Dr. Alan Low is the Executive Director of Medicines Access Coalition – BC, Primary Care Pharmacist and Pharmacy Lead at BioPro Biologics Pharmacy, a collaborative practice approach, focusing on patient centred care. He is also a Clinical Associate Professor in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UBC and an Instructor and Course Developer with the School of Health Sciences at the Justice Institute of BC (JIBC).

Convinced that pharmacists have much more to offer to the public and the healthcare system, Alan has led the development and implementation of provincial medication management projects in BC and Alberta as well as creating a novel model of community pharmacy practice where interprofessional collaboration is leveraged to improve patient health outcomes.

Within the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UBC, Dr. Low is one of the founders of the Faculty based Pharmacists Clinic and helped develop and lead the business case for the Pharmacists Clinic. He is the Course Coordinator for the Pharmacy Practice Management and Leadership Course and Lecturer. In addition, he is also a Board Advisor with the GI Society and sits on the Medical Board of HealthChoicesFirst.com, a patient video education resource. Dr. Low has experience in a wide variety of health and administrative settings including direct patient care in the hospital and clinics, clinical and practice-based research, consultant in healthcare projects and clinical pharmaceutical consulting. He has held positions such as Clinical Pharmacist, Clinical Specialist, Pharmacotherapeutic Specialist within teaching hospitals, as well as Manager of Government Affairs and Medical Affairs, Medical Science Liaison, and Senior Health Sciences Advisor in research-based pharmaceutical companies and was the Chief Operating Officer at Network Healthcare. Alan is a Certified Clinical Densitometrist (CCD), coauthored “The Osteoporosis Book, 4th Edition: Bone Health”, has numerous publications in scientific and health journals, newsletters, and is a founding co-editor of the Pharmacy Management in Canada textbook.

Alan has been an active member and past participant on various committees (with the College of Pharmacists of BC, BC Pharmacy Association, Canadian Pharmacists Association, Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists, GI Society, etc). He has interests in the areas of, rheumatology, osteoporosis, gastroenterology, diabetes, and cardiology. Alan enjoys being involved in projects that improve health knowledge translation, healthcare delivery, medical health education and health outcomes research. Alan’s training includes a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy, a Hospital Pharmacy Residency at St. Paul’s Hospital, and Doctorate of Pharmacy degree at UBC. He is frequently invited to speak at regional, national and international conferences. He strives to develop solutions to close gaps in health care working together with a variety of people.

Dr. Alan Low is the Executive Director of Medicines Access Coalition – BC, Primary Care Pharmacist and Pharmacy Lead at BioPro Biologics Pharmacy, a collaborative practice approach, focusing on patient centred care. He is also a Clinical Associate Professor in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UBC and an Instructor and Course Developer with the School of Health Sciences at the Justice Institute of BC (JIBC).

Convinced that pharmacists have much more to offer to the public and the healthcare system, Alan has led the development and implementation of provincial medication management projects in BC and Alberta as well as creating a novel model of community pharmacy practice where interprofessional collaboration is leveraged to improve patient health outcomes.

Within the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UBC, Dr. Low is one of the founders of the Faculty based Pharmacists Clinic and helped develop and lead the business case for the Pharmacists Clinic. He is the Course Coordinator for the Pharmacy Practice Management and Leadership Course and Lecturer. In addition, he is also a Board Advisor with the GI Society and sits on the Medical Board of HealthChoicesFirst.com, a patient video education resource. Dr. Low has experience in a wide variety of health and administrative settings including direct patient care in the hospital and clinics, clinical and practice-based research, consultant in healthcare projects and clinical pharmaceutical consulting. He has held positions such as Clinical Pharmacist, Clinical Specialist, Pharmacotherapeutic Specialist within teaching hospitals, as well as Manager of Government Affairs and Medical Affairs, Medical Science Liaison, and Senior Health Sciences Advisor in research-based pharmaceutical companies and was the Chief Operating Officer at Network Healthcare. Alan is a Certified Clinical Densitometrist (CCD), coauthored “The Osteoporosis Book, 4th Edition: Bone Health”, has numerous publications in scientific and health journals, newsletters, and is a founding co-editor of the Pharmacy Management in Canada textbook.

Alan has been an active member and past participant on various committees (with the College of Pharmacists of BC, BC Pharmacy Association, Canadian Pharmacists Association, Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists, GI Society, etc). He has interests in the areas of, rheumatology, osteoporosis, gastroenterology, diabetes, and cardiology. Alan enjoys being involved in projects that improve health knowledge translation, healthcare delivery, medical health education and health outcomes research. Alan’s training includes a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy, a Hospital Pharmacy Residency at St. Paul’s Hospital, and Doctorate of Pharmacy degree at UBC. He is frequently invited to speak at regional, national and international conferences. He strives to develop solutions to close gaps in health care working together with a variety of people.

Mary has over 20 years of executive experience in the British Columbia health system including her service as the President and CEO of Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) from 2014-2020 and prior executive positions of Chief Operating Officer and Vice-President Facilities, Real Estate and Process Improvement.

Throughout her career, Mary’s passion has been to transform the public system to ensure sustainability in the face of growing demand and constrained resources. As CEO of VCH, she encouraged a focus on innovation and discoveries to improve patient health, transform health systems, and directly impact health and economic outcomes. Her longstanding interest in virtual care enabled health providers to continue delivering care to patients and clients across VCH from the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2019, Glassdoor, one of the world’s largest employee recruitment sites named Mary as one of Canada’s Top 25 CEOs based on employee reviews. She was named as one of Canada’s Most Powerful Women in 2014 and 2015. Over the past year, Mary led the innovation and research agenda at the B.C. Ministry of Health as the Senior Executive in Residence and the lead for the Partnerships and Innovation Division.

Mary is a graduate of the Harvard Business School’s Master’s of Business Administration program and holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering from West Virginia University.

Dr. Laura Furstenthal is a Senior Partner in McKinsey & Company’s San Francisco Office, a leader within the global Healthcare Practice, and co-leader of the North America Innovation Practice.

Her clients include healthcare companies (from 50-person health techs start-ups to large medical device and pharmaceutical leaders), life science manufacturers, health insurers, research institutes, and investors across the U.S., Europe and Asia. Her expertise includes personalized medicine, commercial optimization, and delivering highest quality care for the lowest cost (including strategies to enable Accountable Care Organizations, health exchanges, and develop sustainable capital plans).

Specific to med tech, examples of her experiences include:

• Salesforce optimization and launch planning for novel cardiovascular device
• Digital transformation (including set up of the Digital Transformation Office, development of
  strategy, implementation of policy and process changes to core functions, and successful launch of
  initial use cases) for a leading diagnostics company
• Go-to-market model design for a novel software product within a med tech company, including
  salesforce and field technical support, reimbursement strategy and market development
• Clinical operations optimization (including deployment of advanced analytics) to improve cost basis by 20% of a medical technology that required significant clinical and technical support
• Supply chain optimization for a rapidly growing med tech company
• Global growth strategy for a novel proteomics technology platform, including assessment of critical partnerships, markets and product opportunities
• Innovation portfolio assessment for an automotive manufacturer applying its proprietary technologies (GPS, mobility) to specific healthcare needs/ applications
• Assessment of value chain economics and optimization of the global business for a diabetes device
  manufacturer

In addition, her 2 decades of consulting experience spans commercial, R&D, operations, organization,
capability building and strategy. She is also the co-developer and a leader in deploying McKinsey’s Net New Growth methodology across healthcare, high tech, automotive, insurance, consumer, and non-profit foundations, including guiding clients to establish a clear innovation vision/ aspiration, ensure an effective operating model, accelerate internal and external sourcing of new concepts and products, and rapidly scaling go-to-market model.

Beyond client service, she is the leader of McKinsey’s annual Women’s Leadership Summit (keynote
speakers include Sheryl Sandberg, Geena Davis and Condoleezza Rice). She has authored publications in journals including Nature Drug Discovery and speaks regularly at healthcare industry and women’s
leadership conferences. She has served on multiple boards, including California Academy of Sciences and formerly American Diabetes Association (Bay Area). She is also the mother of two children, Rory (17) and Evan (10).

Laura holds an AB in Biology from Harvard University and a PhD. in Cancer Biology from Stanford
University School of Medicine.

The Digital Technology is solving some of industry and society’s biggest challenges through Canadian made digital solutions. As the Supercluster CEO, Sue is leading over 82 projects addressing issues such as improving access to virtual mental health care, addressing COVID 19 issues and reducing the impact of climate change on our environment. Working with 1,000+ organizations, the Supercluster is growing Canada’s successful SME’s and improving our global competiveness in the digital world.

Sue also serves on the Boards of TELUS International, CORIX Group of Companies, Canexia Health, Own the Podium and Stemcell Technologies and Co-Chair’s Canada’s COVID-19 Testing and Screening Expert Advisory Panel, and is the past Chair of the Business Council of British Columbia. Sue’s biggest passion is spending time in Canada’s wilderness with her husband, daughters and granddaughters.

Dr. Victoria Lee leads the overall management and delivery of health programs and services in one of the largest and fastest-growing health networks in Canada.

Victoria is responsible for overall strategic direction and operations of Fraser Health Authority including a wide range of integrated health services – acute care hospitals as well as community-based long term care, home health, mental health, and public.

Career snapshot

Victoria joined Fraser Health in 2010 as a medical health officer. She held progressive leadership positions including her most recent role as the vice president for population health and chief medical health officer. Prior to joining Fraser Health, she worked in collaboration with national and international organizations including the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank in the areas of comparative health systems, health policy, health financing and eco-health.

Victoria also worked as a travel physician in rural communities in Chile and Brazil. Her research activities include health equity, community-based primary health system, health performance and clinical prevention.

She serves on the board of Canada Health Infoway and the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer. 

