Executive Team

CHAIR
Ved Proag, P.Eng.
City of Ottawa

Ved Proag, P.Eng graduated in 2014 from the University of Ottawa. Ved is currently a Project Manager with the City of Ottawa. She has extensive experience in hydrologic and hydraulic analyses for culvert, bridge and sewer designs. Notable projects that Ved has been involved in include: Ottawa Light Rail Stage 2, West Block Rehabilitation, Bank of Canada Rehabilitation and Roger’s Place Arena in Edmonton.

Ved has been a director of the PEO Ottawa Chapter since 2016.  Ved’s past roles have included vice-chair of the chapter, chair of the Awards Committee and vice chair of the Government Liaison Program (GLP) of the PEO Ottawa Chapter. Ved is also an executive member of the Women’s Infrastructure Network (WIN) where she strongly advocates for more women to join the engineering industry. Ved was a finalist for the 2018 National Emerging Leader WIN Award. 

VICE-CHAIR (FORMER CHAIR – 2017-2018)
Joseph Podrebarac, P.Eng.
Department of National Defence (DND)
Tel: (819) 994-8573

Joe is a member of the Government Liaison Program (GLP) Committee since 2010 and joined the Ottawa Chapter Executive in 2012 as Treasurer. He became Chair of the Chapter By-laws committee in 2013. Joe currently is the Principal Engineer for Underwater Sensors and Weapons Section with the Department of National Defence (DND). Joe has an extensive background in labour relations and contract negotiations including six years on a Board of Directors with a large not-for-profit organization and a scholarship foundation. Joe obtained his B.Eng at McMaster University in 1982, his P.Eng. in 1986 and his Project Management Professional (PMP) certification in 1993. He has authored numerous technical papers on topics of submarine hull systems, Passive Radar Augmented Projectiles and mid-life refits of automated naval gun systems. In his spare time, Joe teaches martial arts at Algonquin College. Joe’s interests are to encourage young engineers to be engaged in their profession and to increase public awareness of our profession.

PAST CHAIR (FORMER CHAIR – 2019)
Damien Letendre, P.Eng., ing.

Damien has been active in the PEO Ottawa Chapter since 2015 as a casual volunteer with the Education Outreach Committee. He later joined the Executive in 2016 and has served as Vice-Chair and Chair of the Education Outreach Committee. Damien holds a Bachelor degree in Civil Engineering from the Lakehead University (2007) and a Technologist diploma from La Cité Collegiale (2004). Damien has been licenced with PEO since 2012 and with l’Ordre de ingénieurs du Québec since 2016. Damien currently works for A. Dagenais & Assoc. Inc in Embrun, Ontario as forensic engineer as well as structural engineering performing design and contract administration for various construction project in Eastern Ontario and Western Québec.

TREASURER (FORMER CHAIR – 2009)
David Grant, P.Eng., FEC
Cell: (613) 266-0670

David has been volunteering for the Ottawa Chapter Executive since 2005, having served as Chapter Chair in 2009. He also served as Secretary for the Chapter from 2005 to 2009 and again from 2014 to 2015. Currently he is the Chair of the Membership Committee which organizes the New Members’ License Certificate Ceremonies three times a year in February, June and November. He graduated from the University of Ottawa in 1999 with an Honours degree in Civil Engineering as well as an Honours degree in Biology (ibid, 1995). David worked for various consultant groups on many Municipal Infrastructure, Environmental and Construction projects in Eastern Ontario, Western Quebec and Northern New York. David received his Fellowship of Engineers Canada (FEC) in 2015 and was named to PEO’s Order of Honour in April of 2017.

