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Major-General (ret’d) Cameron Ross is
the Senior Military Advisor for EnCana Corporation. He is also
the President of HCR Security International Ltd. which provides
security advice to governments and the private sector. Since 2004, he
has led strategic security reviews of nine Caribbean countries with a
focus on law enforcement, counter-terrorism, and defence. He was
formerly the President, Emergo Security Ltd. and
Vice President for International Relations for Emergo
Canada Ltd. of the Emergo Group of Companies.
MGen Ross retired in 2003 from active
military service, having spent most of his
35-year military career in command and operational appointments. From
1998 to 2000, he lived in Damascus, Syria where he was the
senior United Nations official in Syria in the rank of Assistant
Secretary General and as the Force Commander of the United
Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) on the Golan Heights
between Syria and Israel. Prior to that, as a Brigadier-General in
Halifax, Nova Scotia from 1997 to 1998, he was the Commander of
Land Forces Atlantic Area and from 1996 to 1997, he was the
Commander of the Combat Training Centre at Gagetown, New
Brunswick. As a Colonel, he was the Garrison Commander of
Canadian Forces Base Edmonton from 1995 to 1996. Between 1989 and
1991, he was the Commanding Officer of his armoured regiment,
Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians)
www.strathconas.ca.
MGen Ross has served overseas
repeatedly. He was the armoured Troop Leader attached to the
Canadian Airborne Regiment during the 1974 war in Cyprus (UNFICYP),
and Battle Captain in reconnaissance and tank squadrons with
the Royal Canadian Dragoons on NATO duty in Lahr, West Germany from
1978 to 1981. In addition to his UN time in the Middle East, in 1992
he spent almost a year in Angola, Africa as a UN Military Observer
(UNAVEM) and then as the mission Chief of Staff and acting Chief
Military Observer during the period when the country reverted to
civil war. In April 1993, he was seconded to UN Headquarters in New
York and subsequently returned to Africa to provide peacekeeping
advice.
He has held staff appointments at
Brigade, Army, and national joint staff levels. He was the Director
of Operations (J3 Ops) for the Canadian Forces at National Defence
Headquarters from mid-1993 to 1995. His last military appointment was
Director General International Security Policy in National
Defence HQ in Ottawa. Responsible for managing Canada’s international
security relations, he was also the Senior Canadian Military
Advisor
to the Canada-United States Permanent Joint Board on Defence (PJBD)
from 2000 to 2003 developing post 9-11 security strategies for the two
countries.
MGen Ross was born in Ottawa on 8
February 1949. He is the son of a Dieppe and Normandy veteran,
Major-General Norman Ross of the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders of
Canada, the regiment from whom he got his name (fortunately, his
father was not from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders!). Starting
his military career at Royal Roads Military College in Victoria, he
graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the Royal
Military College in Kingston, Ontario in 1973. He was awarded the
Chief of Defence Staff Commendation for actions in Cyprus in 1974. In
2000, he was the recipient of the Knight’s Cross of the Polish Order
of Merit. In 2002, the Governor General of Canada promoted him to the
rank of Commander within the Order of Military Merit.
He is Vice President (West) of the National Security Group, a Fellow
of the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute, a Director of
the Canadian Battlefields Foundation, and a Director of the Calgary
Military Museum Society. MGen Ross and his wife Patti live in
Calgary and have two sons, Angus and Hamish.
Keywords: defence policy, security
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