Bhavna Bahri: Welcome to EY’s Leading Women in Manufacturing. I'm Bhavna Bahri from EY and today I have the pleasure of speaking with Holly Johnson, VP, Robotics and Space Operations at MDA. Thank you, Holly, for taking the time.

Holly Johnson: Thank you. It's amazing to be here.

Bhavna Bahri: So, Holly, MDA is a truly fascinating company. Before we get into your story, tell us about MDA.

Holly Johnson: Absolutely! MDA is Canada's largest space technology company. We have nearly 3,000 people across the country in addition to folks in the UK and the US. We do pretty much anything in space other than launch. And so we are developing technology for space exploration missions to low earth orbit, to the moon and beyond. We also build spacecraft that provides space-based communications and connect people around the world, specifically areas in rural communities or remote populations. We're also experts in radar satellite technology. And so radar satellites take pictures of the earth through all weather and all lighting conditions, and they can use that imagery for really critical applications like climate change, precision agriculture, natural disaster recovery. And so a wide range of missions that we're very happy to support.

Bhavna Bahri: A really wide range of applicability as well. Right? 

Holly Johnson: Interesting statistic that they say space technology touches the lives of Canadians 20 to 30 times a day, from financial transactions to eating food that was grown with precision agriculture. We often don't know the space applicability to all Canadians. 

Bhavna Bahri: Yeah, that is fascinating. Thanks for sharing that. So with all these exciting things happening, Holly, we understand you are expanding into a new facility?

Holly Johnson: Yeah. So today we're happy to have you here in our current facility. But in our new facility, we're really taking all of the knowledge we've learned over decades of building what we do here and applying it with new labs, new integration areas, new production facilities. And we're creating a state-of-the-art Space Robotics Centre of Excellence.

And so one of the most exciting aspects of that is in the future deliveries of these robotic systems, not only are we manufacturing them, but we're actually going to have mission control centres to operate them.

And so starting with Canadarm3 we’ll be the mission operations centre for those robotic operations at the moon. But all of the future missions that we're working with our commercial customers on, we have the potential to run those right from here in Brampton. So very exciting to have that mission operations capability in our new facility. 

Bhavna Bahri: We have some exciting things happening in the background here. 

Holly Johnson: Absolutely. This is our production facility where we would've tested, integrated, and ultimately delivered multiple Canadarms. We're currently doing development on the next-generation Canadarm, Canadarm3. And we also have some test equipment in the back. So before we launch anything we'll go through some environmental testing, thermal vac testing or vibration table testing to make sure that it's robust and designed appropriately for all of the mission applications. So very exciting to be able to share this with you today. 

Bhavna Bahri: It is exciting. As a person who lives in the shop floor, this is like wonderland for me.

Holly Johnson: This is a space shop floor. 

Bhavna Bahri: You've had an amazing career journey. You've worn a ton of different hats, done a lot of different hands-on roles. You hold the space quite literally and metaphorically for the female leaders in the industry. You've been recently regarded as one of the most inspirational Canadian leaders in operations. So maybe just walk us through your career journey and what are the lessons you've learned?

Holly Johnson: For sure. When I think about my career journey, I have to go back to the beginning. And so for me, I always dreamed of working in the space industry. I actually grew up only 10 minutes from this facility right here. I would learn about the space shuttle. My parents would teach me about Canadarm technology. I only dreamed of being able to work here at MDA. And so, fast forward years later, finishing my engineering degree, coming back and working here as a co-op student after finishing that degree full-time as an engineer, working through not only space programs but also applying that technology to improve technology for life here on earth in the medical robotics. So I did that for a few years and eventually made the jump into management. Did a tour through business development and then operations. And then, ultimately led myself here to my dream job, I would say, where I get the opportunity to lead the space robotics and operations business here at MDA.

In terms of lessons learned and things that I think attributed to that journey, one is that I always followed my passion right from the beginning. As a child, I always knew I wanted to work in the space industry. Funny enough, I actually didn't realize that you could have such a rewarding and fulfilling career in space here in Canada.

I knew about MDA and I wanted to work at MDA, but the opportunity that Canada and Canadian companies have to participate in the emerging space economy, which we'll have a chance to talk about, is just phenomenal. And so as I've gone through my career, staying close and true to that passion and following your dreams and shooting for the stars is something that I would say I would give that advice to anyone starting their career.

Bhavna Bahri: That's fantastic. Thank you for sharing. That's very inspirational. So we know that the success that we achieve often is because of the support and the championing, the mentoring we've received through the way. So talk to us about the people along the way who've really mentored you and supported you. 

