Senior leadership

Alex Munter

President and Chief Executive Officer

Alex is leading the hospital into the future as it faces new challenges and takes advantage of new opportunities to build an exceptional patient experience and better connect care for the patients and families we serve.

Under Alex’s leadership, the hospital completed the most comprehensive strategic review in its 40-year history, setting for itself a new vision for the future of healthcare in this community,
and an action plan to get there. The hospital has prioritized a number of backbone initiatives that will underpin this work, including the deployment of an integrated electronic health record, the roll out of Lean processes to drive continuous improvement and a refresh of its talent management strategy. Patient satisfaction surveys have several times identified CHEO as the best place for pediatric care in Ontario and Forbes Magazine has twice named the organization as the best place to work in Canadian healthcare.

In 2012, Alex served as co-chair of Ontario’s Health Kids Panel along with Kelly Murumets, President and Chief Executive Officer of ParticipACTION. The final report recommended starting kids on the right path from conception to birth, changing the food environment, and creating healthier communities.

Prior to joining CHEO Alex was Chief Executive Officer of the Champlain Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) -- the provincial government agency responsible for planning, integrating and funding health services in the region. He strengthened the region’s health system by making strategic investments at hospitals and community-based agencies in both urban and rural areas of our region. In particular, he made great strides in improving care for the elderly by putting in place programs that help vulnerable seniors stay independent and healthy for as long as possible in their own homes.

Prior to joining the LHIN, Alex was Executive Director of the Youth Services Bureau (YSB), one of Ontario’s largest accredited children's mental health agencies. During his tenure, the organization grew by one-third, adding services and expanding its reach. It won recognition for a ground-breaking new health clinic for street-involved youth, the establishment of a youth mental health hub and launch of innovative new clinical mental health programs, closer co-ordination between hospitals and community mental health providers, new programs to help at-risk youth find and keep jobs and new measures to improve the agency’s governance, efficiency and service quality.

Alex was a City and Regional Councillor in Ottawa from 1991 to 2003. From 1997 onward, he headed council committees responsible for health and social services with oversight of the city’s $550 million human services budget. In that role, he led Council to unanimously adopt pioneering smoke-free regulations in 2001; helped open new child care centers, expand the number of child care spaces, and expand public health programs for children and youth; worked with provincial government to oversee the transfer of ambulance services and social housing to the municipal level; initiated Canada's first comprehensive public access defibrillator program; expanded long-term care for seniors; funded hospital expansions and worked with the Community Care Access Centre and community support agencies to improve at-home support services for seniors and people with disabilities.

Alex holds a Bachelor of Social Sciences (BSocSc) degree from the University of Ottawa, a Master of Science (MSc) degree in Behavioural Science from the London School of Economics and a professional designation as a Certified Health Executive (CHE) from the Canadian College of Health Leaders. After leaving city government, he was a Visiting Professor in the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa, teaching there and at Montreal’s Concordia University.

Alex was very involved in the restructuring of hospital and other health services as a member of the former Ottawa-Carleton District Health Council in the 1990’s. Other health-planning leadership roles included his assignment as Co-Chair of the Regional Task Force on Health Care (1998-1999), member of the board for the Ottawa-Carleton Children's Aid Society (1997-2000), Co-Chair of the National Network on Ethnocultural Communities and AIDS (1990-91), member of the Ontario Advisory Council on Multiculturalism (1992-94), Board Member of the Community Foundation of Ottawa (2004-2006), and appointment to the Ontario Public Health Capacity Review Committee and chair of its governance panel (2005-2006).

Alex has won numerous awards from a wide range of organizations for his contributions to the community, including the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, the Canadian Institute for Child Health, United Way/Centraide Ottawa, the Federal Business Development Bank, l’Association Canadienne-Française de l’Ontario d’Ottawa, Leadership Ottawa and the Ontario Association of Social Workers.Alex has also been awarded the Ontario Volunteer Service Award in the 1990's and most recently in 2012, he was awarded the Ontario Francophonie Award and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Darlene Arseneau

Vice President Corporate Services & Chief Financial Officer

Prior to joining CHEO, Darlene served as Vice President Corporate Services and CFO of Genome Canada, a government agency that funds cutting-edge research at the CHEO Research Institute and across the country. In addition to her hospital experience, she had previously worked at McMaster University and at Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant Community Care Access Centre. Darlene is a proven leader, works collaboratively with key stakeholders, holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Wilfrid Laurier University and is a Chartered Professional Accountant.

Anne Huot

Vice President Child Development and Community Services

Anne was the Executive Director of the Ottawa Children's Treatment Centre (OCTC) when it amalgamated with CHEO in October 2016. She played a lead role in integration of programs and services to create a system of care for children and youth. From 2010 to 2016, Anne was seconded to the Ontario Association of Children’s Rehabilitation Services (OACRS) on a part time basis to lead the development of a new clinical information system (GoldCare) across 17 children’s treatment centres in Ontario.

