1. Mr. Claude Lareau, Director General Enterprise Application Services (former) will be retiring from the Department of National Defence on 22 November 2019 after 43 years of loyal and dedicated service in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and the Federal Public Service.

2. Mr. Lareau joined the CAF in August 1976, and after one year at CEGEP in St-Jean-sur Richelieu, he went through basic training in Chilliwack, BC from June to August in 1977. In September 1977, Claude returned to central Canada after being accepted into Royal Military College in Kingston where he obtained a Bachelor of Engineering Degree, with a Specialization in Engineering Physics, May, 1981. That summer, Claude was a staff member for CAF basic training in Chilliwack, BC, until August 1981. In September, he began his Master’s Degree in Mathematics, at the University of Waterloo, Specializing in Applied Mathematics which he earned in December 1982 while on LWOP, and living on an NRC Scholarship.

3. Claude was posted to NORAD, CFB North Bay, Ontario in January 1983, where he met his wife Karen, who was also a Military member. In September 1983, he left North Bay to begin CELE training at CFSCE Kingston, and married Karen in December 1983. He completed his CELE training in Feb 1984 before moving to the now decommissioned military radar station, CFS Dana, in Saskatchewan where he was promoted from Lieutenant to Captain on January 1, 1985. Karen joined him in CFS, Dana in April 1984. Chantal Lareau was born in June 1985.

4. In August 1987, Claude was posted to St-Jean to teach as an Associate Professor of Mathematics at CMR St-Jean until June 1989. His wife, Karen, got out of the Military at that point as they could not get a posting together. In July 1989, he was promoted to Major and moved to Ottawa to join the Communications and Electronics Branch Secretariat.

5. In July 1991, Major Lareau was posted to Baden-Soellingen, Germany and spent two years as the Commanding Officer for the Communication Squadron. His second daughter, Jessica Lareau, was born in July 1991 and adopted by Claude and Karen in June 1992. In July 1993, Ottawa became the new home for the Lareau family, and Claude continued his military career as a Major as NCR Telecommunications Officer with 76 Communication Group (Jul 93 – Aug 95). He then went to Command and Staff College in Toronto for one year which was followed by a posting to Kingston at the Canadian Forces School of Communications and Electronics (Jul 96-Dec 98) and back to Ottawa in the National Contingency Planning Group for Y2K (Jan 99 – Mar 00) and ADM(IM)/DGIMPD on the CFSSU and DISB projects. He was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in August 2001 and served as such until his release from the CAF in 2004.

6. At that point, Mr. Lareau continued his distinguished career in the Federal Public Service at the EX-02 and EX-03 levels by undertaking complex IM/IT projects and various IM/IT portfolios of increasing scope and responsibility for ten years with Citizenship and Immigration Canada and PWGSC (September 2004 – January 2015). In February 2015, Mr. Lareau returned to the Department of National Defence as Director General Enterprise Application Services where he was responsible for leading the development, maintenance and enhancement of 180 Defence applications and providing Information Management services that support the Canadian Armed Forces.

7. Following Mr. Lareau’s retirement on 22 November 2019, he will spend his time with his wife and family, travel, run and read. He will also spend as much time as possible with his granddaughter Rayla, who was welcomed into the world on 28 October 2019.