Formal education

Victoria obtained her medical degree from the University of Western Ontario, her Royal College fellowship in Community Medicine from the University of Toronto and postgraduate degrees in Public Health, Business Administration from Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Dermot Kelleher brings significant experience and is recognized internationally for innovation in academic health leadership and administration, clinical care, research and education.
Dr. Kelleher joined the University of British Columbia (UBC) in 2015 and serves as the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Vice-President, Health. Prior to his appointment at UBC, Dr. Kelleher served as Vice-President Health and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London, where he also held a concurrent appointment as Dean of the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine in Singapore until 2014. Dr. Kelleher has also served as Head of the School of Medicine and Vice Provost for Medical Affairs at Trinity College, Dublin.

Dr. Kelleher graduated from medicine from Trinity College, Dublin in 1978, going on to specialize in gastroenterology and general internal medicine. Author of 300 publications and 14 patents, Dr. Kelleher’s research examines immune responses in gastrointestinal disease and cancer. Over the years he has received many prestigious awards including a NIH Fogarty Scholarship at the University of California San Diego, Wellcome Senior Fellowship in Clinical Science, and the Conway Medal from the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland.

With a strong commitment to innovation and collaboration, Dr. Kelleher currently serves on the advisory board of Research Excellence Framework (REF) in the U.K., and is the Chair of the Standing Committee on Research and Innovation at the Association of Faculties of Medicine Canada. He has a strong background in innovation over his entire career and has worked to found several companies supporting both translational developments in biomedical science and fostering collaboration in biomedical research in both Dublin and London, including for example, MedCity in London. In addition, he has served as a non-executive Director of ICON plc, a globally leading Clinical Research Organization. A Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (London), he also served as President of the Federation of European Academies of Medicine before moving to British Columbia, Canada.

Charlie Evans is director of analytics at Cerner and is responsible for Cerner Millennium® and Population Health Analytics in the UK and the Nordics. He has significant experience of delivering population health programmes at both a national and local level. He has delivered the national performance and population health management dashboard for NHS England as well as overseeing the delivery of Cerner’s COVID analytics in the UK. Charlie has over 15 years’ experience in the health and care sector and is interested in using advanced analytics to address inequalities and predict patient risks.

Drew McArthur retired from TELUS in 2007 as Vice President Corporate Affairs and Chief Compliance Officer. As Chief Compliance Officer, Drew was responsible for legal and regulatory compliance for all of TELUS’ operations, reporting to the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors. The responsibilities of this role included ensuring TELUS had the appropriate controls, policies and measurements in place to be compliant with many areas of law and regulation. Drew played a key role in the privacy community in Canada as a founding member of the Council of Canadian Chief Privacy Officers and a member of the advisory board of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP). From June 2016 to April 2018, Drew was the Acting Information and Privacy Commissioner for BC, and is now consulting in the area of privacy. He can be contacted at drew.mcarthur@telus.net.

Sanjay Joshi is Global CIO, Healthcare and Life Sciences at Tanium. Based in Seattle, he has
spanned the gamut of life-sciences from clinical and biotechnology research to healthcare informatics
to medical devices. A “skunkworks” engineer and informaticist, he defines himself as a “nonreductionist” and “non-conformist”, with a “systems view of the real world.” Sanjay is currently focused on data, policy and process approaches for security, trust and privacy using scalable systems, data and cloud infrastructures for devices, genomics, proteomics, microbiomics, imaging, the phenotype
(EMR) and their interoperability, and trust along the customers’ journey.

Recent experience has included corporate technology strategy, AI platforms, time-series data
analysis, data management for Electronic Medical Records; instruments and methods for Proteomics
and Flow Cytometry; FDA and HIPAA verification and validation; Lab Information Management
Systems (LIMS); Translational Genomics research and Imaging. Sanjay holds a patent in multidimensional flow cytometry analytics.

Sanjay was the recipient of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Small Business Innovation Research
(SBIR) grant and has been a consultant or co-Principal-Investigator on several NIH grants. He is
actively involved in non-profit biotech and data networking organizations in the Seattle area and
beyond. Sanjay holds a Master of Biomedical Engineering from the University of New South Wales,
Sydney and a Bachelor of Instrumentation Technology from Bangalore University. He completed
several medical school and PhD level courses (in Sydney and Seattle).

Dave Lewis has 30 years of industry experience. He has extensive experience in IT security operations and management including a decade dealing with critical infrastructure security. Lewis is a Global Advisory CISO for Cisco. He is the founder of the security site Liquidmatrix Security Digest and cohost of the Liquidmatrix podcast as well as the host of the Plaintext podcast. Lewis serves on the advisory boards for several firms. He is currently enrolled in a graduate program at Harvard University. Lewis has written columns for Daily Swig, Forbes and several other publications.

Pamela Snively joined TELUS as Chief Data and Trust Officer in October, 2015. She leads the team responsible for data and privacy governance at TELUS. Pamela also serves TELUS’ commitment to integrity through her leadership of a variety of initiatives, including the Anti-bribery & Corruption and Competition Law programs.

Prior to joining TELUS, Pamela managed the consulting arm of Osler’s privacy and data management practices, AccessPrivacy by Osler. As a lawyer and consultant, she provided a broad range of privacy, risk-management and compliance advice in the private, public and health sectors. She assisted organizations in implementing enterprise risk-management programs; advising on privacy and outsourcing governance and accountability programs; designing and implementing records-management programs; drafting policies, procedures and training materials; managing data breaches and other regulatory investigations; and conducting privacy impact or risk assessments.

Pamela formerly held Chief Privacy and Risk Officer roles in large business process outsourcing companies in Canada.

As Senior Vice President, Government Markets, Erica is responsible for LifeLabs’ core business, renewing and building relationships with government partners and expanding community lab access. In this role, Erica also leads key enabling corporate affairs functions, including corporate communications and community engagement.

Most recently, Erica held the role of Vice President, General Counsel, Chief Privacy Officer and Corporate Secretary, where she was responsible for the management of all legal, privacy, risk and corporate governance matters on behalf of the organization.

Prior to her time at LifeLabs, Erica led a team responsible for all legal, privacy, risk, breach management and regulatory requirements at Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) and played a critical role in the transition of CCO into Ontario Health.

Erica also worked on many of the legal and privacy requirements surrounding Ontario Health’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and has a strong track record of developing meaningful and transparent enterprise-wide risk, privacy, and compliance programs.

Erica is a Loran Scholar and holds an HBSc. in human biology/bioethics from the University of Toronto (Trinity College), an LLB from Queen’s University, and an LLM in Health Law from Osgoode Hall Law School. She is passionate about volunteering and sits on multiple not-for-profit boards and initiatives.

Visionary leader committed to transforming health care systems and implementing innovative solutions that create sustainable, high quality services for future generations.

Jim began his career as a Medical Laboratory Technologist (MLT) and completed his advanced certification in Transfusion Medicine (ART) at Vancouver General Hospital. He furthered his education by completing his Bachelor of Science (BSc) and Masters of Business Administration (MBA). He became CEO of Diagnostic Services Manitoba in October 2011 and was a senior leader on the Shared Health Executive Team co-leading the creation and development of Shared Health and Manitoba’s health system transformation. In 2019, Jim moved back to BC as the province’s first Chief Provincial Diagnostics Officer, leading the development, implementation, and evaluation of the province-wide pathology and medical laboratory service delivery model.

Jim has been a champion of “Choosing Wisely” and “Personalized Medicine” and has led a number of national health care initiatives particularly focused on innovative solutions that deliver a substantive clinical value.

Lisa has more than 25 years of experience in academic and healthcare leadership, including more than a decade with the Fraser Health Authority in various clinical director roles. She joined BCIT in 2015 as Associate Dean, Laboratory and Allied Health, and became Dean, School of Health Sciences in 2018. She is responsible for the strategic leadership, and overall operational leadership of the School of Health Sciences that includes Laboratory Sciences and Allied Health, Nursing, Diagnostics, and Medical Imaging, and Specialty Nursing programs. As well, she is providing the overall leadership for the school in the development of the new Health Sciences Centre. In addition to being part of BCIT Leadership Team, a major part of her responsibilities is working with external partners and industry to support the overall economic growth in the province.

Lisa holds an MBA (Executive) from SFU, a Bachelor of Home Economics (Dietetics and Nutrition) from UBC, and a Certificate in Health Care Management from BCIT. Known as a strategic, collaborative, and visionary leader, Lisa is passionate and experienced in leading transformational change. Accomplished in engaging diverse internal and external stakeholders to achieve common goals, Lisa has a strong track record of creating high-performing teams and building trusting relationships.

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Craig Ivany is a health services executive and laboratory services strategist with over 34 years of experience influencing healthcare. His depth of practice includes a legacy of leadership across Canada, including Hospital Executive Director in rural Newfoundland, Executive Director of Canadian Blood Services’ operations portfolio, VP role with DynaLIFE in Alberta, VP role with Dynacare Laboratories in Ontario, CEO of the Eastern Ontario Regional Laboratory Association, President and CEO of Alberta Public Labs, and is a current and past board member of several not-for-profit organizations in Canadian healthcare. In his current role, as the Chief Provincial Diagnostics Officer for the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) in British Columbia, Craig is leading the implementation of a new province-wide laboratory medicine service delivery model in collaboration with stakeholders across British Columbia. Craig is also a certified health executive, a long-time member of the Canadian College of Health Leaders, holds a designation with the Institute of Corporate Directors and was appointed Adjunct Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columba in 2020.

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Gina Ogilvie, MD MSc FCFP DrPH is a Canada Research Chair in Global Control of HPV related diseases and prevention, and Professor at the University of British Columbia in the School of Population and Public Health. Dr. Ogilvie is currently principal investigator on over 10 million dollars in research grants and she has received funding from a variety of sources including NIH, CIHR and private foundations. Her research is focused on both the public health and clinical aspects of reproductive health, sexually transmitted infections, HPV screening and the HPV vaccine, and her findings have been highly influential in setting and directing health policy both in Canada and globally. She has published over 200 peer reviewed manuscripts and has provided advice and consultation to national and global institutions. Dr. Ogilvie received her MD from McMaster University, and completed a specialty in Family Medicine and a fellowship in Population Health and Primary care. She received her Master of Science at UBC, and her Doctorate in Public Health from the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health. Dr. Ogilvie is the recipient of many honors, including UBC Killam Research Prize (2021) and YWCA Woman of Distinction (2018). She is a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

Carlo Perez is the co-founder and CEO of Swift Medical, the global leader in digital wound care. Since founding the company in 2015, Carlo has grown Swift Medical to become the undisputed category leader, with their empathic, AI-powered technology adopted by over 4,000 healthcare organizations internationally. Swift Medical has been recognized as a Great Place to Work® and named to the 2020 List of Best Workplaces™ in Healthcare.

