Baycrest Hospital & Apotex (LTC)

Mr. Mirsky is a highly experienced food, beverage and consumer packaged goods executive. He is the CEO of Freshchange Foods Group, a company that invests in food companies across North America. The most recent investment is BHC Holdings Inc., a New Jersey based supplier of pet chews and supplements. This investment is jointly held with Imperial Capital, a Toronto based private equity company.

In addition, Mr. Mirsky is the Chairman of Beefeaters Holdings, Inc. which sells pet products under the Beefeaters™ brand name and is a portfolio company of Imperial Capital.

Mr. Mirsky’s operating career spans more than 30 years. Most previous to his current roles, Brian was the President of Europe for Campbell Soup Company, and has served in senior management positions with Pizza Hut, Pillsbury, and the H.J. Heinz Company. Brian currently serves on the Board of Directors of Inscape, a publicly traded (symbol: INQ.TO) maker of office systems and storage.

Mr. Mirsky has an MBA in marketing and a BA in Economics from York University in Toronto, Canada.

Mr. Mirsky is a member of the Baycrest Centre Board of Directors and serves as a member of its Commercialization and Strategic Planning Committees.

Margot DaCosta is the Vice President, Inpatient Services and Clinical Support, and Chief Nursing Executive. She started at Baycrest in 2014 as the Director of Complex Care, Rehabilitation and Specialized Geriatrics.

Ms. DaCosta is a healthcare leader with over 30 years of hospital management experience in progressively responsible roles spanning various clinical areas, primarily in the acute care sector. Prior to coming to Baycrest her most recent positions were at Peterborough Regional Health Centre where she was the Program Director, Regional Renal, Metabolic & Cancer Care Programs, and Rouge Valley Health System where she was the Program Director, Medicine & Patient Flow.

Ms. DaCosta holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Western University, and a Master’s degree in Nursing from the University of Toronto.

Amy Flaster, M.D., M.B.A. is a physician executive, value-based care strategist, and practicing internal medicine physician. Dr. Flaster has focused her career on leveraging clinical innovation, data, and technology to improve clinical outcomes, champion patient-centered care, and lower the cost of care. She is passionate about work at the intersection of population health, value-based care, primary care, and digital innovation.

At ConcertoCare, Dr. Flaster serves as Chief Medical Officer and oversees the strategy and operations of the company. ConcertoCare delivers primary and complex care to seniors and other adults with multiple comorbidities, primarily in the home. The company delivers a human-first, tech-enabled model of care powered by a proprietary population health and analytics engine. ConcertoCare takes an intensive, interdisciplinary approach, staffed by internists, geriatricians, geriatric psychiatrists, social workers, nurses, and community health workers. ConcertoCare is exclusively engaged in value-based capitated arrangements, enabling it to deliver cutting-edge population health at scale across the United States.

Prior to joining ConcertoHealth in 2021, Dr. Flaster served as the Senior Vice President for Population Health at Health Catalyst, a leading healthcare data and analytics company (NASDAQ: HCAT). There, she led a team that worked with large integrated delivery systems, Accountable Care Organizations and Clinically Integrated Networks throughout North America on their journey to leverage data and analytics to support alternative payment model adoption. Dr. Flaster also previously served as Associate Medical Director of Population Health at Mass General Brigham (MGB), a Boston-based non-profit hospital and physician network that includes Massachusetts General Hospital and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, among others. In this role, she managed a portfolio of clinical population health programs to drive healthcare transformation across the network. This included the nationally recognized Integrated Care Management Program (iCMP), clinical oversight of the self-insured health plan at MGB (the largest private employer in Massachusetts), and a range of Medicaid programming for the system, including launching an ED Navigation program focused on vulnerable Medicaid patients that are frequent utilizers of the Emergency Departments.