Anne Huot joined OCTC as Director of Client Programs and Information in December 1999 with prior experience in community and home health care, mental health and vocational rehabilitation. As a professionally trained social worker, Anne provided leadership within OCTC to deliver high quality client-centered care and supports through a variety of programs and services. She identified new and emerging opportunities for partnerships between organizations to streamline the client experience and make best use of resources. Anne was also OCTC’s Privacy and Information officer and lead for Information Technology and Information Management.

Dr. Lindy Samson

Chief of Staff

Dr. Samson obtained her medical degree from McMaster University School of Medicine in Hamilton in 1990. She completed her Pediatrics and Pediatrics Infectious Diseases residencies at CHEO. Dr. Samson then completed further training in Pediatric HIV and Clinical Epidemiology at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and the University of Toronto. Moving back to CHEO, she worked for some time before serving as the Chief of the Division of infectious Diseases for over 10 years.

Her academic and research work is focused on pediatric HIV, the impact of social determinants on the health of children and youth and teaching/evaluating the Health Advocate and Leadership Roles across the continuum of learners.

Dr. Samson was appointed Chief of Staff in April 2016. As CHEO’s senior physician leader, she is responsible for organizing the activities of the medical staff and for ensuring the quality of clinical care and patient safety. In this role, she works closely with the CEO and the Executive Team, and reports directly to the Board of Trustees.

Dr. Jason Berman

Vice President Research

Dr. Jason Berman is the CEO and Scientific Director of the CHEO Research Institute and the Vice President Research at CHEO. He is also a Full Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Ottawa. Previously he served as Associate Chair, Research, Department of Pediatrics, and Professor of Pediatrics, Microbiology & Immunology and Pathology at Dalhousie University and interim Vice President Research, Innovation and Knowledge Translation for the IWK Health Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He has overseen the pediatric leukemia program for the Maritimes since 2005 and chairs an international clinical trial for children with Down syndrome and myeloid leukemia. He is internationally recognized for pioneering research using zebrafish to study childhood cancers and rare inherited diseases.   His laboratory has served as the Atlantic node of the Centre for Drug Research and Development and a national hub for zebrafish modeling of orphan diseases. He has been co-chair of the C17 Childhood Cancer Network Developmental Therapeutics Committee and Director of the Clinician Investigator Program and Medical Research Graduate Program at Dalhousie. He is president of the Canadian Society for Clinical Investigation, vice president of the Canadian Hematology Society and a founding member of the Canadian Rare Disease Models and Mechanisms Network.

Watson Gale

General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer

Ann Lynch

Chief Nursing Executive and Vice President Acute Care

Ann was most recently Associate Director General, Clinical Operations and Nursing Affairs at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) which includes the Montreal Children’s Hospital. In this capacity, she was responsible for clinical operations at the multisite 1,000 bed heath care facility. She brings over 30 years of experience in spearheading multiple organization wide quality and research initiatives as well as leading the integration of many health care teams associated with the formation of the MUHC twenty years ago. Ann was the senior clinical leader involved in the planning of the new 500 bed facility at the Glen Campus (MUHC) which opened in 2015. Her team was responsible for organizing the move of over 200 patients into this new facility.

Ann completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing and her Masters of Science(Applied) at the McGill University Ingram School of Nursing where she held the position of assistant professor. She has published numerous articles and has sat on several hospital and foundation Boards. She was honored in 2016 at the MUHC with the Katherine Rolph Award of Merit for outstanding leadership to the department of surgery and the Award of Merit from the Cedars Cancer Foundation for outstanding contributions to Cancer care. In 2008, she was the recipient of the Hector L Bertrand award from the Association des Cadres Superieurs for career accomplishment.

Mari Teitelbaum

Vice President Provincial Programs and Chief Innovation Officer

Mari started her career as an electrical engineer, where she recognized the value of technology to enable efficiency and effectiveness. After ten years in the high tech industry, she decided to go back to school and get her Masters of Health Administration at the University of Ottawa. As the daughter of a CHEO physician and a mother herself, she passionately believed that she could use her technology skills to help clinicians care for kids in this community.

Mari completed her MHA residency in CHEO’s Information Services/Information Technology department, building a five-year strategy for the hospital which included the path to an electronic health record. She then joined the team at BORN (Better Outcomes Registry & Network) as Manager of Health Informatics. Her skills and enthusiasm were quickly recognized, promoting her into the leadership team responsible for the delivering on the promise of BORN.

Mari spent five years as the Director of BORN Ontario, solidifying the organization and building a large and complex electronic database – learning all about how clinicians use technology and, more importantly, how they can use the information it provides to improve clinical care. She also worked to set the strategic direction of that organization, secured significant funding, and forged strong relationships with key government and clinical partners.