With 20 years of engineering and entrepreneurial experience, Carlo has worked at the forefront of artificial intelligence, machine visioning and robotics, from his time in research and development at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Inc., to teaching computer and electrical engineering as college professor to starting his own innovative tech companies.

Carlo is a recognized thought leader and speaker in digital health transformation, artificial intelligence, product empathy and the innovation economy.

Kathryn is an experienced leader and researcher, her passion is using research and innovation to improve quality of care and health outcomes.

In her current role Kathryn is responsible for providing provincial leadership of the Strategic Clinical NetworksTM, innovation, research strategy and operations, knowledge management, data and analytics, and provincial programs for Senior’s Health and Continuing Care, Addictions and Mental Health, Population and Public Health, and the Provincial Indigenous Wellness Core.

Kathryn is an active researcher at the University of Alberta, where she continues to investigate the central nervous system response to disease and injury. She is a full Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, and an Adjunct Professor in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering, Pediatrics and Medicine (Neurology).

She has received numerous awards from provincial and national funding organizations, including the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and team grants from Alberta Innovates and the Canada Foundation for Innovation. She has published over 200 manuscripts, abstracts and book chapters.

Pieter R. Cullis, Ph.D. FRSC, FNAI (USA), Scientific Director & CEO, NanoMedicines Innovation Network,  Canada’s National Centre of Excellence in nanomedicines; Professor, Department of Biochemistry and  Molecular Biology, University of British Columbia. Dr. Cullis and co-workers have been responsible for fundamental advances in the design and development of nanomedicines employing lipid nanoparticle  (LNP) technology for cancer therapies and gene therapies. This work has contributed to five drugs that have been approved by regulatory agencies in the U.S., Europe and Canada. Dr. Cullis has co-founded  ten biotechnology companies that now employ over 300 people, has published over 350 scientific articles and is an inventor on over 60 patents. He also co-founded the Centre for Drug Research and  Development, a Centre of Excellence for the Commercialization of Research (now AdMare) in 2004, the  Personalized Medicine Initiative (PMI) in 2012 and the NanoMedicines Innovation Network in 2019. Dr.  Cullis was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2004 and was also awarded the Prix Galien,  Canada’s premier prize for achievements in pharmaceutical R&D, in 2011. Two recently approved drugs that are enabled by LNP delivery systems devised by Dr. Cullis, members of his UBC laboratory and colleagues in the companies he has co-founded deserve special emphasis. The first is Onpattro which was approved by the US FDA in August 2018 to treat the previously fatal hereditary condition transthyretin-induced amyloidosis (hATTR). Onpattro is the first RNAi drug to receive regulatory approval. The second is BNT162b2, the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer/BioNTech that has now (December 2020) been approved in Canada, the USA, the UK and Europe. It is anticipated that more than 1.3B doses of BNT162b2 will be administered worldwide in 2021.

Evgueni Loukipoudis is the CTO of Canada’s Digital Technology Supercluster. Before joining the Supercluster, he was the CTO of McKesson Medical Imaging and then Change Healthcare and prior to that, as a senior leader in Agfa Healthcare he co-led the digital transformation of that multinatioal corporation. Evgueni has also been part of technology start-ups and participated in several open industry-wide and global standardization initiatives. He has extensive international experience having worked in Belgium, Germany, Brazil and now Canada. He holds an MSc in Mathematics and a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Sofia, Bulgaria. His interests include digital health, digital twins, distributed ledger technology, data commons, web3 data economy, linked open data, and machine learning.

Stephanie Chicoine is the Senior Business Manager for Healthcare in Western Canada at Microsoft, managing all Microsoft business in relation to our largest healthcare customers and partners. Previously the Healthcare Lead for Western Canada at Microsoft where she oversaw the portfolio of Microsoft and partner solutions for all Healthcare accounts in Western Canada and supported them in their digital transformation. Stephanie was also the lead for Microsoft’s involvement for the Secure Health Data Genomics Project for the Canadian Super Cluster. Previous to this role, Stephanie was the Azure lead for Canadian Healthcare and has extensive knowledge of Healthcare applications and data interoperability. Stephanie has helped organizations bring over 25 medical applications to market. Before Microsoft, Stephanie was working with the Federal Government and Pharma to launch healthcare solutions and applications and spent five years at Telus Health.

Robert Falzon is currently the Head of Engineering within the office of the CTO for Check Point Software Technologies Inc., the worldwide leader in securing the Internet. His background includes over 20 years of experience in large-scale network security architecture, design, and deployment projects for government and business organizations spanning the globe. Currently leading a large team of the most talented cyber security engineers in the industry, Robert and his team are responsible for educating the market on the latest cyber security trends.

Other past responsibilities have included operational, management, and developmental duties for major accounts within EDS Canada’s network security team, and lead engineer for many major European Telco accounts with Alcatel in Paris France. While with Alcatel, Robert worked to assist those accounts in moving to emerging voice technologies while maintaining a focus on security.

After obtaining his CISSP certification, Robert went on to provide security process and audit/penetration testing training to major financial and energy customers within Europe and the Middle East, in addition to providing audit and penetration testing and consulting services to customers worldwide.

Dr. Robert Fraser is the President and CSO of Molecular You, a digital health company delivering molecular-level personalized health insights and action plans. Dr. Fraser has been at the forefront of developing the framework and technologies to bring personalized medicine into healthcare practice. He is the co-founder of The Personalized Medicine Initiative (PMI), GenXys Health Care Systems, Personalized Biomarkers Incorporated, Mesentech Corporation and Novobind. Dr. Fraser has led drug discovery and development projects at Sanofi, Xenon, Neuromed and CDRD and has been involved in raising of more than $37M in funding. He completed his Ph.D. in the molecular mechanisms of endocrinology at the University of Alberta and Harvard Medical School and Post-Doctoral Fellowships at Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto and IGBMC, Strasbourg France.

Handol is Co-Founder & CEO of Variational AI, an AI for drug discovery start-up based in Vancouver. Variational AI is applying its state-of-the-art generative AI to generate novel drug-like small molecules that are efficacious, safe, and synthesizable in months versus years. Handol brings over 20 years of executive management experience and leadership from venture-backed start-ups and publicly-listed technology companies in cloud, mobile/embedded, and telecommunications software in Silicon Valley, Canada, and Asia Pacific.

Handol serves on the boards of AI Network of British Columbia (AInBC), the Digital Technology Supercluster, and the United Way British Columbia.

Dr. Kendall Ho’s academic and research interests fall into the domain of technology-enabled knowledge translation (TEKT) – the use of information technologies to accelerate the incorporation of the latest health evidence into routine practice. Specific directions within TEKT include telehealth, information and communication technologies (ICT) and patient safety, ICT and public engagement, and evidence-based policy translation in eHealth.

Terri is Carrier from the Tl’Azt’En territory located north of Fort St. James. She is Lysiloo (Frog) Clan who are traditionally known as the voice of the people. She follows her mother’s and Great-Grandmother’s line Cecilia Pierre (Prince). Terri grew up in both the inner city of Prince George and on the Tachet reserve (in Lake Babine Territory) and these experiences helped motivate her to go to medical school so she could give back to her community. Terri has a Bachelor of Health Science Degree and a Doctor of Medicine Degree from the University of Alberta. She then went on to complete the Indigenous Family Medicine residency program through the University of British Columbia. At present, Terri is the Site Director for the Indigenous Family Medicine Program, Family Physician for the Carrier Sekani Family Services Primary Care team that serve12 communities in north-central BC, the Medical Director for Primary Care for FNHA, and the Indigenous Lead for the RCcBC. Sna Chaylia.

Dr. Bouchonville is an Associate Professor at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism and serves as Medical Director of the UNM Diabetes Comprehensive Care Center and UNM Center for Diabetes and Nutrition Education. He is an Associate Director of Project ECHO and Medical Director of the Endocrinology teleECHO (Endo ECHO) program at the ECHO Institute. In 2014, he launched the Endo ECHO program to support implementation of best practices complex diabetes management among the primary care workforce in medically underserved regions of New Mexico. In his role as Associate Director, he joined the Cancer Initiative in 2019 and COVID-19 initiative in 2020.

Barry Burk joined Infoway in 2019 and became an Executive Vice President in 2020. He leads the development and implementation of programs and services to improve Canadians’ access to health information and digital services and tools, and improve provider communications. He also has responsibility for the Account Management team, which works with the jurisdictions to understand their needs and advance Infoway’s strategies. Barry has a proven track record of success in the health information management and technology industry. He had a 30-plus year career at IBM Canada, with more than 20 years as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for the health care industry. He was also head of Public Sector Business Development and Sales at TELUS Health. Barry has a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) in Business, Management and Marketing from the University of Manitoba.

Fiona Dalton became President and Chief Executive Officer of Providence Health Care on April 23, 2018.

Ms. Dalton brings over 23 years of health care experience to Providence. Prior to joining Providence, she was the CEO of University Hospital Southampton NHS (National Health Service) Foundation Trust in the United Kingdom. This renowned academic health sciences centre has 10,000 employees and an annual budget of over $1.2 billion Cdn.

Ms. Dalton’s accomplishments have included:

• developing and launching a new values-based organizational vision;
• being nationally recognized for improving quality and safety;
• improving hospital performance and patient outcomes;
• enhancing research performance;
• leading successful staff health and well-being strategies;
• focusing on quality improvement, innovation and digital services; and
• delivering a successful capital program, improving and expanding facilities for patient care, research and education, with academic, commercial and charitable partners.

She holds a BA Honours in Human Sciences from Queen’s College, Oxford University. She received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science by the University of Southampton in 2017.

She has previously served as the Chief Operating Officer and Interim CEO of the Great Ormond Street Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; Executive Director of Strategy and Business Development at Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust; and Divisional Director, Responsible for Surgery, Cancer, Critical Care, Neurosciences, Theatres & Anaesthetics, at Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust.

