Senior Management Announcements

Ottawa, December 2006 - Neil Yeates, Assistant Deputy Minister of Health Canada's Health Products and Food Branch (HPFB), has announced the following changes to the senior management team and structure of the Branch:

Hélène Goulet, HPFB's Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, has accepted the position of Secretary General of the Canadian Human Rights Commission. With the Branch since May 2005, Ms. Goulet was involved in many key HFPB files, including the Food Policy Framework, the Food Guide, Malachite Green, and the Natural Health Products review. Prior to her role at HPFB, she led the Tobacco Control Program of the Healthy Environment and Consumer Safety Branch for five years. As of December 4, Neil Yeates will assume the duties of the Associate ADM position while staffing is underway.

HPFB's Policy and Strategic Planning Directorate and the Office of Regulatory and International Affairs have been merged to create a new Policy, Planning and International Affairs Directorate. This new directorate was formed in response to an increasing emphasis in the Branch's work on strategic policy analysis and development, international affairs, federal-provincial-territorial (FPT) relations and engagement with the Health Portfolio and other federal partners. Stephen Lucas and Debra Young are the Director General and Associate Director General respectively.

After seven years of service to Health Canada, Julia Hill, Visiting Director General of HFPB's Natural Health Products Directorate (NHPD), has moved to Citizenship and Immigration Canada as the Corporate Secretary. In her time with HPFB, Ms. Hill led key files, including the implementation and follow-up of the Krever recommendations on blood safety, cells, tissues and organs for use in transplantation, and the creation of the WHO International Conference on Herbal Medicines. Ouassim Meguellati is now Acting Director General of NHPD. He can be reached in his Ottawa office at 613-946-2327 or by email at Ouassim_Meguellati@hc-sc.gc.ca.

Susan Padmos, Director of the Litigation Secretariat, has provided leadership to the Secretariat since its creation six years ago. Effective December 4, 2006, Ms. Padmos joined the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch as Director of Workplace, Professional and Capacity Development.

The responsibilities of the Litigation Secretariat have now been divided between the Therapeutic Products Directorate (TPD) and the new Policy, Planning and International Affairs Directorate (PPIAD).

A new Science Advisor position has been created in the Health Products and Food Branch. As head of the Office of Science and Risk Management, the Branch Science Advisor provides a focal point for strategic science planning and science policy, and for consistency in the Branch's approach to benefit and risk decision-making. The Advisor helps ensure that consistent standards and levels of scientific evidence are employed, and that effective risk management principles and practices are used to fulfill HPFB's mandate. The Advisor also provides coordination and advice on international, national, federal, and departmental science and technology issues that affect the Branch. Dr. David Clapin, former Associate Director General of the Marketed Health Products Directorate, has been appointed as Science Advisor on an interim basis until the process to permanently staff the position is complete. The Science Advisor's office is located in Ottawa and can be reached at 613-954-4626 or by email at david_clapin@hc-sc.gc.ca.