SECRETARY (FORMER CHAIR – 2010)
Ingrid G. de Buda, P.Eng. , FEC

Ingrid de Buda, P. Eng., FEC officially joined the Ottawa Chapter Executive in 1996. She served as Chapter Chair in 2010. Also in 2010, she was awarded the honour of “Fellow of Engineers Canada”.  Prior to that, she served as Treasurer, represented the Chapter at the Regional Congresses (ERCs) and judged at numerous science fairs and similar academic events. Ingrid replaced the entire Ottawa Chapter website infrastructure with minimal visible impact, after the contractor-written system was vandalized through security flaws. She has led or been involved with a number of Chapter bylaws changes. On 2012-02-15, she was presented with the “Distinguished Engineering Service Award & Fellowship of the Ottawa Chapter” from the Ottawa Chapter. She represented the PEO Eastern Region on the CLC organizing committee in 2012/2013. She assisted with PEO HQ Campaigner testing.  She currently serves as backup IT support for the Chapter, which has replaced the website with a WordPress site.  Ingrid took over the role of Ottawa Chapter Secretary in 2018.

DIRECTOR (FORMER CHAIR – 2014)
John Hazel, P.Eng.
Nokia
Tel: (613) 784-3171

John has been active in the PEO Ottawa Chapter since 2009. He joined the Executive in 2011, and has served as Chapter Chair, Secretary, Vice-Chair and Chair of the Education Outreach Committee. John holds an MBA from the University of Ottawa and a Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering from Concordia, and has been licensed since 1991. His professional background includes hardware and software development, systems integration, verification and support roles for a variety of high technology companies. John is currently at Nokia (formerly Alcatel-Lucent) leading a verification, deployment and support team for a custom web application that simplifies provisioning, monitoring, reporting and troubleshooting of customer data networks worldwide.

During his thirty year career, John has come to appreciate the challenge of the “wicked problems” inherent in developing technical strategies that deliver true value. He is passionate about helping teams conceive and implement customized solutions to project and organizational challenges, applying his expertise as a test leader, coach, project manager, negotiator, motivator, and process improver, and his wisdom from life experiences.

DIRECTOR (FORMER CHAIR – 2007)
Sucha S. Mann, P.Eng., FEC, PMP
Banga Group
Tel: (613) 591-3002

Sucha joined the Ottawa Chapter Executive in 2005, served as Chapter Chair in 2007, and served as Chair of Education Outreach and Chair of GLP.  Sucha graduated in Electrical Engineering from Queen Mary College, University of London in 1971. His career path included defense/IT/telecom work in UK, Canada and USA, including 24 years with Nortel Networks as a Design Engineer, Product Manager and Consulting Services Department Manager. After leaving Nortel, he provided consulting services in Hi-Tech start-ups, sustainable & energy technologies. He represented some of the Canadian companies on Team Canada Environment Mission abroad, helping to understand environmental issues and advance business.

Sucha’s other interests include finding simple and sustainable solutions in engineering and business processes, improving corporate accountability in publicly listed companies, and sharing sustainable challenges with policy makers and corporate leaders. In Ontario, commercial energy power projects need to be certified by an independent engineer before connecting to the public grid, and Sucha certifies energy projects in Eastern Ontario.

Sucha teaches an Energy Engineering course to 4th year engineering students at Carleton University.  Sucha also taught Project Management Professional (PMP) courses with emphasize on sustainability.

Since 2008 with the Ottawa Chapter, Sucha has been organizing and facilitating Sustainability Symposiums as professional development in diverse engineering topics for our members.  As his passion, Sucha delivers “Cultural Shift to Sustainability” talks at educational events and other organizations.

Sucha was made a member of PEO’s Order of Honour in 2015 for his work on Sustainability and was awarded the honour of Fellow of Engineers Canada in 2015.

DIRECTOR
Tapan Das, PhD, FEC, P.Eng.
Tel: (613) 422-4541
Cell: (613) 898-1442

Tapan Das has M.Sc. in electronics from King’s College, University of London, UK and Ph.D. in microwave electronics from University of Bradford, UK. He has professional engineering license from Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO) of Canada and chartered engineer from UK.

He has 38 years of experience in Plessey Semiconductors UK, Nortel Canada and US, Lucent Technologies in US and SGNTT Canada starting from Development Engineer to VP position. He is cofounder of Dastalk Telecom Canada. He has several technical papers published international journals and conferences. He has ten patents. He has studied astrology and consciousness and has published several papers in journals. He has written two books: “Why Astrology is Science: Five Good Reasons”, and “Solutions to the Mystery of Consciousness” which proposes consciousness as function of brainwaves. 