Dr. Ciarán M. Duffy

Chief of Pediatrics

After moving to Canada from Ireland in 1982, he completed his paediatric residency at The Children’s Hospital of Western Ontario in London, a research/clinical fellowship in paediatric rheumatology at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, and a Master’s degree in Science (Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics) at McMaster University in Hamilton.

Dr. Duffy has wide experience in teaching and is a very active researcher. His clinical focus is on paediatric rheumatology with a particular interest in juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). He is also the principal investigator for a national study called “LEAP” (Linking Exercise, Activity and Pathophysiology) in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis: A Canadian Collaborative Team, involving 12 pediatric centres.

Dr. Kathleen Pajer

Chief of Psychiatry

Dr. Pajer completed her M.D. at the University of South Alabama and later completed her Psychiatry residency at the Yale School of Medicine. While at Yale, she also obtained a Master’s in Public Health (Chronic Disease Epidemiology). Dr. Pajer is the recipient of numerous grant awards, including funding by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. In 2009, she was recognized as one of “America’s Top Psychiatrists”. She was one of six women honoured at the Women Reshaping the World Conference held in Halifax in 2013.

In the past five years, she has also been developing a blood test to diagnose depression in teens. She has studied the biological mechanisms for female anti-social behavior for almost 20 years. Check out her TED talk.

Dr. David Rosen

Chief of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine

Dr. Rosen attended the University of Toronto Medical School. He completed a residency in Anesthesia at the University of British Columbia followed by fellowships in Pediatric Anesthesia (UBC) and Pediatric Critical Care Medicine (U of T).

In 2004, he relocated to Ottawa to support his spouse who worked for the Department of Foreign Affairs. This prompted further temporary moves to Budapest and then Boston, where he was a consultant at Boston Children’s Hospital working in Cardiac Anesthesia and Cardiac Critical Care Medicine, and an Instructor at Harvard Medical School.

At CHEO, Dr. Rosen has divided his time between Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine. In addition to his role as Chief of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, he is also the Director of Pediatric Cardiac Anesthesia, a member of the Research Ethics Board and the Professionalism Education Lead for the University of Ottawa Anesthesia Residency Program.

Dr. Rosen also serves as the Chair of the Canadian Pediatric Anesthesia Society and is a member of the Pediatric Committee of the World Federation of Societies of Anesthesia.

Dr. Juan Bass

Chief Department of Surgery

During Dr. Bass’ time at CHEO, he has focused on making Pediatric Surgery a cohesive division, as well as finding innovative ways to increase productivity. Dr. Bass received his medical degree at Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Señora del Rosario in Bogota, Colombia. After graduating, Dr. Bass came to Canada where he interned at Victoria Hospital in London, Ontario. He then trained in general surgery at the University of Ottawa and specialized in pediatric surgery at Hôpital Ste. Justine in Montreal.

In addition to his skill and devotion to CHEO’s patients, Dr. Bass has worked with the Canadian Association of Pediatric Surgeons (CAPS). He was the Secretary-Treasurer and Webmaster of CAPS for five years. At the Royal College he has been a Chief Examiner, as well as past Chair of the specialty committee in pediatric surgery.

Dr. Ken Farion
Medical Director, Quality and Systems Improvement

As CHEO’s Medical Director of Quality and Systems Improvement since 2011, Dr. Farion works to engage CHEO’s staff and physicians in continuous quality improvement initiatives, using Lean improvement and management methods known as CHEOworks. Beginning in 2016, Dr. Farion will also be the Medical Lead for the Epic Benefits Realization program, helping to identify and quantify the improvements to care delivery, patient outcomes, and patient & provider satisfaction that will be achieved with adoption and optimization of a fully electronic health record using Epic.

Dr. Farion has served as the Associate Medical Director of CHEO’s Emergency Department from 2006-2011, and then Medical Director and Chief from 2009-10 (Acting) and 2011-2015. Throughout his career, he has helped to develop and implement innovative improvements to the delivery of care in the Emergency Department, and in coordination with other parts of the hospital.

Dr. Farion conducts a variety of clinical and health systems research at CHEO while collaborating with other researchers at the uOttawa Faculty of Medicine, uOttawa’s Telfer School of Management, as well as across Canada through the Pediatric Emergency Research Canada (PERC) network.

Adrienne Vienneau

Chief Communications Officer 

Before coming to CHEO, Adrienne held various management roles in marketing, public relations and communications in Ottawa’s high-technology sector, including IBM. She gained her initial experience during the dot-com boom — helping to launch start-ups and attract funding for organizations across health-care, security, education and entertainment industries.

Adrienne serves on the Board of Directors of Volunteer Ottawa. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from the University of Ottawa and a diploma in public relations from Algonquin College.