City Announces New Assistant Chief, Mississauga Fire and Emergency Services

After an extensive search, the City of Mississauga has selected Kalpana Rajgopalan as its new Assistant Chief, Professional Development and Accreditation, Mississauga Fire and Emergency Services (MFES) effective Tuesday, April 3, 2018.

Rajgopalan joins the MFES leadership team, which includes five other members:
• Tim Beckett, Fire Chief
• Nancy Macdonald-Duncan, Assistant Chief, Fire Prevention and Life Safety
• Mark Ormand, Assistant Chief, Operations and Communications
• Jamie Zimmerman, Assistant Chief, Capital Assets
• Tracey Martino, Executive Officer

“As they have proven countless times over the past 50 years, Mississauga Fire and Emergency Services is second to none in their field. From their award-winning auto extrication team to their life-saving fire prevention and education efforts, Kalpana is joining a very impressive and accomplished group,” said Paul Mitcham, Commissioner, Community Services. “MFES’ new leadership team brings a wealth of experience, education and equality. Together, their diverse backgrounds will allow them to continue to meet the needs of the community we serve, which is our top priority.”

Related Experience
Rajgopalan has held several management positions in the field of emergency services most recently as the Manager, Academic Standards and Evaluation with the Office of the Fire Marshal and Emergency Management (OFMEM). In this post, she oversaw the unit that managed all aspects of provincial activities related to professional standards and training in the fire service.

Prior to her work with OFMEM, Rajgopalan worked for Emergency Management Ontario as a Program Manager for Emergency Management Training where she lead the development, maintenance, evaluation and validation of training programs for internal and external delivery in emergency management principles.

Kalpana has also worked in the private sector where she led training and development programs at firms including London Life Insurance and Transamerica Life.

She holds a bachelor of Commerce Degree, Certificates in Teaching and Training Adults and is currently enrolled in a Master’s Degree in Public Administration.

“The community will greatly benefit from Kalpana’s exceptional work as a transformational leader,” said Tim Beckett, Fire Chief, MFES. “Her impressive work in the field of emergency services specifically her experience with professional standards and training makes her, without a doubt, the best person for the job and we’re excited to have her as a member of the team.”

Future Responsibilities
Reporting to the Fire Chief, Rajgopalan will be responsible for leading MFES’ transformation in their Professional Development and Accreditation section.

According to Beckett, this includes developing and implementing upcoming training regulation changes that will allow MFES to “best serve the citizens of Mississauga.”

MFES operates 20 fire stations with 616 operations firefighters and 93 staff working in the areas of Fire Prevention and Life Safety, Training, Communications, Fleet/Equipment and Administration.

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• Fire and Emergency Services
• Public Safety