Mr. Shahbazi has 25+ years of experience as a technology focused leader and operator. He is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of WELL Health Technologies Corp. (TSX:WELL).

WELL is a provider of digital health solutions to doctors and care providers in both the US and Canada. It is also the largest owner & operator of outpatient medical clinics in Canada. The Company currently owns and operates 83 healthcare facilities, and its comprehensive practitioner enablement platform is used by more than 21,000 physicians in Canada alone to power their healthcare practices. WELL is driven by more than 2700 employees and healthcare providers who engage in greater than 4M patient interactions annually.
Hamed also founded TIO Networks (TSXV:TNC) a multi-channel payment solution provider specializing in last minute bill payment and other financial services. TIO was acquired by PayPal (Nasdaq: PYPL) for CAD$304 million in 2017.

Hamed has extensive strategic Mergers, Acquisitions and Divestitures experience as an operator and board member having completed more than 50 successful transactions.

He is a passionate advocate of impact entrepreneurship where new companies aim to do well by doing good. Founders of these types of businesses he describes as “Impactreneurs”. Hamed regularly mentors founders and entrepreneurs of early stage companies and also supports many of them with early stage investments via Impactreneur Capital Corp.

Mr. Shahbazi has been recognized with a. number of awards including but not limited to Business in Vancouver’s CEO of the Year, (2017), Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year (2017 and 2022), and Cantech Letter’s TSX Venture Tech “Exec of the Year” (2014 thru 2016). TIO was also awarded with the TSX’s Venture Tech “Stock of the Year” (2014 and 2015).

Mark is Vice Chair of KPMG UK and a Global Expert on Health Systems. For 11 years, Mark was Global Head of Healthcare at KPMG International and Global Chair of Infrastructure, Government and Healthcare for 3 years. In that time, Mark oversaw $7 billion of annual revenue, supporting 45,000 staff across 157 countries.

He is one of the foremost global experts on healthcare systems and has a pioneering and inspiring global vision for health in both the developed and developing world. Mark has dedicated his entire professional life to healthcare and has led organisations at local, regional, national and global levels –provider and payer, public and private. Over the past 11 years, he has worked in over 80 countries on circa. 345 occasions, gaining a unique first-handexperience.

Mark was appointed Chief Executive of University Hospitals Birmingham in 2000. He masterminded the largest new hospital build in NHS history,established the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine and developed one of the highest performing healthcare organisations in the UK.

He went on to run the NHS region from Oxford to the Isle of Wight before joining the NHS Management Board as a Director-General at the Department of Health, where he developed High Quality Care for All with Lord Darzi. He joined KPMG as Global Chairman and Senior Partner for Health in 2009 and has established a successful worldwide health practice.

Between 2014 and 2018, Mark sat as a member of the Global Agenda Council on the Future of the Health Sector for the World Economic Forum and sits on the Advisory Board of the China Center for Health Development at Peking University. He is also an Honorary Professor at Taishan Medical University School, Shandong Province and holds honorary doctorates from Birmingham City University and the University of Wolverhampton.

Mark is the author of “In Search of the Perfect Health System”, published by Palgrave Macmillian. The book has sold in over 109 countries, including translations into Mandarin, Korean and Portuguese, and was recognised by Chinese Medical Doctors Association as best health book in China in 2017, and in the UK by the British Medical Association, 2016. Mark’s new book, “Human: solving the global workforce crisis in healthcare” was published by Oxford University Press in March 2019. It sold out it’s first print run in 4 months and was recently translated into Mandarin.

Mark has been a Non-Executive Director at Dr Foster, a trustee of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service and a Board member of Prostate Cancer UK. He survived prostate cancer at the age of 42 and has donated all royalties from the sale of this book to Prostate Cancer UK. He is a Board Trustee of the King’s Fund and Executive in Residence at the RotmanSchool of Management, Toronto.

Dr. Alan Low is the Executive Director of Medicines Access Coalition – BC, Primary Care Pharmacist and Pharmacy Lead at BioPro Biologics Pharmacy, a collaborative practice approach, focusing on patient centred care. He is also a Clinical Associate Professor in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UBC and an Instructor and Course Developer with the School of Health Sciences at the Justice Institute of BC (JIBC).

Convinced that pharmacists have much more to offer to the public and the healthcare system, Alan has led the development and implementation of provincial medication management projects in BC and Alberta as well as creating a novel model of community pharmacy practice where interprofessional collaboration is leveraged to improve patient health outcomes.

Within the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UBC, Dr. Low is one of the founders of the Faculty based Pharmacists Clinic and helped develop and lead the business case for the Pharmacists Clinic. He is the Course Coordinator for the Pharmacy Practice Management and Leadership Course and Lecturer. In addition, he is also a Board Advisor with the GI Society and sits on the Medical Board of HealthChoicesFirst.com, a patient video education resource. Dr. Low has experience in a wide variety of health and administrative settings including direct patient care in the hospital and clinics, clinical and practice-based research, consultant in healthcare projects and clinical pharmaceutical consulting. He has held positions such as Clinical Pharmacist, Clinical Specialist, Pharmacotherapeutic Specialist within teaching hospitals, as well as Manager of Government Affairs and Medical Affairs, Medical Science Liaison, and Senior Health Sciences Advisor in research-based pharmaceutical companies and was the Chief Operating Officer at Network Healthcare. Alan is a Certified Clinical Densitometrist (CCD), coauthored “The Osteoporosis Book, 4th Edition: Bone Health”, has numerous publications in scientific and health journals, newsletters, and is a founding co-editor of the Pharmacy Management in Canada textbook.

Alan has been an active member and past participant on various committees (with the College of Pharmacists of BC, BC Pharmacy Association, Canadian Pharmacists Association, Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists, GI Society, etc). He has interests in the areas of, rheumatology, osteoporosis, gastroenterology, diabetes, and cardiology. Alan enjoys being involved in projects that improve health knowledge translation, healthcare delivery, medical health education and health outcomes research. Alan’s training includes a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy, a Hospital Pharmacy Residency at St. Paul’s Hospital, and Doctorate of Pharmacy degree at UBC. He is frequently invited to speak at regional, national and international conferences. He strives to develop solutions to close gaps in health care working together with a variety of people.

Dr. Alan Low is the Executive Director of Medicines Access Coalition – BC, Primary Care Pharmacist and Pharmacy Lead at BioPro Biologics Pharmacy, a collaborative practice approach, focusing on patient centred care. He is also a Clinical Associate Professor in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UBC and an Instructor and Course Developer with the School of Health Sciences at the Justice Institute of BC (JIBC).

Convinced that pharmacists have much more to offer to the public and the healthcare system, Alan has led the development and implementation of provincial medication management projects in BC and Alberta as well as creating a novel model of community pharmacy practice where interprofessional collaboration is leveraged to improve patient health outcomes.

Within the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UBC, Dr. Low is one of the founders of the Faculty based Pharmacists Clinic and helped develop and lead the business case for the Pharmacists Clinic. He is the Course Coordinator for the Pharmacy Practice Management and Leadership Course and Lecturer. In addition, he is also a Board Advisor with the GI Society and sits on the Medical Board of HealthChoicesFirst.com, a patient video education resource. Dr. Low has experience in a wide variety of health and administrative settings including direct patient care in the hospital and clinics, clinical and practice-based research, consultant in healthcare projects and clinical pharmaceutical consulting. He has held positions such as Clinical Pharmacist, Clinical Specialist, Pharmacotherapeutic Specialist within teaching hospitals, as well as Manager of Government Affairs and Medical Affairs, Medical Science Liaison, and Senior Health Sciences Advisor in research-based pharmaceutical companies and was the Chief Operating Officer at Network Healthcare. Alan is a Certified Clinical Densitometrist (CCD), coauthored “The Osteoporosis Book, 4th Edition: Bone Health”, has numerous publications in scientific and health journals, newsletters, and is a founding co-editor of the Pharmacy Management in Canada textbook.

Alan has been an active member and past participant on various committees (with the College of Pharmacists of BC, BC Pharmacy Association, Canadian Pharmacists Association, Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists, GI Society, etc). He has interests in the areas of, rheumatology, osteoporosis, gastroenterology, diabetes, and cardiology. Alan enjoys being involved in projects that improve health knowledge translation, healthcare delivery, medical health education and health outcomes research. Alan’s training includes a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy, a Hospital Pharmacy Residency at St. Paul’s Hospital, and Doctorate of Pharmacy degree at UBC. He is frequently invited to speak at regional, national and international conferences. He strives to develop solutions to close gaps in health care working together with a variety of people.

Mr. Ganske current President & CEO at IllumiSonics, with over 3 decades of both public and private company experience in the medical devices, diagnostics and life science fields, and has a broad background in management, operations, science and regulatory; blended with the disciplines of corporate processes, and successful entrepreneurial business ventures. Mr. Ganske has personally led multiple business and IP transactions with both Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies.

Mr. Ganske led CellAegis Devices Inc. as the CEO for the last 10 years transitioned the technology out of Sick Kids Hospital, Toronto into a commercial product with CE Mark and Health Canada approval used in several multinational controlled trials, in cardiovascular, stroke, and kidney reperfusion damage. Prior to CDI, Mr. Ganske served as CEO of Axela, a university diagnostics startup focused on real-time proteomic analysis utilizing proprietary diffractive optics technology. Mr. Ganske transitioned Axela to a full operating company, installing Axela’s commercial platform in premier institutes in the US, EU and Asia Pacific. Mr. Ganske was instrumental in negotiating and closing significant patent in-licensing transaction with Fortune 100 companies for over 150 patents and applications and oversaw Axela’s acquisition of Xceed Molecular, a genomics diagnostic company.

Mr. Ganske held the position of Chief Operating Officer at Third Wave Technologies (TWTI) in Madison, WI. During his eight year tenure at TWTI, Mr. Ganske was imperative in setting the operational vision and tactical implementation that grew TWTI from a company with great technology to a fully operational company with over $40M of revenue. Third Wave debuted on Nasdaq in February 2001 in an $83 Million IPO, and was bought by Hologic for over $300M.