Prior to her work at MGB, Dr. Flaster co-founded myProxy, Inc., which developed the TrueNorth Healthcare platform (acquired 2019) to engage patients and surrogate decision makers in advance care planning. She also previously worked for the Brigham and Women’s Physician Organization, the World Health Organization, and has provided consulting services to healthcare delivery organizations and venture capital incubators.. Dr. Flaster also serves as course director for “Value Based Care and Population Health Management” at Harvard Medical School. She continues to practice internal medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Dr. Flaster completed a BA from Dartmouth College, an MD at Harvard Medical School, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine in the Primary Care track at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and is board certified in Internal Medicine. She was raised in Thornhill, Ontario, volunteered at Baycrest Hospital as a student. She now lives in Boston with her husband and daughter.

Deb Galet is the Interim President and CEO of Baycrest Hospital. Deb joined Baycrest in 2015 as Executive Director, Interprofessional Practice Ambulatory Specialty Clinics, and she has progressively added elements to the role, which included the supervision of Hospital Quality and Transformation, Culture Arts & Heritage and Behaviour Support Services.  

Deb has more than 25 years of experience in healthcare with extensive experience leading healthcare teams to achieve excellence. Deb started her career as an occupational therapist across various clinical environments, including acute care, geriatric rehabilitation, complex continuing care, research and community care, all of which have contributed to her deep understanding of the complexity of the healthcare system, particularly for seniors. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Occupational Therapy and a Masters of Adult Education from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto.

Deb has taken on leadership roles at the regional and provincial levels, and she currently sits on the Cancer Quality Advisory Council of Ontario. She is particularly interested in continuous quality improvement and building new models of care to improve access and resource utilization for the geriatric demographic.

Since the 2015 merge of the health care organizations in Quebec, until November 2021, Barbra Gold has been the Director of the Support Program for the Autonomy of Seniors for the Integrated Health and Social Services University Network for West-Central Montreal. In this role, Ms. Gold was responsible for long-term care facilities, home care and intermediate resources for our territory.

At the present time, this includes 1,177 skilled nursing home beds located on seven sites, 313 intermediate resource beds on four sites and one million direct hours of homecare for an annual budget of $180 million dollars. In addition, she was responsible for ensuring the quality of care at four different private facilities (550 beds).

Ms. Gold began her career in 1979, working in various administrative positions at the Jewish General Hospital. In 1991, she was hired as Executive Director of the Donald Berman Maimonides Geriatric Centre, and took on the additional role of Executive Director at Jewish Eldercare in 2005. Under her leadership, both Maimonides and Jewish Eldercare received a number of national awards and recognition for patient-centered care. Both were the first long-term care centres in North America to receive gold designation, which is the highest level of designation from Planetree – an international organization focused on patient-centred health care (2013).

In 2015, both Maimonides and Jewish Eldercare were merged with seven other healthcare organizations to form the Integrated Health and Social Services University Network for West-Central Montreal, which serves a population base of 380,000 people and a budget of $800 million dollars. From 2009 until 2011, Ms. Gold served as President of the Association of Jewish Aging Services of North America, which is based in Washington, D.C.

Ms. Gold has a Master’s degree in Health Administration from the University of Ottawa.

Dr. Gary Naglie completed his medical school training at McGill University, specialty training in Internal Medicine and Geriatric Medicine at the University of Toronto, and graduate training in Clinical Epidemiology at McMaster University. He is a full Professor in the Department of Medicine and the Institute of Health Policy, Management & Evaluation at the University of Toronto, and he holds the George, Margaret and Gary Hunt Family Chair in Geriatric Medicine.

Dr. Naglie is the Vice President of Medical Services, Chief of Staff, and Chief of Medicine at Baycrest Health Sciences and is a scientist at Baycrest's Rotman Research Institute and at the University Health Network-Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. His research has focused on outcomes evaluation and quality of life in cognitively impaired and medically complex older adults. His current major research interests are driving issues in older adults, especially those with cognitive impairment, and innovative models of care for frail, complex older adults.

Gord Nelson joined Cineplex Odeon Corporation in 1988 and has held various successive financial roles. He was appointed Chief Financial Officer of Cineplex Galaxy Income Fund (predecessor entity to Cineplex Inc.) in 2004. Mr. Nelson oversees the finance, purchasing, risk management, legal and corporate development areas of the company. Mr. Nelson holds an MBA from the University of Toronto as well as the accounting designations of Fellow Chartered Professional Accountant (FCPA, FCA). He also holds the ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors. In 2016, Mr. Nelson was named Canada’s CFO of the Year by Financial Executives International – Canada, PwC and Robert Half.

