In the last few weeks, the Chief of Defence Staff promoted two fellow engineers: Jonathan Michaud to Brigadier-General and Lydia Évéquoz to Colonel. They have both worked extremely hard to get to their current rank and we are fortunate to have their leadership and the support of their families, who they credited with their success!
Brigadier- General Jonathan Michaud, OMM, CD
Colonel Jonathan Michaud enrolled in the Canadian Forces in 1998 and graduated from the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) in Kingston in 2003. His career spans various postings within the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and the Joint Environment, where he has had the privilege of leading aviators, soldiers, and sailors at the Element, Squadron, Air Task Force, and Support Component levels.
His operational tours include deployments to Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 2006 and 2008, where he served as the Task Force Engineer Infrastructure Advisor and the second-in-command of the Construction Management Organization, respectively. He later deployed on Operation IMPACT in the Middle East in 2019 as the Air Task Force Commander, overseeing detachments from the Tactical Aviation and Air Mobility Communities.
Throughout his career, Colonel Michaud has been posted to various engineering units, including as Officer Commanding 143 Airfield Engineer Flight, 14 Wing Requirements Officer, and CFB Borden Construction Engineering Officer. He also served as the Deputy Commandant and Chief Instructor at the Canadian Forces School of Military Engineering.
Colonel Michaud has commanded at multiple levels, including as Commanding Officer of 8 Mission Support Squadron in Trenton, Commander of Canadian Forces Base Borden, and Commander of the Military Personnel Generation Training Group. In staff roles, he has served at both the operational and strategic levels, including as the 1 Canadian Air Division A4 Construction Engineering, Director of Coordination within the Vice Chief of Defence Staff, and as Chief of Staff within the RCAF. In March 2025, he will assume the role of Chief of Staff Operations for the Military Personnel Command.
Colonel Michaud is a graduate of the Joint Command and Staff Program and holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering and a Master’s Degree in Defence Studies. He is a registered Professional Engineer.
Col Évéquoz
Col Évéquoz was born in Valais, Switzerland, and grew up in Mont-St-Michel, Québec. She enrolled in the Canadian Armed Forces in 2003 through the Regular Officer Training Plan.
Upon completion of her training, she was posted as Officer Commanding of 91 Construction Engineering Flight in Gander, Newfoundland-Labrador. During this first posting, she was also assigned as the Construction Engineer Officer for 4 Mission Support Squadron and deployed to Operation PODIUM in support of the 2010 Winter Olympic and to Op ATHENA in Kandahar, Afghanistan, working with the Kandahar Province Reconstruction Team and close-out team.
As a Capt, she was also posted to 1 Engineer Support Unit in Moncton, New-Brunswick as Squadron 2IC and 3 Wing Bagotville, Quebec as the Requirement Officer for the Wing Construction Engineering Unit.
Upon promotion to Major in 2014, Col Évéquoz was posted to the Canadian Forces School of Military Engineering in Gagetown, NB as the Officer Commanding of the Construction Engineering Management Squadron, overseeing the training of all construction engineer officers and Construction Engineer Superintendents. She was later posted to Cold Lake as Officer Commanding of the Real Property Operations Detachment Cold Lake, AB and deployed on Op IMPACT in 2018 as the Task Force / Officer Commanding Engineer, overseeing all engineering activities in Kuwait and Iraq.
In 2019, she was posted to Ottawa as Chief of Staff for Real Property Operations (Central), before being appointed as the 9 Wing Commander in 2021. Col Évéquoz was subsequently posted to the Chief of the Defence Staff’s Office as the Executive Assistant before her promotion to her current rank and appointment as Director, CF Grievance Authority.
Col Évéquoz holds a Bachelors in Civil Engineering and Masters in Defence Studies from the Royal Military College of Canada and a Masters in Project Management from Pennsylvania State University. She is a graduate of the Joint Command and Staff Program and a member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta and the Project Management Institute.
Date biography modified: 2025-03-29