Prior to Third Wave, Mr. Ganske held various operational, engineering and regulatory management positions over 18 years, with Becton Dickinson and Company (BDX).

Dr. Helia Mohammadi is the Chief Data Scientist and Healthcare Industry Lead for Microsoft Canada. She is a thought leader in the healthcare and research industry. With over a decade of experience in research and applied AI, her work has leveraged and extended Machine Learning and Cloud solutions to deeply influence key domains including medical image processing, genomics research, and precision medicine.

As the National AI Ambassador for the Microsoft Canada AI Country plan, Helia has been pivotal in spearheading Canadian Healthcare digital transformation and AI adoption strategy. She has received numerous distinguishing awards and recognitions, including the “Top 30 Influential Women Advancing AI in Canada”.

She strives to empower the healthcare and research community to positively affect quality of life for patients and medical professionals.

Kirk LaPointe is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of BIV, the Vancouver-based business publication and website, and Vice-President, Editorial, of parent company Glacier Media, western Canada’s largest media company. He is an Adjunct Professor teaching Ethics and Leadership at the UBC Graduate School of Journalism, Writing and Media. He has led such organizations as CTV News, Southam News and The Hamilton Spectator. He is the founding Executive Editor of National Post, a founding Host on CBC Newsworld, a former CBC Ombudsman, Managing Editor of the Vancouver Sun, and Ottawa Bureau Chief and General News Editor of The Canadian Press. He has been a radio host, a podcast host, and a television host.

I am the Director of the Precision Health program and the Bioinformatics major in the BHSc program at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. My teaching interests are focused primarily on the academic-clinical integration of skills in “Omics” and bioinformatics to clinical decision-making. My research interests are at the intersection between molecular functions, biochemistry and genetic sequence; basically, I want to know about the molecular mechanisms that underlie important biological functions and how they came to be. To investigate this, I have developed a suite of different statistical analysis tools that estimate the effect of distinct mutations on a single quantitative function, which allows for the simultaneous assessment of potential molecular interactions between them. Recently, I have also engaged in projects that the use of machine learning models to better identify pathological states and (when appropriate) aid in diagnostic and treatment decision-making.

Mark Armitage was appointed Assistant Deputy Minister, Health Sector Workforce and Beneficiary Services (previously Health Human Resources and Labour Relations) in August of 2018.

Prior to this appointment, Mark served as the Executive Director of Strategic Priorities, Planning and Engagement in the Health Sector Workforce Division and was the Executive Director of the Primary and Community Care Branch at the Ministry of Health, a position he was appointed to in March 2014.

Mark is committed and dedicated public servant with 25 years in the public service before joining the Ministry of Health. He has worked in Community Corrections with the Attorney General as a Probation Officer and has held a number of management and senior executive positions in regional operations and strategic priorities with the Ministry of Children and Family Development.

Mark holds a Bachelor of Social Work and a Master of Public Administration, both from the University of Victoria. He is a dedicated life-long learner, motorcycle enthusiast and loves the outdoors.

Mark is Vice Chair of KPMG UK and a Global Expert on Health Systems. For 11 years, Mark was Global Head of Healthcare at KPMG International and Global Chair of Infrastructure, Government and Healthcare for 3 years. In that time, Mark oversaw $7 billion of annual revenue, supporting 45,000 staff across 157 countries.

He is one of the foremost global experts on healthcare systems and has a pioneering and inspiring global vision for health in both the developed and developing world. Mark has dedicated his entire professional life to healthcare and has led organisations at local, regional, national and global levels –provider and payer, public and private. Over the past 11 years, he has worked in over 80 countries on circa. 345 occasions, gaining a unique first-handexperience.

Mark was appointed Chief Executive of University Hospitals Birmingham in 2000. He masterminded the largest new hospital build in NHS history,established the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine and developed one of the highest performing healthcare organisations in the UK.

He went on to run the NHS region from Oxford to the Isle of Wight before joining the NHS Management Board as a Director-General at the Department of Health, where he developed High Quality Care for All with Lord Darzi. He joined KPMG as Global Chairman and Senior Partner for Health in 2009 and has established a successful worldwide health practice.

Between 2014 and 2018, Mark sat as a member of the Global Agenda Council on the Future of the Health Sector for the World Economic Forum and sits on the Advisory Board of the China Center for Health Development at Peking University. He is also an Honorary Professor at Taishan Medical University School, Shandong Province and holds honorary doctorates from Birmingham City University and the University of Wolverhampton.

Mark is the author of “In Search of the Perfect Health System”, published by Palgrave Macmillian. The book has sold in over 109 countries, including translations into Mandarin, Korean and Portuguese, and was recognised by Chinese Medical Doctors Association as best health book in China in 2017, and in the UK by the British Medical Association, 2016. Mark’s new book, “Human: solving the global workforce crisis in healthcare” was published by Oxford University Press in March 2019. It sold out it’s first print run in 4 months and was recently translated into Mandarin.

Mark has been a Non-Executive Director at Dr Foster, a trustee of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service and a Board member of Prostate Cancer UK. He survived prostate cancer at the age of 42 and has donated all royalties from the sale of this book to Prostate Cancer UK. He is a Board Trustee of the King’s Fund and Executive in Residence at the RotmanSchool of Management, Toronto.

Keith Lohkamp is senior director of healthcare industry strategy at Workday, responsible for the product direction and strategy for the healthcare industry.

Keith has more than 25 years of healthcare software product management experience, including product strategy roles at Infor, Lawson, Neoforma, and PeopleSoft. Prior to joining Workday, Keith worked in various product management roles at Infor, and was responsible for the product strategy and vision for Infor Lawson Supply Chain Management. As an advocate for change and improvement within healthcare, Keith has served on the board of Strategic Marketplace Initiative and the leadership team for GS1 Healthcare United States.

Keith holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of California, Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Stanford University.

Tara is Principal of Brighton Group Health. She is an Industry strategist, operator and advisor committed to building a better health system through innovation and transformation. Tara has led multiple M&A, PMI, and value creation projects, as well as growth strategies and revenue diversification initiatives. As a Board Member at WELL Health Technologies (TSX: WELL), Tara is the Chair of the Risk and Governance committee and supports the company’s vision of empowering and supporting patients and doctors through technology.

Previously, Tara was Partner and the National Health Industries Leader for PwC Canada. She held executive roles with Trillium Health Partners and TELUS Health and is a former board member of OntarioMD, ALAViDA & Starling Minds. Tara is an active volunteer crew member with the Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue in Vancouver.

Presently, Dr. Lopez-Correa is the Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) at Genome Canada. As CSO, she is taking genomics to the next level in Canada, by advancing mission driven initiatives using genomics to solve the most pressing global challenges. Previously, she was Executive Director of the Canadian COVID19 Genomics Network (CanCOGeN), a $40M initiative to advance the use of genomics to help us understand and control the COVID19 pandemic. She also held the position of COO at Ruta N Medellin, driving innovation ecosystems to advance social and economic development in Colombia and Latin America. Prior to that, Dr. Lopez-Correa was the CSO at Genome BC (2016-2019) and at Genome Quebec (2008-2015) where she was instrumental in developing competitive teams for national and provincial research and innovation initiatives raising the profile of Canadian genomics on the global stage. Dr. Lopez-Correa has also held leadership positions at deCODE Genetics, and Eli Lilly and has played advisory roles at the European Commission, Innovative Medicine Initiatives and other private and public sector entities working in the application and implementation of genomics technologies. As part of her commitment to international development, Dr. Lopez-Correa has led several initiatives aimed at demonstrating the impact of genomics and innovation in developing countries. She is also fully committed to advance equity, diversity and inclusion, with a particular interest in gender equity in science. Dr. Lopez-Correa has been recognized with several awards: in 2017 she received the Canadian Senate 150th Anniversary Medal, in 2013 she was recognized by National Order of Merit Award in the Rank of Officer from the Republic of Colombia.

Dr. Lopez-Correa holds an MD from the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Colombia, an MSc in Human Genetics from Paris V University in France, a PhD in Medical Sciences from the KULeuven in Belgium, and a mini-MBA from McGill University in Canada.

Pieter R. Cullis, Ph.D. FRSC, FNAI (USA), Scientific Director & CEO, NanoMedicines Innovation Network,  Canada’s National Centre of Excellence in nanomedicines; Professor, Department of Biochemistry and  Molecular Biology, University of British Columbia. Dr. Cullis and co-workers have been responsible for fundamental advances in the design and development of nanomedicines employing lipid nanoparticle  (LNP) technology for cancer therapies and gene therapies. This work has contributed to five drugs that have been approved by regulatory agencies in the U.S., Europe and Canada. Dr. Cullis has co-founded  ten biotechnology companies that now employ over 300 people, has published over 350 scientific articles and is an inventor on over 60 patents. He also co-founded the Centre for Drug Research and  Development, a Centre of Excellence for the Commercialization of Research (now AdMare) in 2004, the  Personalized Medicine Initiative (PMI) in 2012 and the NanoMedicines Innovation Network in 2019. Dr.  Cullis was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2004 and was also awarded the Prix Galien,  Canada’s premier prize for achievements in pharmaceutical R&D, in 2011. Two recently approved drugs that are enabled by LNP delivery systems devised by Dr. Cullis, members of his UBC laboratory and colleagues in the companies he has co-founded deserve special emphasis. The first is Onpattro which was approved by the US FDA in August 2018 to treat the previously fatal hereditary condition transthyretin-induced amyloidosis (hATTR). Onpattro is the first RNAi drug to receive regulatory approval. The second is BNT162b2, the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer/BioNTech that has now (December 2020) been approved in Canada, the USA, the UK and Europe. It is anticipated that more than 1.3B doses of BNT162b2 will be administered worldwide in 2021.

Vardit Ravitsky is Full Professor at the Bioethics Program, School of Public Health, University of Montreal and part-time Senior Lecturer on Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is President of the International Association of Bioethics and Director of Ethics and Health at the Center for Research on Ethics. She is a 2020 Trudeau Foundation Fellow and Chair of the Foundation’s COVID-19 Impact Committee, as well as Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and of the Hastings Center. She is member of the Standing Committee on Ethics of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and of the Institute Advisory Board of CIHR’s Institute of Genetics. She is also member of the National Human Genome Research Institute’s (NHGRI) Genomics & Society Working Group. Her research focuses on the ethics of genomics and reproduction and is funded by Canada’s leading funding agencies. She published over 170 articles and commentaries on bioethical issues.

