SPEAKERS

Rick Prinzen

Chief Supply Chain Officer and Vice-President, Donor Relations, Canadian Blood Services

Rick ensures that Canadian Blood Services consistently provides high-quality blood, plasma protein and stem cell products to customers at the right time and right cost. He is responsible for maintaining predictability and consistency in meeting customer needs, providing an outstanding experience for donors, standardizing collection, production, testing and logistics processes across the country, and ensuring productive, efficient operations. Rick joined Canadian Blood Services as the director of supply chain operations for South-Central Ontario in December 2013. In this role, he applied his expertise and leadership to launch several transformative initiatives to improve productivity in the region and accelerate our journey to becoming an outstanding manufacturer of biological products. Prior to joining Canadian Blood Services, Rick was a successful executive in the pharmaceutical industry leading local, national and global supply chain operations. Rick is an alumnus of Queen’s University, where he completed an undergraduate degree in metallurgical engineering, followed by a Master of Business Administration.

Vice President, Pharmaceutical Partnerships, Shoppers Drug Mart

Erica Dalia is the Vice President of Pharmaceutical Partnerships. In this role, she is responsible for the Pharmaceutical Partnerships Team that oversees the Sanis Health business unit, pharmaceutical trade relationships, and supply chain partnerships that focus on pharmacy supply chain optimization and the continued growth of the commercial pharmaceutical network at Shoppers. Erica has extensive experience in wholesale supply chain and pharmaceutical portfolio management. During her time at Shoppers Drug Mart, Erica has played a pivotal role in their National influenza and COVID-19 vaccine distribution model, the implementation of two-dimensional barcodes, and the increased growth of Sanis Health, the second largest pharmaceutical manufacturer in Canada. Prior to joining Shoppers Drug Mart in 2018, Erica held progressive roles with McKesson Canada, along with positions at Amgen. Erica serves on the GS1 Canada Healthcare Pharmacy Board and is also an active supporter of Go Further WOMEN at Shoppers Drug Mart. Erica is a graduate of McMaster University with a Bachelor of Life Science and holds a Master of Science in Pharmacoeconomics from the University of Florida.

Dimitris Polygenis

President, Pharmaceutical Solutions & Specialty Health, McKesson Canada

Dimitris Polygenis is President, Pharmaceutical Solutions and Specialty Health at McKesson Canada. In this role, he has executive operating responsibility for all Distribution & Supply Chain Operations, Retail & Hospital Sales, Manufacturer Partnerships, Specialty & Provider Services, McKesson’s Retail Banners, Strategic Sourcing and Procurement. Mr. Polygenis joined McKesson Canada in 2005, after the acquisition of Phase 4 Health, a specialty and manufacturer-facing services company he helped build and grow. This acquisition led to the creation of McKesson Specialty Health, offering a wide range of services to manufacturers. Under his leadership, the group expanded its services to become Canada’s largest specialtyservices provider and McKesson Canada’s fastest growing business unit. During his time with McKesson, he has led almost every business unit in the Canadian portfolio. A pharmacist by training, Mr. Polygenis is known as a strategic business leader committed to customer success, driving operational excellence, and building high performing teams. Prior to joining McKesson Canada, Mr. Polygenis served as a health care consultant to numerous industry stakeholders, including a position with the Ontario Round Table on Appropriate Prescribing (ORTAP) at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Ontario (ICES). He has held multiple teaching and board-appointments, including University of Toronto and University of British Columbia Pharmacy Programs, Neighbourhood Pharmacy Association of Canada (NPAC), Canadian Association for Pharmacy Distribution Management (CAPDM) and the Country Day School.

Jitendra Prasad

Special Advisor, Alberta Health Services

Jitendra Prasad (JP) is a Special Advisor to Alberta Health Services where he was formerly the Chief Program Officer of Contracting, Procurement & Supply Management. He is still actively involved in working on numerous initiatives related to furthering supply chain resiliency. JP has an undergraduate degree in Pharmacy and a master’s in business administration (MBA) from University of Alberta, Edmonton.

Dr. Kathleen MacMillan

Past Director and Professor, School of Nursing at Dalhousie University

Dr. Kathleen MacMillan is a graduate of the Toronto East General Hospital School of Nursing (diploma) and the University of Toronto (BSc, 1980; MA, 1983, MSc, 1992; PhD, 2005). Her professional experience includes nursing practice, administration, research, education and health policy. She has been recognized as a distinguished alumna of the Faculty of Nursing at the U of T and received a Centennial Achievement Award from the Canadian Nurses Association in 2008. In 2017, she was inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and in 2020, as a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Nursing. Dr. MacMillan was the first Provincial Chief Nursing Officer for the Ontario Ministry of Health & Long-Term Care (1999-2001) and Executive Director, Office of Nursing Services for First Nations and Inuit Health Branch of Health Canada (2001-2004). Prior to her appointment to Dalhousie University, she was Dean, School of Health Sciences at Humber Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning in Toronto. Now retired, she holds adjunct appointments at the University of Prince Edward Island Faculty of Nursing and the School of Nursing and the Faculty of Graduate Studies at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her research interests are in patient safety, nursing human resources, nursing history and interprofessional collaboration.

Jayson Myers

Chief Executive Officer, NGen – Next Generation Manufacturing Canada

Jayson Myers is the Chief Executive Officer of Next Generation Manufacturing Canada. NGen is the not-for-profit organization that leads Canada’s Global Innovation Cluster for Advanced Manufacturing. It is dedicated to building world-leading advanced manufacturing capabilities in Canada, for the benefit of Canadians. Jay is an award-winning business economist who specializes in industrial and technological change. Between 2007 and 2016, he served as President & CEO of Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, Canada’s largest industry and trade association. He helped establish and co-chaired the Ontario Manufacturing Council, Great Lakes Manufacturing Council, and Canadian Industrial Roundtable on Skills. Jay has been widely recognized as one of the most influential economic policy advocates in Canada. He is an advisor to both private and public sector leaders, and has counselled Canadian prime ministers and premiers, as well as senior corporate executives and policymakers around the world. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the World Manufacturing Forum and a leading advocate on the world stage on behalf of advanced manufacturing in Canada. Jay has held a research fellowship at Nuffield College, Oxford and lectureships in political economy at Oxford and the University of Warwick.

Professor, Strategy and Entrepreneurship, Odette School of Business, University of Windsor

Scientific Director & CEO, SCAN Health

Chief Scientific Research Officer, HIMSS

Dr. Anne Snowdon is a Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the University of Windsor. Dr. Snowdon is leading a national Community of Practice and research program focused on the capacity of health supply chain to enable health system responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in seven Canadian provinces. This work builds on a well-established program of research focused on healthcare supply chain, and health system innovation to achieve sustainability, economic value and productivity by providing support for innovators and entrepreneurs to successfully bring their discoveries to the Canadian, U.S. and world markets. Currently, Dr. Snowdon is the Scientific Director and CEO for SCAN Health, Chief Scientific Research Officer for HIMSS, Vice Chair of the Board of the Directors for Alberta Innovates, and member of the Health Futures Council of Arizona State University. She is an Adjunct Faculty at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Windsor, the School of Nursing at Dalhousie University and the Centre for Innovative Medical Technology at the University of Southern Denmark. Dr. Snowdon has published more than 150 research articles, papers and cases, has received over $25 million in research funding, holds patents and has commercialized a highly successful booster seat product for children traveling in vehicles, and is a Fulbright Scholar. She holds a PhD in Nursing from the University of Michigan, MSc from McGill University, and BScN from Western University.