Never Stop Exploring
Anonymous curious mind
The founder’s journey
LGExplorer’s core values.
Core Strengths
As Senior Manager/Director, Louis brings 40+ years of aeronautical/space engineering R&D expertise and strategic planning know-how. His achievements showcase six key attributes.
Vision
Upon being asked by the Director-General (DG) of Space Science, what could be the CSA next signature investment with similar impact as the Canadarm, he prepared a visionary service paper that not only convinced the DG space science, but CSA senior executives to proceed with strategic planning on this new promising file. At the request of CSA president Steve McLean, he successfully developed the business case documentation to demonstrate the socio-economic benefits value proposition of this new niche investment for the Canadian Space Agency in the field of Electric-Drive Mobility.
He led, in collaboration with Mafic Studios (Kris Holland, President) the development of a visionary video animation of what impact the lunar rover program could have in terms of socio-economic benefits to Canadians. He then delivered the animation product to CSA President, Steve McLean who decided to use it during consultations within the Industry Minister’s portfolio. As a result of Steve McLean`s brilliant efforts with promoting this new idea, the CSA was awarded in 2008 an additional $110 millions of new funding to start this brand-new lunar rover fast-prototyping program at the CSA.
Vision into Action
Following this breakthrough at CSA, he hired two co-op students (Master Science in Environment) and provided them with a mandate to develop key policy papers for the promotion of the business case for space exploration, and particularly the industrial spin-offs associated with the development of an electric-drive mobility new capacity in Canada.
He developed a comprehensive engagement strategy with Transport Canada, Industry Canada, Environment Canada, National Research Council, DND, and Electric Mobility Canada (EMC) to initiate a R&D integrated approach towards the development of electric-drive transportation in Canada. The resulting $110 million additional CSA funding was only possible thanks to this upstream engagement strategy with five other federal departments and the NGO – EMC, to get their support at the senior ministerial level, and to collaborate where our mandates intersect.
He promoted the development of new partnerships for the Electric Rover R&D venture. He was successful in convincing a major Quebec industry player, Bombardier Recreational Product (BRP) to partner with a key Canadian space company.
Strategy
He drafted and got approved by the CSA Executive Committee, the Space Exploration Strategic Plan through extensive formal consultations. (i.e. through the Space Science Advisory Group and Human Presence in Space Advisory Group prescribed into the Canadian Space Act) and contributed extensively in the write-up of the Canadian Space Strategy.
Following that delivery, he was mandated to work in collaboration with 13 other space agencies towards the development of the International Space Exploration Strategy, an international R&D policy framework
Space Mission Development
For a period of twelve (12) years he acquired elaborate experience by leading the development of scientific payloads to be deployed on the International Space Station (ISS).
As technical authority of these space missions, he led the development from project initiation, mission definition, payload design, certification and commissioning, launch, six-month science investigations with crewmembers as volunteer subjects onboard the space station, payload return, decommissioning of space assets.
The science investigations can be perused on the Canadian Space Agency website: Hypersole, Vascular, Vascular Aging, Vascular Calcium, TBone 1 and 2, Vection, Sansori, and BioMonitor.
He also supported the development of the Canadian Active Neutron Spectrometer (CANS) to be deployed first on the ISS for the prototype testing phase, and next on the Lunar Gateway space station to measure the extent of crew exposure to fast neutrons released by sun flare events
University Clients
Guelph, Waterloo, Calgary, York, Montréal
Company Clients
Carré Technologies, Bubble Technology Industries
Space Agencies Partners
NASA, ESA, CADMOS
Entrepreneurship
He developed a comprehensive business rationale for the initiation of a new Research Chair on space innovation and convinced CSA senior executives to approve and fund the plan.
ÉTS, Poly, and HEC agreed to form an innovation cluster aiming at space technology transfer in other industrial sectors.
The CSA Executive approved the implementation of this Research Chair.
Military Service
He served sixteen (16) years in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), working on various flight test projects at the Aerospace Engineering Test Establishment (AETE, Cold Lake, Alberta), and was selected after four (4) years of flight testing work for a M.Sc. scholarship to study aircraft design at the Cranfield University in the U.K.
Upon graduating, he received two academic awards (SBAC & Roy Tetlow Prizes for academic achievement, design, and research theses excellence).
After his Aircraft Design Master Sciences degree, he served as Technical Authority (TA) for various Aircraft Structural Integrity Programs (ASIP) at National Defence Headquarters (NDHQ) Ottawa and took the responsibility of Deputy Program Manager of the CF-188 Full-Scale test concurrently performed at Bombardier Defence Division, NRC, and ARL in Australia.
Aircraft Design
Bombardier Aerospace
Regional Jet 70-Seat Aircraft
Challenger 300 Business Jet
Development Programs
After this military service, he worked for six years on two successive aircraft development programs at Bombardier Aerospace, first as team leader for the certification of the Bombardier Regional Jet 70-seater aircraft, and second, as structures integrator for the Bombardier Challenger 300 business jet.
During the latter program, he solved high-risk significant technical issues, such as saving 70 lbs of excess weight on the aft fuselage after performing a structural audit on the structural partner (Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation - AIDC, Taiwan), recommending to the project director to split the aft fuselage design with another more experienced partner (Latecoere, Toulouse, France).
He also led a tiger team to solve a wing fuel migration issue which could have set back the program with delays should it have not been resolved. This required three successive deployments to the fuel system partner Intertechnique (Sainte-Étienne, France) where he recommended the redesign of the 1/3rd scale wing fuel test rig to include an electronic balance that monitor in real-time the center of gravity shift during the simulated pitch up maneuvers.
Consultancy
Future Aircrew Training Program (FAcT)
$13.2 billion
Department of National Defence (DND)
Joint Management Office (JMO)
He successfully completed the Organizational Health Assessment (OHA) of the largest DND program, the Future Aircrew Training (FAcT).
He drafted the bid proposal as an independent consultant (LGExplorer Inc.), in partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), secured the contract, and delivered on a Vision Statement, Strategic Review, Gap Analysis, and a set of Key Recommendations and Risks to be considered in the successful outcome delivery of this National Defence signature program.
Client Satisfaction
Rigorous & Quality Work
Approved Final Deliverable
The principal outcome of this first consulting delivery exercise was that the DND customer was very satisfied with the quality and rigour of the work and did not require extensive rework. The customer had only two special requests to help him in his quest for more leverage with his stakeholders:
to raise the visibility of a recommendations that related to the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and
to raise the visibility of a recommendation to co-locate stakeholders during the initial design & construction phase of the program
Next Steps
Business Plan
Company Webpage
Strong from this initial achievement, he has now completed his Business Plan and the LGExplorer webpage to provide more breakthrough opportunities to future clients.