Ravitsky’s research covers a variety of topics such as: public funding of In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF); the use of surplus frozen embryos; posthumous reproduction; pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD); gamete donation; epigenetics; prenatal testing, in particular the ethical, social and legal aspects of Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT); germline and somatic gene editing; and mitochondrial replacement. She holds a BA from the Sorbonne University in Paris, an MA from the University of New Mexico in the US, and a PhD from Bar-Ilan University in Israel. Previously, she was faculty at the Department of Medical Ethics, School of Medicine, at the University of Pennsylvania. She was also a Senior Policy Advisor at CIHR’s Ethics Office and a GE3LS consultant to Genome Canada (GE3LS = genomics and its ethical, economic, environmental, legal and social implications).

Peter Zandstra graduated with a B.Eng. degree from McGill University in Chemical Engineering, obtained his Ph.D. degree from the University of British Columbia in Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, and continued his research training as a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Bioengineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1999, Dr. Zandstra began his faculty appointment at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering and in 2016 was appointed as a University Professor. In July 2017, Zandstra joined the University of British Columbia as the Founding Director of the School of Biomedical Engineering, and as the Director of the Michael Smith Laboratories. In these roles he is building programs that apply technological innovation to biology and help to educate the next generation of biotechnology leaders. In addition to his academic roles, Dr. Zandstra has been involved in founding a number of biotechnology companies, including ExCellThera and Notch Therapeutics.

Dr. Zandstra’s research focuses on understanding how functional tissue forms from stem cells, and how this information can be applied to design of novel therapeutic technologies based on living cells. He has received significant recognition for his activities. He is the Canada Research Chair in Stem Cell Bioengineering (Tier 1) and is a recipient of a number of awards and fellowships including the Premiers Research Excellence Award (2002), the E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship (2006), the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (2007), and the Till and McCulloch Award (2013). Dr. Zandstra is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (Engineering), the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Dr. Sindelar is a Professor and Dean Emeritus, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of British Columbia (UBC). Dr. Sindelar is also an elected fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, and an elected fellow of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP). He is Adjunct Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Adjunct Research Professor of the Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The School of Pharmacy, The University of Mississippi. Currently, he serves as the Chair of the FIP “Global Pharmacy Observatory Data & Intelligence Presidential Commission, to provide strategic advice on the development of the Global Pharmaceutical Observatory working with FIP stakeholders including WHO. He is also the Head of Pharmaceutical Sciences, the Athens Institute for Education and Research. Professor Sindelar previously served as Vice President of Innovation, Research & Academic Affairs at Providence Health Care (PHC), President of the PHC Research Institute and Associate Dean Research in the UBC Faculty of Medicine (2013-2016). He is a founder of the Centre for Drug Research and Development (formerly CDRD, now called adMare BioInnovations), a national not-for-profit drug development and commercialization centre. Also, he has served as President of the Global Drug Commercialization Centre (GDCC)-China, and Vice President, GDCC-Worldwide (2017-2019), a translational medicine endeavor that facilitates the innovative development of healthcare initiatives. In these various roles, he continues to contribute to health science research, health policy development, team-building, international partnerships, as well as strategic innovations. Dr. Sindelar completed a M.S. degree and a Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products at the University of Iowa School of Pharmacy. His research expertise is in medicinal chemistry, computer-aided drug discovery, and pharmaceutical biotechnology. He is the recipient of several School and University-wide teaching honors and has co-edited 5 editions of the highly successful textbook entitled “Pharmaceutical Biotechnology: Fundamentals and Applications.”

Robin Gould-Soil is a recognized authority on privacy and data protection. She has been at the forefront of this burgeoning field for two decades, and has unique expertise resulting from her multi-sector experience across the corporate and public spheres, including executive roles at TD Bank Group, HSBC Canada, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) and the University Health Network (UHN). Robin has spearheaded award-winning privacy initiatives, successfully engaged with a broad range of constituencies and peers, and built effective data protection and governance frameworks for large, global organizations.

David Helliwell is a software entrepreneur who has spent much of his career building mission-driven companies in the healthcare and cleantech industries. Prior to co-founding Thrive Health in 2017, David co-founded Pulse Energy in 2006, which evolved into the world’s leading energy intelligence software company at the time of its sale in 2014. Thrive Health’s
mission is to make healthcare work better for everyone with innovative patient engagement & clinical decision support tools. Thrive Health is based in Vancouver and has helped over 10 million Canadians through their healthcare journeys.

David is a mentor and angel investor with international healthtech start-ups through the Creative Destruction Lab and has served two terms on the advisory board for the National Research Council’s Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP).

Wendy is a career executive with more than 20 years of Global Finance, Operations and Compliance experience in the healthcare and technology sectors. She is a leader with strong business acumen and a history of enabling business growth through the development of global strategic partnerships, new business development initiatives, transformation projects, and the integration of new businesses and/or business models. Has a proven track record of developing, executing, and delivering solid business plans and growing shareholder value.

She has held leadership positions at Johnson & Johnson, the Heart & Stroke Foundation, LIFESCAN Canada and Lexmark International.

She is a certified Data and Privacy Professional and has managed Privacy and Healthcare Compliance programs both here in Canada and in the US for the better part of her career. Working both in the corporate environment and in private practice, she has taken the lead on compliance, regulatory and privacy issues for the last 20 years.

Wendy has a BA from the University of Western Ontario, an MBA from Queen’s University and a Certificate in Strategic Leadership from the Sauder School of Executive Education, UBC.

In addition, Wendy serves on the Board of Directors of The Centre for Drug Research and Development, Chair’s CDRD’s Finance & Audit Committee and also serves on the Vancouver Board of Trade Women in Leadership Advisory Committee. 

Certifications:

• Certificate in Intermediate French, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
• Registered Holistic Nutritionist – Candidate, Canadian School of Natural Nutrition – Ongoing
• Certified Canadian Privacy Professional, IAPP, CIPP/C (since 2012)
• Certificate in Strategic Leadership, UBC Sauder School of Business – Executive Education
• Leadership Development Program, Niagara Institute
• Executive Leadership Program, Harvard University, Boston, MA
• Canadian Securities Course

Dr. Messier’s focus is in closing the translational gap using a data-driven healthcare model. This real time translation of precision medicine integrates multi-omics technologies and applies them directly in clinical care, allowing patients with complex chronic disease to actively benefit from innovative biomedical technologies. Dr. Messier received a Bachelor of Science (Hons.) in Genetics and a PhD in Molecular Immunology from the University of Alberta. She completed post-doctoral studies at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology in San Diego, CA, and received her MD from the University of Calgary and is certified in family medicine. She founded a series of national concierge practices, served as a Medical Director, Genomics at Human Longevity Inc and was Chief Medical Officer of Viome. Her strong scientific and medical background is combined with a passion for helping people realize their optimal level of health and in teaching others to apply complex molecular data to the care of individuals. Dr. Messier is currently at Altum Medical, a center that provides deep dive medical care and is the founder of Medical Intelligence Learning Labs Inc, a company that is creating a platform to capture, aggregate, and analyze comprehensive patient data with human-augmented Artificial Intelligence. Dr. Messier is also a consultant for a number of cutting edge bio-medical and consumer facing start-up companies in the health care space.

Michael Schull is CEO and Senior Scientist at ICES, Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto, and a Senior Scientist at the Sunnybrook Research Institute. His research focuses on health service utilization, quality of care, health system integration and patient outcomes, and the evaluation of health policy. Under his leadership, ICES has expanded the types of data available for researchers, created a virtual data platform where researchers can access and analyze linked datasets, launched a health artificial intelligence data and analysis platform, and engaged the public in the work of ICES to ensure it remains aligned with public values. Schull leads the participation of ICES in the Health Data Research Network, a pan-Canadian initiative to build a national health and social data platform. He practices as an Emergency Medicine specialist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.

Dr. Martin Dawes is a world expert in primary care who combines research and clinical practice with over 30 years of experience. Following the completion of his PhD, he helped develop a Masters program in Evidence Based Health Care. He has directed the UK Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine in Oxford and was the head of family practice at McGill University and the University of British Columbia. He is the co-founder and scientific director  of GenXys, a medication decision support software company.

Dr. Jehannine Austin is Executive director of the BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services Research Institute, and is a Professor in Psychiatry & Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia. Jehannine is a board certified genetic counsellor and their research work involves studying the impact of genetic counselling for people with psychiatric disorders and their families. They founded the world’s first specialist psychiatric genetic counselling service that has won an award for its impact on patient outcomes, and in addition to peer-reviewed publications, has written a book, and won awards for teaching, leadership, and research. Together with Prof. Stirling Bryan, Jehannine is co-PI of a Genome Canada/Genome BC/MSFHR funded project that is exploring the health economics of pharmacogenetic testing for depression in BC. Jehannine is a member of the College of the Royal Society of Canada, and a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

Kristine Ashcraft, BS, MBA is a molecular biologist by training and is the former CEO and founder of YouScript, recently acquired by Invitae. She has worked in pharmacogenomics since 2000 and was named one of the 25 leading voices in precision medicine. Kristine has authored multiple publications on the clinical and economic benefits of pharmacogenomic testing including one lauded as one of the most influential publications at an American Medical Informatics Association meeting. She has been interviewed by numerous media outlets including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and NBC Nightly News and has spoken at SXSW, American Society of Human Genetics, and numerous precision medicine conferences. She is committed to catalyzing the adoption of precision medicine.

