Martello Advisory is a defence commercialization advisory practice founded by Ian Watt — someone with deep standing in the Canadian defence community and decades of experience in technology, programme delivery, and organizational consulting.
We exist to give commercially capable companies a fair chance at the defence sector — with the knowledge, relationships, and strategic clarity that would otherwise take years to build independently.
The word Martello means hammer.
The name comes from a Genoese artillery tower built in 1565 on the coast of Corsica — a small circular structure that, in 1794, held off two British warships carrying over a hundred guns combined using just two cannon. The British were so impressed by what a small, well-positioned, independently-held structure could achieve that they adopted the design and built versions of it across their empire. Between 1796 and 1848, sixteen were built in what would become Canada — at Halifax, Saint John, Quebec City, and Kingston — positioned at the points where controlling passage between two worlds mattered most. Eleven still stand.
Each tower was built around a single principle: place artillery at the right point, hold that position without external support, and create the conditions for others to act. The flat roof of every Martello tower was engineered as a gun platform, designed to provide a 360-degree field of fire from a position of hard-won credibility.
Martello Advisory takes its name from that principle. A permanent presence at the intersection of the commercial and defence worlds — built on earned credibility, holding ground that others need access to, and creating the conditions for those who cannot yet cross to do so.
Martello Advisory is a defence commercialization advisory practice. We work with established companies with a proven commercial track record and real but unrealised potential in the defence sector — providing the institutional credibility, strategic translation, and operational integration they need to become effective participants.
What makes this different from other forms of defence advisory is the combination: genuine institutional standing inside the Canadian defence community, the technical depth to evaluate capability independently, and the programme management track record to support execution — not just strategy.
Martello Advisory operates from within the Canadian defence community. The relationships, the institutional rhythms, the unwritten norms that determine who gets a meeting and who doesn't — these come from genuine standing, not observation from the outside.
What makes this practice distinctive
Deep institutional standing in the Canadian defence community — with an understanding of how the CAF thinks, decides, and adopts technology
Technical breadth to evaluate capability independently across software, AI, systems engineering, and advanced technology domains — without relying on intermediaries
Programme management track record to support execution — not just strategy. Results measured against your outcomes, not our hours.
Ian Watt is a senior officer in the Canadian Army Reserve with over 26 years of service, and the founder of Martello Advisory. He brings that military background together with decades of parallel experience in technology, programme delivery, organizational consulting, and talent advisory.
His military career spans leadership and command appointments across training, operational coordination, and institutional leadership within the Canadian Armed Forces. He deployed to Afghanistan as an advisor to the Afghan Ministry of Defence — specializing in strategy, policy, and international military affairs — operating at the civil-military interface, building alignment across multinational and ministerial stakeholders, and advising an institutional defence organization on strategic change under operational conditions.
As a programme and project manager, Ian led the implementation of the federal government's Rehabilitation Services and Vocational Assistance Programme for Veterans Affairs Canada — a multi-year, approximately $40M initiative coordinating over 120 resources and 300+ staff.
He has also managed enterprise software implementations for Fortune 500 clients, directed high-technology product development for international aerospace and defence customers, and led multi-million dollar software development and systems integration projects.
Few advisory practices bring together deep technical knowledge, formal business training, policy expertise, and genuine defence community standing. For clients, this means working with someone who can engage credibly across every dimension of a defence market entry — without translation layers between them.
The Defence Readiness Snapshot is the right starting point — a 5-day expert assessment that gives you a clear, honest view before you commit time or resources.