Annamie Paul is a lawyer, former diplomat, social entrepreneur, and politician. Ms. Paul has worked in the office of the Chief Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court and in Canada's Mission to the EU. She is co-founder of the Barcelona International Public Policy HUB, founder of the Canadian Centre for Political Leadership and co-founder of the Operation Black Vote Canada 1834 Public Policy Fellowship. Ms. Paul holds a Master of Public Affairs from Princeton University and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Ottawa and is called to the Bar of Ontario. She is an Action Canada Fellow, Echoing Green Fellow, Government of Canada Policy Leaders alumna and a BPPA Harry Jerome Award recipient. She is a vocal advocate for senior care and long-term care reform.

Dr. Rulan S. Parekh is Vice President, Academics, Women’s College Hospital, Staff Nephrologist n at Women’s College Hospital and Hospital for Sick Children and Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine in the Departments of Medicine, Paediatrics, Epidemiology and Health Policy and Management Evaluation at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Rulan Parekh is a clinician-scientist, and an international leader in clinical epidemiology and translational research in kidney disease. Her work has revealed novel genetic risk factors leading to kidney disease and increased risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality for children and adults with kidney disease. At the University of Michigan, Dr. Parekh was uniquely trained in Pediatrics and Internal Medicine with subspecialty training in both Pediatric and Adult Nephrology and research training, completing her Master’s in Biostatistics and Study Design. She subsequently went on to post-doctoral training at Johns Hopkins University and joined the faculty in 2000. She successfully competed for an NIH Career Development Research Award and the American Society of Nephrology Carl W. Gottschalk Award for young investigators, establishing successful research programs in the genetics and cardiovascular complications of kidney disease.

In 2008, she returned to her native Canada and accepted a faculty position at the University of Toronto (UofT) and a Scientist position within the SickKids Research Institute and now Women’s College Hospital. Since 2000, Dr. Parekh has maintained a record of sustained NIH and CIHR funding. She has significant productivity with more than 175 published manuscripts, over 11,738 citations, and a stellar track record of training and mentoring 80 students and post-doctoral trainees. She has received several awards, including the National Kidney Foundation of Maryland Award, Advising, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Mentoring, and Teaching Research Award, and was elected into academic honor societies such as the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, the Pediatric Academic Society, and the American Pediatric Society. Dr. Parekh previously held a Canada Research Chair in Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology and now holds the F.M. Hill Chair in Health System Solutions.

Dr. Daniel N. Sauder, M.D., is past chairman of the Department of Dermatology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He is also past Chief of Dermatology at the University of Toronto. Dr. Sauder has held senior positions with biotechnology companies and has assisted in the development of numerous novel biologics. He is past head of Dermatology at University Medical Centre of Princeton and past medical director of Outward-Bound Canada. Currently, he practices general dermatology as well as consulting for biotech companies.

Dr. Sauder trained at McMaster University School of Medicine and at McGill University Medical School. He completed his Dermatology training at the Cleveland Clinic and the National Institutes of Health. He is past president of the Canadian Dermatology Association, past and founding president of the Canadian Society for Investigative Dermatology and founding editor of the Journal of Cutaneous Medicine and Surgery. He has also served on numerous other editorial boards, including the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, Lymphokine Research, Journal of American Academy of Dermatology, and International Journal of Immunopathology and Pharmacology, and Experts Review of Clinical Immunology.

His research has focused on the molecular mechanism of the cutaneous (skin) immune response. He was instrumental in developing the field of cutaneous cytokine biology by identifying the role of certain immune system molecules, interleukins and cytokines, in inflammatory skin diseases and tumors.

Dr. Sauder has authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications and is the recipient of numerous national and international awards. He is a highly regarded clinician, educator and investigator.

