Officer Commanding
Foxtrot Company
Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians)
Major Chris Quinlan was born in Toronto and raised in Calgary. He enrolled in the Canadian Forces in 1997 and joined the British Columbia Regiment (Duke of Connaught’s Own) as a reserve Armoured Officer in 2001. He has held regimental appointments as a reconnaissance troop leader, assault troop leader, squadron second-in-command and regimental adjutant.
In the summer of 2002 he was selected to spend a year with Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians) in Edmonton, deploying to Bosnia for six months as C Squadron Liaison Officer as part of the Second Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry Battle Group on Operation PALLADIUM Rotation 12.
Major Quinlan served as a staff officer at Headquarters 39 Canadian Brigade Group (CBG) in 2004 and again from 2006 to 2008. During his first headquarters tour he was employed as Assistant Personnel Services Officer (G1 Services 2) and Recruiting Policy Officer (G1 Recruiting). He returned to the headquarters in 2006 to coordinate the mounting of a 39 CBG company group for expeditionary operations as part of Task Force 2-07 and when that task force was stood down prior to deployment he remained as the operations branch staff officer responsible for high readiness force generation.
He completed Army Operations Course Serial 11 at the Canadian Land Force Command and Staff College in 2007 and was subsequently appointed G3 Operations (Current Operations Officer) of 39 CBG. In that capacity he served as acting brigade G3 during planning and preparations for Operation PONTOON, the combined civil-military response to potential spring runoff flooding of Southwestern British Columbia in the spring of 2007.
In January 2008 Major Quinlan joined Headquarters 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group in Petawawa, Ontario as they prepared to deploy as Headquarters Joint Task Force Afghanistan/Task Force Kandahar. From May 2008 to February 2009 he served as G3 Operations of Task Force Kandahar, responsible for the day-to-day running of the brigade operations centre, for which he was awarded a Canadian Expeditionary Force Command commendation.
Promoted to his current rank in May 2009, this summer Major Quinlan will take up his next appointment as officer commanding a 230-soldier company group composed of regular and reserve force soldiers which will conduct security tasks as part of Task Force Vancouver for Operation PODIUM, the military support to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in International Relations from the University of British Columbia and enjoys running, cycling, fencing, and travelling with his wife Lesley.