Holly Johnson: Absolutely. For me, it all starts at home. And so growing up I had the most supportive family I could really ever ask for. My parents, my sisters, and now my husband are the biggest champions of me wherever I want to go and shoot for the moon.

And so I think that's important. Often people will say it takes a village. And as I look to where I've come from I think I can attribute a lot of that to the people that have supported me. Professionally, as I've grown into my career and evolved from an engineer to a manager and now an executive within MDA, I have been incredibly lucky to have not only mentors but champions that have advocated for my success within the company and have often been the ones that have put me in positions many times before I would've raised my hand to say I'm ready to go to the next step. Right from my very first manager on the original Canadarm program to my line manager in systems engineering to today my current boss, the CEO of MDA, they've all had a hand in recognizing my potential, recognizing my ambition and my wanting to jump into the next situation.

In many cases, they're the ones that have identified that and made the opportunity and the space, so to speak, for me to step into those roles. So I'm extremely happy to have had those mentors and those champions along the way.

Bhavna Bahri: It's quite incredible and I think fortunate to have that pack of people around you and the support around you. 

Holly Johnson: Absolutely.

Bhavna Bahri: That's great. So I'm sure these people would've helped you mold your leadership style and how you lead today. So maybe talk to us a little bit about what's your leadership style and what do you think makes a good leader?

Holly Johnson: Yeah, when I think about my style, I think about where I came from. And I thought about being often in rooms or in meetings where you feel like you're one of the larger group and you are a minority. And so for me, I carry that with me today. And I do intentionally try and seek out everyone's thoughts and everyone's views when it comes to a certain topic. That doesn't necessarily mean that everyone's comfortable on first go providing those views. So really understanding some of those ideas and some of those really unique thoughts will come into group setting but some of them will come one on one. And that just depends on people's preference and their comfort in doing that. So I really try and remember where I came from and how comfortable or lack thereof I was in originally voicing my thoughts and using that knowledge as I engage with my teams today.

Bhavna Bahri: That's great. So being collaborative and understanding how to get the best out of each people and which situation works for them. 

Holly Johnson: Absolutely. Yeah, I think in any problem-solving or troubleshooting, all of the exciting missions that we have looking forward there's lots of work that needs to be done and lots of challenges that we have to overcome. And having diversity of thought and experience is paramount in that.

Bhavna Bahri: Absolutely agree. So maybe switching gears a bit and going back to what you said in the introduction about Canada. When you talk about and think about the space industry, Canada's probably not the first country you may think of while we are the leaders, right? We are doing incredible things. You're doing incredible things in the space industry. So help us understand how is Canada leading the space and what is it doing to transform it today?

Holly Johnson: Absolutely. So many people don't know that Canada was actually the third country into space. And so decades ago, Canada made the strategic decision to invest in space, recognizing that there's benefits from space technology. We have a broad coastline. We have a large landmass and rural communities spread throughout. And so having space-based communications or earth observations from a satellite mission really proved advantageous for a country like Canada. So that technological leadership led through space exploration. MDA is the proud maker of the Canadarm technology.

The original Canadarm flew on more than 90 Space Shuttle missions until the space shuttle retired a few years ago. The current Canadarm2 is operational today on the International Space Station, 400 kilometers above us orbiting every 90 minutes doing really important things maintaining the space station.

Canadarm1 and 2 actually assembled and built that space station, so that technology enabled the largest orbiting laboratory ever built. So that's pretty exciting! Today we're busy building Canadarm3. The new Canadarm3 is destined for the new International Space Station, which is going to orbit the moon.

So as humanity goes back to the moon, not to visit and plant flags and leave footprints this time, but to actually learn how to live, work and use it as a staging point to get to Mars, Canada's playing a leading role in that.

The Canadarm3 will be a smart, artificial intelligence-based robotic system. Because it's so much further from Earth, it's 400,000 kilometers away from Earth, it needs to be able to understand its environment and make local decisions without the humans back on earth overseeing every single move.

And so that's a real big, strategic thrust in this new technology is the artificial intelligence that it will utilize, which will grow over time. The exciting part is that there's so many other missions that are happening. Gateway is just one of hundreds of missions that are forecast to go to the moon, to low earth orbit. And the applications of things like robotics are very diverse.

So we're working with other countries and other companies on really exciting missions such as space hotels, in-orbit servicing, taking care of all those satellites that sometimes don't have a chance to deorbit themselves before they run out of fuel.

So active debris removal. Looking at establishing infrastructure on the surface of the moon. There's a whole wide range of new applications that this technology commercialized will have the opportunity to enable. So that's really exciting!

Bhavna Bahri: That is exciting. It's a whole new horizon of opportunities out there, right? So how is MDA bringing women into this? And what is MDA doing about the diversity? I'm sure that there's a tremendous amount of effort going on there.