Lorie Shekter-Wolfson brings a wealth of experience to her role as a Board Director and Committee Chair. A graduate from the University of Toronto Masters of Social Work program and several Executive programs at the Rotman School of Management, she has worked in a variety of settings and roles, including health care, education, government and community as a clinician, administrator and consultant. Her invaluable first-hand experience as a leader and change agent has been very helpful for those institutions and businesses undergoing change. In addition, her expertise in interprofessional and team-based care has led to several award winning initiatives.

Lorie has held a variety of positions over the years. As President and CEO of JVS Toronto, she led the organization through a time of tremendous change, including addressing its financial challenges, a new strategic framework, new Mission, Vision and Values, and implementing a more efficient governance model.
At George Brown College, Lorie was a member of the senior management team. As Dean, Health Sciences and Community Services and later as AVP Waterfront Campus, Lorie co-led the development, design and implementation of George Brown College’s new $175M Waterfront Campus that opened in the Fall 2012. The Campus houses the Centre for Health Sciences. The new facility is designed to embrace an interprofessional learning education framework enhancing wellness and health promotion.

Lorie has also authored articles on social work, marital and family therapy, interprofessional education and its impact on design, as well as two books on eating disorders. She is a frequent speaker at industry events and is the recipient of the Colleges Ontario 2010 Exemplary Service Award and the Ontario Association of Social Workers’ 2011 Inspirational Leader Award.

Lorie has been an active member on several agency and government committees and professional boards both locally and across Canada, as well as community boards. These have included the UHN Family Health Team Board, Regent Park Community Health Centre, Baycrest’s Clinical Strategy, Quality and Safety Committee, Ministry of Health’s Interprofessional Education Working Group, Canadian Interprofessional Health Collaborative (CIHC), and Jewish Family and Child Care Services. She has also chaired the United Way campaigns at several organizations and has been the recipient of the United Way Spirit Awards.

Dr. Paul Verhoeff is a Staff Psychiatrist at the Ross Memory Clinic and at the Geriatric Psychiatry Community Centre at Baycrest. Dr. Verhoeff obtained his MD from the Erasmus University Rotterdam, and his PhD from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Dr. Verhoeff specialized in psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.A. Dr. Verhoeff’s research activities have centered around neuroreceptor imaging in vivo with positron emission tomography (PET) or single-photon computerized tomography (SPECT) in patients with neuropsychiatric disorders and in healthy control subjects. The research projects are listed according to the neurochemical transmission systems that have been studied, with further clarification as to which patient groups were involved during which period:

1. Cerebral β-Amyloid imaging with PET in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (2001-present) and with SPECT in patients with amyloid angiopathy (1991-1996).
2. Neostriatal dopamine D₂ receptor imaging with PET in patients with schizophrenia and in healthy subjects before and after catecholamine depletion with α-methyl-para-tyrosine (1999-2001), in patients with schizophrenia off and on antipsychotics (1999-2004), and in patients with major depressive disorder (2001-2004), bipolar disorder (1997-2000); with SPECT in patients with Tourette disorder (1990-1994), partial epilepsy (1991-1994), Parkinsonian syndromes (1990-1993), pituitary macroadenomas (1990-1993), migraine (1990-1993), HIV encephalopathy (1990-1991), in patients with schizophrenia off and on antipsychotics (1990-1995), in healthy subjects (1990-1993), and in MPTP-treated and control nonhuman primates (1990-1994); with a planar gamma-camera for dosimetry in healthy subjects (1990-1993); ex vivo in rodents (1988-1991); and in vitro in humans and rodent brain tissues (1988-1991).
3. Extrastriatal dopamine D₂ receptor imaging with SPECT in healthy subjects (1997-2000).
4. Neostriatal dopamine D₁ receptor imaging with PET in healthy subjects before and after catecholamine depletion with α-methyl-para-tyrosine (1999-2001); and with SPECT in healthy subjects (1991-1993).
5. Cerebral serotonin 5-HT_1A receptor imaging with PET in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (2001-present), frontotemporal dementia (2001-present), and schizophrenia (1999-2003), and in healthy subjects (1999-2001).
6. Cerebral serotonin 5-HT_2A receptor imaging with PET in patients with schizophrenia (1999-2000).
7. Cerebral GABA_A-benzodiazepine receptor imaging with SPECT in patients with alcohol dependence (1997-2004), post-traumatic stresss disorder (1997-2004), major depressive disorder (1997-2003), schizophrenia (1994-1999), epilepsy (1994-1999), and in healthy subjects off and on benzodiazepines (1988-1999).
8. Cerebral muscarinic acetylcholinergic mACh receptor imaging with SPECT ex vivo in rats (1988-1993).
9. Pituitary somatostatin receptor imaging with SPECT in patients with pituitary adenomas and in healthy subjects (1992-1996).
10. Cerebral blood flow imaging with SPECT in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (1988-1992), partial epilepsy (1988-1992), and ischemic stroke (1988-2001).
11. Physiological measurements of early and late asthmatic responses to submaximal exercise challenge before and after nedocromil sodium in patients with intrinsic and extrinsic bronchial asthma (1988-1990).

