Louise Mercier is a high-profile senior industry defence consultant and expert in Canadian defence procurement practices and policies, specializing in industrial win-strategies. She is currently the vice-president and group leader of defence procurement at H+K and is best known for her strong relationships at the executive levels of industry, government and the defence media.

Louise brings leadership, strategic planning and managerial experience associated with a 25-plus-year business-development career, with expertise in building and implementing capture strategies for complex, military industrial programs that range in value up to $25 billion. Her clear industrial insights and crisp strategic counsel through the full range of the business-capture process (competitive analysis, price to win, probability of win strategies, strategic partnerships, ITBs) has been the key to her clients’ successes. She also provides political, media and value proposition counsel.

Louise’s specialty in complex system integration programs and has helped win various contracts in myriad information-management programs that include C2/C4 systems, above and underwater combat systems, training systems, weapons, weapon systems, sensors and sonar systems in both air and naval defence environments.

She has provided consulting services for a number of national and international firms, such as: DCNS, CAE, Davie Shipyards, Paradigm Shift, Navtech Architects, CMC Electronics, 3M and MBDA. Before consulting, Louise held increasing levels of business-development roles with IT/NET, Lockheed Martin, CMC Electronics and ADGA.

A well-known face in the defence industry, Louise is a past national president of The Navy League of Canada, the founder of Canada’s Women in Defence and Security and an executive board member of The Canadian Defence Association Institute. In co-operation with the RCN and Association Defence and Security Industry (CADSI), she manages and chairs CADSI’s annual industrial engagement program, “CADSI’s Navy Outlook”.