Dr. Andy Smith

President and CEO, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

Since 2017, Dr. Andy Smith has been the President and CEO of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, leading over 12,000 staff, physicians, researchers and learners and an annual budget of more than $1.4 billion. Prior to his current role, Dr. Smith served as Sunnybrook’s Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Executive.

With a long-established career as a surgeon and a recognized leader in the management of colorectal cancer, Dr. Smith is intensely passionate about improving healthcare. He has been involved for many years in quality improvement initiatives in Ontario and is deeply interested in healthcare leadership, innovation, and the evolution of the healthcare system in Canada. Dr. Smith serves as the Immediate Past Chair for the Toronto Academic Health Sciences Network (TAHSN) and is on the Board of Directors for ORNGE, Public Health Ontario (PHO), HealthCareCAN, and Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners (TIAP).

Dr. Smith completed medical school, including a Master of Science, and General Surgery residency at the University of Toronto. He also completed a Surgical Oncology Fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Dr. Smith is a Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto and has served as the Bernard & Ryna Langer Chair, Division of General Surgery at the University of Toronto.

Michelle McLean

Michelle is an experienced lawyer, public affairs professional and leader in both the corporate and not-for-profit sectors. She is passionate about working to create positive change that will improve the health and lives of Canadians and building teams who share that goal. Over the past 20 years, Michelle has had the privilege of providing strategic counsel and leadership to a wide array of organizations in the health and life sciences sector. Having led the development of many national communications, stakeholder engagement and government relations strategies and campaigns, she is best known as a skilled and strategic advocate who has secured significant policy and funding commitments at the federal level.

Some of the organizations she has worked for include Innovative Medicines Canada, Canadian Partnership Against Cancer, Mental Health Commission of Canada, Canadian Blood Services, TELUS Health, The Ottawa Hospital, the Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation (CABHI powered by Baycrest), Health Charities Coalition of Canada, Canadian Cancer Society, Heart & Stroke Foundation, Cystic Fibrosis Canada, Kids Help Phone, Diabetes Canada, ALS Canada, and many other health charities.

Michelle also has many years of experience working with the health research sector. Her work with Research Canada spans over a decade, and she has recently worked closely with the Stem Cell Network. She has helped organizations like TRIUMF (Canada’s largest government-funded research facility), the Canadian Cancer Society and Ovarian Cancer Canada, to secure hundreds of millions of dollars in health research funding.

Michelle is an accomplished business and people leader who has built and led many high performing teams and organizations in her career. She is widely recognized as a collaborative relationship builder and creative problem solver, and for her commitment to nurturing a thriving and inclusive workplace culture. Her leadership experience includes three years as Vice-President of the Mental Health Commission of Canada, and 4 years as the Ottawa General Manager and National Executive team member at Hill + Knowlton Strategies.