Douglas L. Dempster

He is a member of the Secretary General´s policy board and has NATO-wide functional authority in the areas of governance, civilian personnel and financial management. As the executive manager he enables NATO Headquarters to perform its strategic politico-diplomatic role. He delivers services in the human resource, information system, infrastructure, language, finance and procurement domains.

Mr Dempster had a 36-year military career, the last seven as a General Officer. In July 2001, immediately prior to the 9/11 attacks, he was appointed Director General Strategic Planning within the integrated defence headquarters. In this dynamic time he worked closely with the senior military and civilian leadership of the department, participated in inter-departmental coordination and worked with the central agencies of government. He led the national effort on capability modernization, allocated the defence budget, introduced corporate performance management and  orchestrated four successive budget increases.

As the deputy commander of Canada´s army from 2000 to 2001, he steered the transformation process and improved internal communications. He managed army base infrastructure and human resources, both military and civilian.

From 1998 to 2000 he served as the departmental force planner and resource allocator where he facilitated the development of Defence Strategy 2020 and synchronized the 2000 federal budget increase following a succession of cuts.