Eric Fournier

Director General (Science & Technology)

Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC)

Mr. Fournier is presently the Director General (Science & Technology) for Strategic Decision Support.  He is a Scientific Advisor to the Department of National Defence and to the Canadian Armed Forces. His role is to provide analysis support on policy and strategy, and enterprise resource management to the department.

Eric began his career with Defence Research & Development Canada (DRDC) as a Defence Scientist in the Flight Mechanics Group of the Precision Weapons Section at the Valcartier laboratory in August 1992. He spent most of his scientific career in that establishment, where he held a number of positions in the Weapons field of study. He also spent one year at the United Kingdom DERA Fort Halstead laboratory as an exchange scientist in the late ninety’s. 

In May 2006, he was appointed Director, Science & Technology Air, in Ottawa, where he managed the Air Force S&T Program portfolio. As part of his duties, he also served as National Representative on the Aerospace Systems group (AER) in The Technical Cooperation Program. From September 2008 to July 2009, he moved to the Canadian Forces College in Toronto where he completed the National Security Program 1 (NSP-1).

Upon his return to Ottawa, he was appointed Director of Defence Research and Development Canada’s Centre for Operational Research and Analysis (CORA), and was responsible for the delivery of a Science and Technology program in the areas of operational research, strategic analysis, and scientific and technical intelligence. 

In 2014, Mr. Fournier took up the position of Defence R&D Counsellor at CDLS (London) where he was responsible for liaison in defence Science and Technology between Canada and the United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

Upon returning to Canada in July 2017, he was appointed DG for Strategic Decision Support, and also selected to develop and lead the implementation of the Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) initiative.