Bernard Esquivel is a practicing physician-scientist, senior executive, and international leader with in-depth expertise developing new markets, devising compelling value propositions, go-to-market strategies, and launching programs to fulfill organizational goals and objectives in the healthcare space. Clinical Immunologist, Allergies, and Medical Genetics by training with 10+ years experience in materializing biotech and health sciences ideas and concepts into clinically actionable solutions. Bernard mobilized the local healthcare community to engage them in the practice of precision medicine by founding and presiding over the Latin American Association of Personalized Medicine (ALAMP). This organization now includes >500 members from 9 countries in Latin America, holds symposiums, provider workshops, and other educational outreach per year. Serving as Chief Medical Officer for several well-renowned global organizations, he has demonstrated his passion and advocacy for bringing precision medicine closer to patients.

Nancy White is the CEO of Inagene Diagnostics Inc. Prior to joining Inagene, she held a variety of executive roles within the pharmaceutical industry, encompassing both commercialization and operations. She has worked the healthcare, biotechnology, and government sectors and is known for exceeding expectations in domestic and international markets. Her passion for personalized medicine stems from her experience in oncology and she is dedicated to bringing pharmacogenetics into mainstream healthcare.

Rod Bremby leads the enterprise positioning and solution strategy team for the Global Public Sector. His primary SME focus is in the Health and Human Services (HHS), Social Services, and Public Health markets.

Bremby joined Salesforce in 2019 after a 30-year public sector career. From 2003 – 2019, he served as a Cabinet member for 4 Governors while leading two health and human service agencies. Rod led Connecticut’s leading health and human service agency ($8.2B with 1,986 authorized positions) for eight years in service to over 1 million residents. Rod led the agency through an innovative Medicaid transformation resulting in a national best per member per month cost reduction, avoiding an estimated $2.25B in program costs while adding 220,000 additional members. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) application processing timeliness improved 57% between 2011 and 2016, 2017 (last nationally to 3rd best).

Before coming to Connecticut, Rod was Secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, the state’s largest and most complex regulatory agency. As Secretary, Rod became the first U.S. public official to deny a coal-fired energy plant operating permit due to climate change. The agency also led the Kansas response to the 2009 H1N1 pandemic.

Rod completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Kansas (KU). He earned his MPA from KU’s Edwin O Stene Master’s Program in Public Administration, the nation’s top-ranked city manager’s program. He has received the following recognition: American Public Human Service Association 2017 State Member of the Year; Sierra Club’s 2011 Distinguished Achievement Award; the 2010 Kansas Public Health Association President’s Award; the 2009 Kansas Natural Resource Council Environmental Action Award; the 2008 Kansas Public Administrator of the Year, and the 2008 Edwin O. Stene Award for Managerial Excellence.

While he resides with his wife Janet just outside of New Haven, CT, along the shore of Long Island Sound, they enjoy traveling to visit their adult children and grandchildren.Janet and Rod have a blended family of 7 children and ten grandchildren living in Arizona, Kansas, New York, and Texas.

Dr. Robert Fraser is the President and CSO of Molecular You, a digital health company delivering molecular-level personalized health insights and action plans. Dr. Fraser has been at the forefront of developing the framework and technologies to bring personalized medicine into healthcare practice. He is the co-founder of The Personalized Medicine Initiative (PMI), GenXys Health Care Systems, Personalized Biomarkers Incorporated, Mesentech Corporation and Novobind. Dr. Fraser has led drug discovery and development projects at Sanofi, Xenon, Neuromed and CDRD and has been involved in raising of more than $37M in funding. He completed his Ph.D. in the molecular mechanisms of endocrinology at the University of Alberta and Harvard Medical School and Post-Doctoral Fellowships at Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto and IGBMC, Strasbourg France.

Mo Amin is the Vice President of Value, Access & Policy at AstraZeneca Canada Inc., one of Canada’s leading biopharmaceutical companies. Mo brings to the position more than 25 years’ experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, including extensive experience within the areas of Market Access, Medical Affairs, Health Economics and Real World Evidence (RWE).

His career spans roles in academia and both the private and public sector. Among some of the positions Mo has held include Adjunct Professor, Department of Medicine – University of Ottawa; Scientific Advisor – Common Drug Review (CDR) and Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH); and Regional Head of Global Health Economics, Epidemiology & RWE – Intercontinental Region, Amgen and Head of Value & Access, Amgen Canada.

Prior to joining AstraZeneca, Mo was Regional Head & VP of Medical Access for the Intercontinental region at Sanofi, leading medical, access and evidence generation strategies for Asia, Africa, Middle East and China regions.

Mo is a trained medical doctor with a PhD in Health Economics from the University of London. Mo lives in Milton with his wife Beenish and three children.

Dr. Cheung is a medical oncologist and a nationally and internationally recognized data scientist and researcher. He is currently a Professor of Medicine in the Departments of Medicine and Oncology at the University of Calgary in Canada where he is the Provincial Director of Health Services Research and Real-World Evidence Generation for Cancer Care Alberta. In these roles, he works frequently with “big data”, including data from administrative claims, large registries, and electronic health records.

Dr. Cheung’s primary academic interest is health services and outcomes research, including patient reported outcomes, quality of life, and economic analyses that span the entire real-world evidence spectrum. The overarching goal of his work is to ensure that cancer care is appropriately accessed and equitably delivered to all patients. He also evaluates ways to improve the uptake of novel drugs and examines strategies that enhance their adoption to ensure that we achieve value-based care. Currently, he leads the well-established and prolific Oncology Outcomes (O2) research collaborative, which has published 200+ manuscripts and $5M+ in grant funding.

Bonnie Kam serves as Director, Health Technology Assessment leading the Health Economics & HTA team within the Market Access group at Janssen. Bonnie is currently in role as the Vice-Chair of the Joint HTA IMC-BIOTECanada committee on behalf of industry. Prior to joining Janssen’s Government Affairs & Market Access Team, Bonnie comes from a background in regulatory affairs through positions held at Procter & Gamble Inc., Warner Chilcott Canada, and Coca-Cola Ltd. Bonnie obtained her Bachelor of Science, Toxicology from the University of Toronto.

Dr. Regier is a Senior Scientist within Cancer Control Research, BC Cancer, and an Associate Professor at the School of Population and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia. Over the past 15 years, Dr. Regier’s research has focused on the economics of access to precision medicine, particularly in context to generating and using real world evidence to support sustainable regulatory and learning healthcare systems. He has presented his work internationally, with invitations from the US National Academies of Sciences and the World Economic Forum. He is Deputy Editor at the International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care and currently serves on BC’s Drug Benefit Council, which makes evidence-informed recommendations to the Ministry of Health about the listing of drugs on the PharmaCare program formulary.

From 2013 to 2017, John served in the BC Public Service as Deputy Minister of Technology, Innovation and Citizens’ Services. With 1,300 employees and an annual budget of more than $1 billion, the ministry delivered a broad spectrum of government services and economic development programs.

The ministry was responsible for the government’s cyber security strategy and operations, as well as the privacy and freedom of information files. John continues to have a strong interest in the development of privacy and security practice and policy.

Prior to joining the public service, John held a series of senior executive roles in public and private technology companies. Two of his President and CEO roles were with publicly traded companies regulated by both Canadian and United States securities regulators.

Beyond his public service and corporate work, John has long been active in the not-for-profit sector. He was on the Board of the Digital Identity & Authentication Council of Canada (DIACC) from 2013 to 2017 and as a senior board volunteer with a national health charity from 1994 to 2008.

Retired business leader, company advisor and Board member Doug Buchanan was CEO of BC Biomedical Laboratories Ltd for more than twenty years where he led the introduction of strategic improvements in leadership practices, several significant acquisitions, and the development of a leading-edge laboratory. During his tenure the company was consistently ranked among the ’50 Best Employers in Canada’ (1st for three years in a row). Other stops along Mr. Buchanan’s career journey have included Sandwell Engineering where he ran the organization’s global consulting practice and The WATCOM Group, a software development spin-off from the University of Waterloo where Doug headed all marketing and sales activities. As a Partner at Price Waterhouse Management Consultants for a major portion of his working life, he supported clients worldwide in strategic management, business competitiveness, market research and project feasibility assessment. Doug is educated in the sciences and business (B.Sc. Hon Physics, M.Sc. Biology, MBA), is an ICD.D (certified Director by the Institute of Corporate Directors) and has a broad range of Board experience from small startups to large publicly-traded companies. He is currently the Chair at Augurex Life Sciences Corp and ABOzymes Biomedical Inc.

Marc is an advocate for privacy, security, and sharing of genomic datasets, guiding the
DNAstack team’s efforts to making genomic and clinical information globally accessible and
useful. Through his leadership, DNAstack’s Beacon Network has become the world’s largest
search engine for publicly sharing genomic mutations, facilitating millions of searches and
resulting in disease-gene discoveries and clinical translation. Marc leads the Discovery Work
Stream for the Global Alliance for Genomics & Health (GA4GH), chairing the development of the
Beacon genomic data standard for search and co-founded the Canadian Genomics Cloud.

Marc received his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Toronto, where he invented
novel software algorithms and applications for the detection of genetic mutations, particularly
structural and copy number variations. He has developed a number of end-user genomics
applications, including one of the first and most widely used genome browsers for
next-generation sequencing data.

Dr. Bruce Forde is the CEO and founder of Cambian, a leading digital healthcare information services provider.

Individuals and their families use Cambian’s digital health platform to capture, use, and share self-reported and self-generated health and wellness data. Care providers use the Cambian platform to receive data from their patients to improve and streamline decision making and treatment. Researchers and administrators use the Cambian platform to recruit study participants, implement study protocols, execute innovative research projects, and analyze findings. Cambian is bringing innovative technology and specialized skills to global information system suppliers and is working with leading academic institutions, research institutes, and innovation partners. Cambian has expert knowledge of health information access and integration in large scale systems including deep expertise in medical record applications and their use in physician offices. Cambian has developed and integrated EMR applications for specialist and general practices and operates managed services using cloud technologies.

Over the past 30 years, Bruce has held various senior-management positions at international systems engineering and information technology companies. Bruce has led the development of integrated practice management and electronic medical record applications in Canada and USA. Throughout his career, he has enjoyed opportunities to work with talented teams on innovative technologies and products.

Bruce is on the board of Canada’s Digital Technology Supercluster as an elected member representative for a wide range of innovative and fast-growing companies.

