Steven Thornton

Steven Thornton is a retired Rear-Admiral and Strategic Advisor in PwC Canada’s Consulting practice, focused on defence, national security and industrial strategy advisory. He advises government, defence industry and financial institution clients navigating Canada’s defence recapitalization, including strategic partnership design, programme delivery, digital modernization and defence market entry. He is an active voice in the defence and industrial policy landscape: moderating panels on defence and sustainable finance (Sustainable Finance Summit 2026), defence industrial base capacity (Vaughan Chamber Future of Manufacturing Summit), and dual-use commercialization (DiscoveryX 2026). He contributes to PwC’s defence thought leadership on procurement transformation, strategic partnerships and industrial readiness, and serves as a spokesperson on the firm’s defence advisory positioning. Clients and stakeholders span federal departments responsible for national defence, procurement and public safety; allied military organizations; defence prime contractors; dual-use manufacturers; and financial institutions.

More than 35 years of senior leadership across defence enterprise management, digital transformation and operational command, culminating as a two-star flag officer. His most recent defence appointment was as Chief of Programme, responsible for Defence-wide business planning, programme governance, performance measurement and a portfolio with approximately $30B in annual impact across assets, activities and services. As Director Genera Digital Enterprise modernization, he led the revitalization of a major enterprise resource planning modernization initiative and co-chaired a multinational SAP Defence Interest Group shaping ERP requirements across allied nations. Specialties include enterprise programme governance, digital transformation and ERP modernization, capability development and force generation planning, MOU design and performance frameworks, procurement advisory, and operational planning across naval, joint, Arctic and continental defence domains. He translates government intent into industry action, and industry capability into government outcomes; connecting strategy, procurement and transformation with practical implementation experience.