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KEYNOTE
SPEAKERS

The 2025 CGS YP Conference promises an insightful experience with five distinguished keynote speakers, each bringing expertise from diverse geotechnical and geological backgrounds. Our conference will offer interactive activities where the delegates connect with the keynote speakers.

Headshot - Kathryn Dompierre (nobackgrou
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Dr. Kathryn Dompierre

Seequent

Kathryn Dompierre is the User Success manager for Seequent's Geotechnical Analysis team in North America. She joined the GeoStudio engineering team in 2016, moving over to a user success role in 2021, providing technical support, training users, and developing learning content on GeoStudio. Her recent promotion to the manager role means that she leads a team supporting both PLAXIS and GeoStudio in North America. Prior to working in geotechnical numerical analysis, she completed a M.Sc. in environmental policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a Ph.D. in civil engineering at the University of Saskatchewan. Her doctoral research explored the movement of pore water, contaminants, and energy through oil sands fine tailings using field testing and numerical analyses. Outside of work, Kathryn serves on the boards of two environmental NGOs, the Lake Winnipeg Foundation and Manitoba Eco-Network, and is involved in the Canadian Geotechnical Society’s GeoManitoba planning committee. She was previously involved in leading the logistics for the 6th YP conference in St. John's.

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Jasyn Henry

Clifton Engineering Group

Jasyn is the Vice President, Technical Services and a Principal Geotechnical Engineer at Clifton Engineering Group.  He has more than 15 years of experience, mixed between consulting and working for a large dam owner. He has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Saskatchewan and has spent most of his career practicing in the Canadian Prairies and the Midwest United States.  His experience is largely focused on the areas of slope stability, embankments, seepage, instrumentation, and construction of major earthworks.  He has played a major technical role in or managed projects ranging in value from $5k minor works to $150M multidisciplinary projects.  Jasyn worked for Clifton from 2010 to 2017 and from 2022 to present, where he worked on a variety of projects. He worked for Water Security Agency in Saskatchewan from 2017-2022, where he served as the Engineering Specialist for Geotechnical Structures and Design and later as the Director of Infrastructure Engineering. In the latter role, Jasyn was responsible for the delivery of key projects from a 10-year rolling capital plan for rehabilitation of 72 dams and several hundred km of conveyance and flood protection works. This included maintaining nine major dams with a classification of Very High or Extreme based on Canadian Dam Association guidelines. Jasyn was ultimately responsible for managing an annual capital budget of $50 to $100M and an operating budget of $2M. To assist in these responsibilities, he was responsible for a team of 18 engineers and 5 technologists. On the personal side, he is a husband, and a father of two daughters (ages 3 and 5). The girls keep him on his toes but when he gets some spare time he loves to play hockey, fish (and ice fish), golf and hunt. He has also found himself deep in the rabbit hole that is coffee, and espresso (he could chat for hours about that). He is an avid fan of both the Riders and Leafs, so he is routinely disappointed with sports and has scheduled bouts of depression around CFL and NHL playoff times.

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Dr. D. Jean Hutchinson

Queen's University

Jean Hutchinson is a Professor of Geological Engineering at Queen’s University and the Vice President of Innovative Geomechanics Inc.  Dr. Hutchinson’s engineering focus has been on integrating geological knowledge into geomechanics for underground and surface mining, mine closure planning, transportation corridor hazard assessment and risk management, and landslide monitoring and risk management using instruments and remote sensing. Having enjoyed a marvellous career and incredible opportunities to work on challenging issues all over the world, Jean has been privileged to introduce thousands of students to the possibilities of careers in these topics, and to equip them with the tools to engage with these challenges, technically and societally. Recognizing the need to integrate and value the many perspectives on earth resource projects, Dr. Hutchinson proposed and championed the Masters of Earth and Energy Resources (MEERL) professional program. She has benefitted tremendously from the perspectives and insights of an increasingly diverse group of students. ​Throughout her career, Jean has been an advocate for diversity in engineering. After graduating 40 years ago, at a time when less than 5% of the Engineering class were women, Jean has observed a gradual increase in the number of women working in mining, geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering. Working with students and early career professionals in her role as a Professor, Jean has continued to observe barriers to diverse people’s careers, and highly qualified people leaving the industry due to lack of inclusivity. These experiences have led to Jean’s work to advocate and support diversity in mining and geological engineering, by creating research and career opportunities, and by raising awareness of diverse perspectives and inclusivity challenges, through public speaking, EDI advisory and promotional roles with several learned societies, developing and leading EDI training workshops for undergraduate students, and publishing papers on these topics. Her efforts in these areas were recognized by the Women in Mining Canada Trailblazer Award in 2024. Dr. Hutchinson is pleased to serve on the Technical Review Boards of several organizations, including Rio Tinto’s Bingham Canyon Mine, the Hong Kong Slope Stability Technical Review Board and the Due Diligence Committee for the MoTi for the Cariboo Region in British Columbia. She has been the grateful recipient of a number of awards and medals, including the Glossop Medal (2019), the Manuel Rocha Lecture (to be given in 2025), the John B. Stirling Medal (2024), the Canadian Pacific Railway Medal (2017), the Robert L. Schuster Medal (2016) and the inaugural Engineering Education Excellence Award at Queen’s University (2016). Jean was honoured to be elected as a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada in 2011 and the Canadian Academy of Engineering in 2020.

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Dr. Craig Lake

Dalhousie University

Dr. Craig Lake is a Professor in the Department of Civil and Resource Engineering at Dalhousie University. His research focus is geoenvironmental engineering with a specific focus on engineered containment systems. His current research relates to contaminant migration through cement-based stabilized soils and geotechnical assessment of earthen dyke structures in hyper-tidal environments. He is currently Vice President Technical of the CGS and incoming President of the CGS in 2025. Dr. Lake was a member of the organizing committee of the 1st YP conference in Quebec City in 2004.

Ken Skaftfeld

TREK Geotechnical Inc.

Ken Skaftfeld is a Director and Senior Geotechnical Engineer at TREK Geotechnical Inc. in Winnipeg, MB.  Over almost 40 years, Ken has developed substantial geotechnical knowledge and experience in Western and Northern Canada. He has acted as an educator and mentor, notably through his work as an instructor at the University of Manitoba and Red River College Polytechnic to many of the up-and-coming geotechnical engineers in Manitoba and to Canada’s national geotechnical community. Ken played a critical role during the historic 1997 Red River Flood of the Century. He acted in a Lead capacity to the Geotechnical Emergency Response Team (GERT) during the actual flood peak, provided leadership to all flood upgrading activities following safe passage of the flood and published extensively on lessons learned. Ken recently served as the Co-Editor of the Canadian Foundation Engineering Manual (CFEM) issued in 2024.

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