Bruce holds honours Bachelors, Masters, and Doctorate degrees in Applied Science from the University of British Columbia. He is an NSERC and DAAD scholar and studied at the Universität Stuttgart in Germany.

Karen leads the Supercluster’s Programs, linking our strategy with the investments in our program portfolio and guiding the project teams as they strive to realize successful outcomes. By applying her broad experience in leading complex programs at global, national and regional scales, she brings a strategic, yet pragmatic perspective to investing in world-class initiatives.

Karen has led some of the most complex “firsts” and “never-done-before” initiatives in the information technology, healthcare, and financial services sectors. She has spent most of her career in the private sector, starting as a computer programmer, progressing into product management, consulting and then taking on a variety of senior leadership roles. Karen has worked with organizations of all shapes and sizes – startups, SMEs and Canadian-based multinationals including TD Bank and Manulife Financial – journeying through several mergers, acquisitions and divestitures. The decade or so that she spent in the public sector with governments, hospitals and other healthcare providers just increased her desire to solve some of society’s biggest problems with technology. Through all of this, she learned that as much as success is built on good planning, processes and technologies, it is no doubt all about the people – diverse teams of talented people working together to change how things are done.

Karen holds a Bachelor of Mathematics, Business Administration from the University of Waterloo. She also holds professional certifications in product, project and change management disciplines. She is an avid lover of nature and animals, enjoys travelling to experience the diversity and beauty of our world and spending time with her family and friends.

Howard Waldner is the past President and Chief Executive Officer of Vancouver Island Health Authority, serving in this role from 2004 until 2013. He is curently CEO of Caledonia Solutions, a strategic consulting company he founded in 2013.

He is a visionary and innovative leader with over 30 years of experience of managing health sysytems in both Canada and the U.K. He has a keen interest in system innovation, transformation and performance improvement. He is also passionate in the area of health facility planning, design and procurement and has led the development of number of large and successful hospital projects using both traditional and alternate funding approaches. He received the Canadian College of Health Leaders National Award for Innovation in Health in 2013.

He is a certified member of the Institute of Corporate Directors, and currently serves as an Independent Board Director of Strata-Health Solutions, a successful Calgary based Health IT company, and is a partner with Prioritize Software, a Vancouver based strategic solutions company. He also serves as a volunteer member of the Telus (Victoria) Community Board and has served on a number of “non-profit” Boards, including the Canadian Institute for Health Information, the BC Academic Health Council, (which he chaired for 5 years), the United Way Campaign Cabinet, Carewest, VRRI, and the Greater Victoria Coalition to end Homelessness.

Prior to joining VIHA in 2004, he was the Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for the former Calgary Health Region from 1999 until 2004. Before moving to Calgary in 1999, he held a number of senior leadership roles within the Scottish National Health Service, most recently as the Chief Executive of Dundee University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

He received his Executive MBA from the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and is a Certified member of the Canadian College of Health Leaders and a Fellow of the United Kingdom Institute of Health Care Managers.

He is Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of British Columbia, and teaches on a number of executive leadership and masters programs in the School of Public and Population Health.

Arden Krystal is the President and CEO of Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket, Ontario. Southlake serves a population of almost 1.5 million people in York Region and Simcoe county, with regional cancer and cardiac programs and a full slate of services from surgery to mental health to children’s and women’s care.

Prior to her arrival at Southlake, Ms. Krystal held senior executive operations roles at two of the largest health authorities in British Columbia – the Fraser Health Authority and the Provincial Health Services Authority, with responsibilities spanning the full continuum of care, including public health, acute community, tertiary care, and quaternary research and academic organizations. Her portfolios also included responsibility for non-clinical services, such as quality, risk and human resources, as well as executive leadership for major public-private partnership (P3) capital projects in the hospital sector.

Arden started her career as a registered nurse in medical and surgical oncology. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing (hon) and a Master of Health Administration, both from the University of British Columbia, and completed the Managing Health Delivery Certificate program at Harvard University. She also holds the designation of CHE (certified health executive) through the Canadian College of Health Leaders.

Ms. Krystal sits on a number of committees, including several at the Canadian College of Health Leaders, CIHI, the OHA, the Ivey Health Advisory Council, and is acting as Faculty for the C.D. Howe Institute Health Partnership Summit. She has also recently been appointed to the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care’s Hospital Advisory Committee (HAC) and also serves on the Board of Directors for Venture Lab.

Isobel Mackenzie has over 20 years’ experience working with seniors in home care, licensed care, community services and volunteer services. Isobel led B.C.’s largest not-for-profit agency, serving over 6,000 seniors annually. In this work, Isobel led the implementation of a new model of dementia care that has become a national best practice, and led the first safety accreditation for homecare workers, among many other accomplishments. Isobel has been widely recognized for her work and was named B.C. CEO of the Year for the not-for-profit sector and nominated as a Provincial Health Care Hero.

Prior to her appointment as the Seniors Advocate, Isobel served on a number of national and provincial boards and commissions, including the BC Medical Services Commission, the Canadian Homecare Association, BC Care Providers, BC Care Aide and Community Health Worker Registry, and the Capital Regional District Housing Corporation. Isobel also served on the University of Victoria’s Board of Governors.

Isobel received both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Victoria and has a Certificate in Health Care Leadership from the University of Toronto.

Shelagh Maloney has held a number of senior positions since joining Infoway. She manages relationships with patients, clinicians and the federal government, and leads performance analytics and communications and marketing.

She has held a number of executive positions in the public and private sectors, where she honed her relationship management and business development skills.

Shelagh holds a B.Sc. in Applied Health Sciences from the University of Waterloo and is a Certified Professional in Health Information & Management Systems (CPHIMS-CA).

In 2017, she received the inaugural Women Leaders in Digital Health Award, which recognizes female visionaries who are harnessing the power of IT to transform health and health care in Canada.

John Matheson was Director of Finance for the NHS in Scotland from 2008 until his retiral in 2016 with specific responsibility for health technology and innovation. Prior to that he was the Director of Finance at NHS Lothian. He studied at Heriot Watt and Edinburgh Universities.

John was a Council member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy for 10 years and became President in 2015. Whilst President he focussed on raising the international profile of the Institute including presenting at a number of international conferences and he chairs a committee developing its global strategy.

Currently John chairs the Audit and Risk Committee and provides strategic advice to Transport Scotland. He is a member of the Doctors and Dentists Review Board. He also acts as a Consultant for Digital Health and Innovation Centre at University of Strathclyde. He was also a visiting Professor at Kwansei Gukain University in Osaka Japan.

He was awarded a CBE in 2015 for services to the NHS in Scotland.

Dr. Pascal Spothelfer is a seasoned leader known for bringing forward innovation and commercialization at the intersection of industry and academia. He has held several senior roles, in both Europe and Canada, across industry sectors ranging from technology, not for profit organizations and academia. His experience spans general and change management to broad based stakeholder relations.

Prior to joining Genome BC, Pascal held the position of Vice President Communications and Community Partnerships at the University of British Columbia where he led marketing and communications, government relations, public affairs, the entrepreneurship program and other externally facing functions. Pascal has also served as President and CEO of the British Columbia Technology industry Association, and Spectrum Signal Processing respectively.

Other roles include Senior Vice-President, Strategic Development at Teekay Shipping (Canada) Ltd and President and CEO of NovAtel Inc. Before moving to Canada from Germany in 1994, Pascal was a management consultant with The Boston Consulting Group and then as a member of the executive team in the turnaround of Jenoptik AG in Germany.

Pascal is very engaged in the community. He has served on numerous boards and is the past chair of the Board of Vancouver Opera, the entrepreneurship@UBC Advisory Board and past chair of Copperleaf Technologies Inc. He has been an active member of the Young President’s Organization since 1997.
Pascal holds a law degree and a PhD in law from the University of Basel, Switzerland and a Master of Business Administration from INSEAD in France.

Dr. Alan Low is the Executive Director of Medicines Access Coalition – BC, Primary Care Pharmacist and Pharmacy Lead at BioPro Biologics Pharmacy, a collaborative practice approach, focusing on patient centred care. He is also a Clinical Associate Professor in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UBC and an Instructor and Course Developer with the School of Health Sciences at the Justice Institute of BC (JIBC).

Convinced that pharmacists have much more to offer to the public and the healthcare system, Alan has led the development and implementation of provincial medication management projects in BC and Alberta as well as creating a novel model of community pharmacy practice where interprofessional collaboration is leveraged to improve patient health outcomes.

Within the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UBC, Dr. Low is one of the founders of the Faculty based Pharmacists Clinic and helped develop and lead the business case for the Pharmacists Clinic. He is the Course Coordinator for the Pharmacy Practice Management and Leadership Course and Lecturer. In addition, he is also a Board Advisor with the GI Society and sits on the Medical Board of HealthChoicesFirst.com, a patient video education resource. Dr. Low has experience in a wide variety of health and administrative settings including direct patient care in the hospital and clinics, clinical and practice-based research, consultant in healthcare projects and clinical pharmaceutical consulting. He has held positions such as Clinical Pharmacist, Clinical Specialist, Pharmacotherapeutic Specialist within teaching hospitals, as well as Manager of Government Affairs and Medical Affairs, Medical Science Liaison, and Senior Health Sciences Advisor in research-based pharmaceutical companies and was the Chief Operating Officer at Network Healthcare. Alan is a Certified Clinical Densitometrist (CCD), coauthored “The Osteoporosis Book, 4th Edition: Bone Health”, has numerous publications in scientific and health journals, newsletters, and is a founding co-editor of the Pharmacy Management in Canada textbook.

Alan has been an active member and past participant on various committees (with the College of Pharmacists of BC, BC Pharmacy Association, Canadian Pharmacists Association, Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists, GI Society, etc). He has interests in the areas of, rheumatology, osteoporosis, gastroenterology, diabetes, and cardiology. Alan enjoys being involved in projects that improve health knowledge translation, healthcare delivery, medical health education and health outcomes research. Alan’s training includes a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy, a Hospital Pharmacy Residency at St. Paul’s Hospital, and Doctorate of Pharmacy degree at UBC. He is frequently invited to speak at regional, national and international conferences. He strives to develop solutions to close gaps in health care working together with a variety of people.