Kenneth Wiener retired on December 31, 2017 after thirty years as a partner and securities law specialist with the Goodmans LLP law firm. Mr. Wiener was a member of the Asia Practice Group of Goodmans and in that capacity assisted Canadian companies planning to do business in Asia and Asian enterprises planning to establish a presence in Canadian capital markets. Prior to joining Goodmans in 1988, Mr. Wiener was Director, Listed Company Policy and Regulation at The Toronto Stock Exchange. Mr. Wiener participated in continuing education programs sponsored by the Ontario Bar Association, The Law Society of Ontario and other organizations. He served as chairman of the Business Law section of the Ontario Bar Association. Mr. Wiener was a director of the public company CML HealthCare Inc.

Jakov Zaidman is a Principal Information Technology Consultant with decades of technology and business experience, with over 30 years in technology consulting. Jakov holds an ISC2 Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification.

Jakov specializes in Cybersecurity and Information Privacy, IT Architecture, Network Security and Infrastructure, and in assessing and enhancing customer cybersecurity programs by following best practices and industry regulations.

Jakov founded InterLAN Consulting in 1991, to focus on providing advisory services in the areas of network infrastructure and cybersecurity. Over the years, Jakov advised organizations, established cybersecurity programs, and designed and built secure network architectures. Jakov worked with enterprises in both public and private sectors and a wide range of verticals, ranging from hundreds to tens of thousands of employees. Jakov was also the lead IT architect behind the creation of the Ontario Telemedicine Network.

Jakov started his professional career in the Israeli Air Force, working on the nation-wide deployment and maintenance of modernized air traffic control systems. Before founding InterLAN, Jakov worked in senior IT architecture roles for companies Digital Equipment and Intel.

ROBERT C. KAY is a seasoned Corporate Director and Business Advisor. He combines business and legal skills with extensive experience in international commerce to develop and assess complex strategies with multinational companies and governments.

Robert has served as a Corporate Director in both privately held and publicly listed companies, serving on Governance, Audit, Strategy, and ESG Committees. He is currently Chair, Advisory Board, the Migao Group (fertilizer manufacturing, clean energy, mining); Chair, Baycrest Hospital and Long-Term Care Residence (cumulatively 734 beds); Corporate Director, EquityLine Mortgage Investment Corp; Corporate Director, Baycrest Seniors Care Corp; Corporate Director, the Royal Canadian Military Institute; Corporate Director, the Canada Eurasia Chamber of Commerce (Toronto).

Notable governance roles have included: Chair-Canadian Commercial Corporation; Vice Chair and Lead Director-Migao Corporation; Chair-Migao Special Committee for Going Private; Chair-Swiss/Canadian Chamber of Commerce; Director in Residence-Institute of Corporate Directors; Board Director-Changfeng (CF) Energy Inc (gas distribution, clean energy); Board Director-American Chamber of Commerce (Ontario Council). Robert was a teaching Board Member in the Integrative Thinking Practicum of the MBA Degree Program at the University of Toronto. He is a former Deputy Judge, Superior Court of Justice of Ontario, SCC branch. Earlier in his career, Robert served as Personal Assistant to the Deputy Prime Minister of Canada.

Robert contributes his time as Chair of the Royal Canadian Military Institute Audit Committee. Robert is also a Member of the American Judges Association, and the Institute of Corporate Directors.