP and leader of the Public Sector Practice in Ontario. Jason works with senior executives, CEOs and boards within the public sector to clarify strategy, improve organizational effectiveness and lead large-scale organizational change. He has close to 30 years of consulting experience, with specific functional expertise in areas of good governance, organization effectiveness, strategic planning, financial analysis, and performance measurement.

For governments across Canada, Jason specializes in Social Services programs, in particular in Human Services integration. This work helps governments to streamline programs to become more customer-centric in how services are delivered to Canada's most vulnerable populations.

Hear about what Human Services Integration is all about and why is there such an interest in this, the top 5 Human Services integration challenges and jurisdictions that overcame these challenges to successfully integrate Human Services delivery. Jason shares some key factors that are helping governments be successful provides his take on how organizations can help accelerate Human Services Integration in their service delivery.

Data is a crucial part of an organization's success, whether it be public or in the private sector. But data comes with challenges because of its size and growth. The amount of data in the world doubles almost every two years. Due to this exponential growth and also where we store our data, like the cloud, makes managing it more difficult.

In this episode of CGE Radio, J. Richard Jones talks with Damian Serjeant, Country Leader of Veeam Canada and Ryan Narinesingh, Director of Channel Sales & Alliances at Veeam Canada.

Hear about Veeam and some of the data related services they provide, the 2019 Veeam Cloud Data Management Report, highlights of this report and the key cloud challenges that business and IT leaders are facing today. Learn about what sort of security is needed to protect data and some of the lessons learned. They also share some of the success stories of working with governments (public sector) globally and what can be applied to Canada. And to round off this show, they talk about what the future will look like for cloud data management.

From Executive Government to Crown Corporation to Public Traded Company. Today in the show, we will talk with Jeff Stusek, President and Chief Executive Officer of Information Services Corporation (ISC).

Mr. Stusek leads the company's overall strategic direction in the provision of registry and information management services. His focus on people, business excellence and creating value for stakeholders has driven ISC's evolution.

Under his leadership, ISC made the transition from a provincial Crown corporation to a publicly-traded company in 2013. Since the IPO, Mr. Stusek has led the company to steady financial growth and strong market capitalization through operational improvements and strategic acquisitions.

In the show today, J. Richard Jones talks with Jeff Stusek about ISC's innovative approach to service delivery and the lessons we can takeaway.

Hear about how ISC has achieved success through its approach to service delivery, moving beyond customer satisfaction to customer excellence, and how the focus on customer excellence influences the culture of the business?

In the show today, we have a very special guest who is joining us from Ottawa. He is Claude Rochette, Associate Deputy Minister of National Defence.

Claude has extensive experience serving in many different roles including Assistant Deputy Minister (Finance) and Chief Financial Officer of National Defence, Vice-President, Comptrollership Branch and Chief Financial Officer, Canada Border Services Agency and  Director General of Finance and Chief Financial Officer, Communications Security Establishment Canada.

Claude also served in a number of senior executive positions in the Canadian Armed Forces including senior auditor, Director General Compensation and Benefits, and Commandant of the Canadian Forces Support Unit in Ottawa. 

He is also the recipient of a few awards over years including the 2015 Award of Excellence in Public Sector Financial Management – Financial Leadership, awarded by the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada.

In June 2018, he was awarded the first-ever Deputy Minister John Forster Collaboration Award for exceeding expectations in the advancement of Defence or whole-of-government priorities.

In November 2018, he became a Fellow of CPA Ontario. The Fellows (FCPA) distinction formally recognizes those members whose achievements and contributions, in their careers and in the community, have rendered exceptional service to the profession. Becoming a Fellow is the highest honour that can be bestowed on a CPA.

What is transformation going to look like? That is the question on the minds of many who are going through digital transformation. But it's not the "what" that is the challenge, it's the "capacity" to implement the what.

In the show today, J. Richard Jones talks with Craig Szelestowski, President and Founder of Lean Agility Inc. Craig is a Lean government and transformation specialist with close to two decades of experience implementing dramatic turnarounds in Canadian government. He started Lean Agility Inc. in 2010 to apply Lean exclusively to government organizations. With his coaching, his clients have reduced lead times by up to 80 per cent, increased capacity by up to 200 per cent and created outstanding levels of employee engagement.

Craig will be speaking at the Lean Government Summit 2019 that will be held on October 1-2, 2019 at the Westin Hotel in Ottawa. This summit brings together global public servants and thought leaders to share breakthroughs in the delivery of products and services through improved processes, innovation and energized people. https://leanagility.com/en/lgsoct2019

In the show today, J. Richard Jones talks with Dean McKeown, Associate Director, Global Master of Management Analytics at Smith School of Business, Queen's University.

Dean is responsible for creating and managing a variety of entrepreneurial initiatives at Queen's University, including new academic programs, marketing and IT. He is currently studying the application of artificial intelligence systems for business decision-making and change management during digital transformations.

Hear more about some new and exciting programs within the Smith School of Business for public sector executives, a project with the Canadian Revenue Agency to encourage Millennials to interact with the agency using "MyAccount" and incorporating machine learning and natural language processing to better understand the needs of Canadians and what's new in the analytics field.

To learn more, go to https://smith.queensu.ca/index.php

Governments around the world are increasingly relying on cloud-based IT services to fulfill their technology needs, so it is therefore vital to ensure that policymakers account for the "shared responsibility" in the cloud. That is, while cloud service providers secure the infrastructure of the cloud itself, data owners must secure their information within the cloud and across a comprehensive network ecosystem, ensuring consistent visibility and security across the entire network.

Now as the cost of computing continues to decline, digital adversaries are able to conduct increasingly automated, successful attacks at minimal cost. Network defenders, on the other hand, are generally relying on legacy security technologies to manually defend against these automated, machine-generated attacks. Incorporating AI and automated machine learning into cybersecurity capabilities provides a strong tool for identifying cyber threats and preventing successful attacks. 

In the show today, J. Richard Jones talks with Coleman Mehta, Senior Director, U.S. Policy, Palo Alto Networks, about these two important topics that are transforming the cybersecurity industry: cloud computing and AI.

Hear about some of the unique challenges that both public and private sector organizations face when securing the cloud. What is the Shared Responsibility Model and what should organizations consider when developing a modern cybersecurity strategy? How can organizations stay ahead of the cyberthreats as the volume and sophistication of attacks continues to rise? What role does AI play in today's cybersecurity and how is Palo Alto Networks helping customers – both in the public and private sector – identify and prevent cyberthreats? 

Coleman Mehta serves as Senior Director, U.S. Policy, Palo Alto Networks. In this role, he is responsible for the company's engagement on public policy issues such as cybersecurity and data privacy, IT modernization, cloud computing, high-skilled immigration, and more.

Coleman previously worked as a career civilian U.S. government official at the White House National Security Council, serving as Director for Legislative Affairs. He led the NSC's legislative strategy on cybersecurity and technology issues – including encryption policy and data privacy – plus other homeland security, intelligence, and foreign policy issues. Prior to his tenure at the White House, Coleman worked at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, leading the Department's negotiations with Congress on several high-profile cybersecurity bills, including the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, Federal Information Security Modernization Act, and National Cybersecurity Protection Act. 

A security fellow of the Truman National Security Project and former Presidential Management Fellow, Coleman was named a 2018 "Tech Titan" by Washingtonian magazine. He holds degrees from North Carolina State University, the University of Virginia, and Bard College at Simon's Rock.

To learn more about Palo Alto Networks, go to https://www.paloaltonetworks.com.