Tapan was Vice-Chair and Chair of PEO Mississauga Chapter. As chair of the Mississauga Chapter in 2010, Tapan guided one of the largest chapters through one of its most productive and active years. He led by example, organizing and participating in many activities and representing the chapter externally at PEO functions and congresses. He worked diligently to establish a mentoring program for the Mississauga Chapter and petitioned for, and subsequently led, a pilot project to incorporate the concept into several other chapters. Based on the success of this initiative, Council decided to expand the program province-wide and Tapan was the chair of mentorship task force. Now called the Licensure Assistance Program (LAP), it is available in 20 chapters and has been recognized by the provincial government as helping to make the engineering profession accessible to newcomers. Tapan was made a member of the Order of Honour from PEO in 2015 for his outstanding contribution to engineering profession with the Mississauga Chapter. He became a Director of the Ottawa PEO chapter in 2015 and has initiated and is chairing an entrepreneurship program. This program is becoming very popular with universities.

DIRECTOR
Danil Matachniouk, EIT, B.Eng.
Email: Danil.Matachniouk.PEO@gmail.com
Cell: (613) 263-7586

Danil joined the Ottawa Chapter in 2017 and supports the Government Liaison Committee + Events Committee + Communication Committee (Chair).

DIRECTOR
Rihab Abu-Khater, EIT

Rihab holds an international degree in Construction Civil Engineering.  She joined the PEO Ottawa Chapter as a volunteer in 2018 and became a Director on the Executive Committee in 2019.  Rihab aims to connect Current and Future Engineers to the Chapter and to build better bonds between the Chapter’s Committees and the Engineering Community.  

DIRECTOR
Ishwar Bhatia, M. Eng; P.Eng; FEC

Ishwar was an appointed PEO Councillor from 2008 to 2016 under 3 Ontario attorney generals and elected Eastern Region Councillor from 2017 to 2019. Ishwar was a member of PEO Executive Committee, chair of Audit and HQ building task force.  He has also served on the Discipline Committee for more than 10 years (2009-present), obtained certification from the Society of Arbitrators and Regulators, and has served on more than 30 discipline panels. In his engineering career, Ishwar worked for Northland Engineering; McNeely-LeCompte and GENIVAR Engineering consulting firms, and as a municipal engineer for the City of Ottawa where he was Head of Sewer Maintenance, and Program Manager for the Infrastructure and Senior Projects Manager of complex downtown design and construction projects. Ishwar was a president of Civic Institute of Professional Personnel for the City of Ottawa, negotiated collective agreements, signatory of Job Evaluation (JE) among 3 unions, and was a facilitator for the amalgamation of 11 cities into one City of Ottawa.  In his spare time, Ishwar assists Engineers in Training to succeed into their licensing applications and coaches graduating engineers find jobs.

DIRECTOR
Lokmanee Proag, EIT
CENTRUS Joint Venture at WSP Canada Inc.
Email: lokmanee.peo.ottawa@gmail.com

Lokmanee graduated from the University of Ottawa with a B.A.Sc in Mechanical Engineering. She is currently working at WSP|CENTRUS in an integrated office on the Centre Block Rehabilitation project. She has previously worked in various renowned project such as the West Block Rehabilitation, Bone Marrow Study by NASA and ISS and Toronto Transit Commission’s Leslie Barn.

Lokmanee has been active in the PEO Ottawa Chapter in 2019 as a casual volunteer with the Event Committee. She officially joined the Executive committee in 2020 as a Director. She is currently serving as Vice-chair of Awards committee and Chair of the 30 by 30 committee which aims to raise the newly female licenced engineers to 30% by 2030. She has volunteered in numerous organisations including the Women in Science and Engineers (WISE) where she was the Vice-President Outreach and President. Lokmanee is an advocate for diversity and inclusivity and has persistently demonstrated her passion in her company as the CENTRUS Lead of the Gender Balance committee. Her contributions and philanthropy activities, with her Omega Phi Sigma sorority, were recognised by Mayor Jim Watson in 2018.