Holly Johnson: Yeah. So one of the greatest things about growing is you need all hands on deck. And so over the past few years, we've hired hundreds of people, thousands of people, across the organization to be able to tackle our toughest missions and to be able to accomplish all of these milestones.

And so robotics and space operations has more than doubled its workforce in in recent years. One of the most interesting statistics is in the past year alone across MDA, we've hired more than 900 people.

When you look at the engineering proportion of that, women make up 25% of that workforce, which may not seem great yet. But it's a significant improvement over the provincial average, for aerospace engineering, which is 13%.

And so we're nearly double where our regional metrics would be. There's still more to go but I think that's a significant push forward. We've also seen women take on new roles within the organization for the first time ever.

So since 2021, we've hired our first female technicians. So the folks in the lab that actually have their fingerprints on the technology that go to the moon and go to Mars, we're very proud to have introduced the first female technicians into our organization in the past few years.

The first female manufacturing engineers in the past few years. And then myself taking on the role as the leadership of the business area last year, I'm very happy to be the first woman to be able to do that.

I think as a company, we have a very strong focus on diversity right from the top. So it's strategically important to our board, to our CEO. MDA is split into four different business areas and it's pretty neat to think that three of the four business areas are led by women. So we're making strides. There's still more to go, but I'm optimistic, based if you look in the last few years.

Bhavna Bahri: Those are excellent initiatives at every level, from the bottom to the top. So very, very encouraging absolutely. So from that, why do we need women in manufacturing in the first place? What does it mean to be a woman in manufacturing? At every level you just detailed out? And how have you seen that transform over the last few years or even a decade? 

Holly Johnson: Being a woman in manufacturing is unique. I think recognizing it on face value that right now there's not going to be a 50-50 percentage. And so recognizing that we encourage people to be bold to step into the shoes that you're in and to participate at the table because you have a right to be at the table. And so I think recognizing that at the onset is important. I think it's important to have women in manufacturing not only for their experience and their background but also their propensity.

One of the strengths of women, I think is that they're good at building relationships. They're good at collaborating. And when we look at all of the tough problems that we have to solve as a nation, as humanity, I think building partnerships and bringing the best talent from an individual perspective but also company and countries and nations, I often say that space is a team sport. Engineering's a team sport. There's not one country or one company that goes to space. It's the collection of hundreds or thousands of people and organizations along the way. And so I think recognizing that there's really strong value in that diversity of thought, in women, but also in other diverse backgrounds, I think is important. 

Bhavna Bahri: Absolutely. So in the end, it's about the people, right? And then relationships with the people. So therefore, you need to have the diversity. Excellent. Holly, you were once a young graduate entering this industry of operations and space and manufacturing. We have thousands and thousands of women at that particular point right now, entering the workforce at different levels in manufacturing, and also some kids maybe in school who are toying with the idea who fascinated looking at Canadarm, space technology and manufacturing. What advice would you have for them and how can they be prepared for the future? 

Holly Johnson: I would say first all jump in with both feet. One of the first things that my very first manager told me was this is your opportunity. It’s your opportunity to make the most of it. And so I've tried to carry that with me in every situation as we go. The second thing I would say is that there's not one perfect path to get to where you want to go. When I started at MDA, I was amazed. I was so happy to be working at a company that was doing such exciting things with such amazing people. I asked lots of questions. I stayed really curious and that led me to different opportunities. I never would've imagined ever that I would've taken on the roles that I've had or that I'd end up as a business leader.

I just was really fascinated by the industry. But as I progressed through leadership positions, I really liked the challenges that came with running not only the technical engineering aspect but all of the other pieces that worked together.

And so many of those opportunities, like I said, I didn't necessarily jump into, I had mentors and champions that helped make space for me. But when I look to where I am now and I reflect back on my career, I couldn't have ever imagined the path that I took or the shoes that I've fill or the roles that I've had the opportunity to. So there's not one perfect path to get where you want to go. You have to trust your gut. You have to follow your passion and then leverage your network and ask lots of questions.

Bhavna Bahri: Great. So stay open, ask lots of questions and just go for what presents in front of you. 

Holly Johnson: Absolutely. I think you can't forecast the next 10, 20, maybe even 5 years in front of you. You have to do what feels right and make the most of every opportunity. It may not be the most obvious opportunity that you land yourself in, but ultimately I think the value will shine through and you'll be amazed at where you end up. 

Bhavna Bahri: You’re painting a very, very exciting future for the women in manufacturing. So thank you so much for your time today, Holly. It's been an incredible, exciting conversation.

Holly Johnson: Absolutely. Very happy to have the conversation and nice to share my journey.