PHSA has a unique role in BC’s health authority system: to ensure that BC residents have access to a coordinated provincial network of high-quality specialized health care services. PHSA works in partnership and cooperation with the province’s health authorities and health care professionals to improve access to evidence-informed practice in a variety of programs serving specific populations that support optimal health outcomes for people living in British Columbia.

PHSA’s work is guided by its purpose to inspire and unite specialized teams to create a healthier province for all, as well as its vision to create an equitable, anti-racist, and culturally safe health care system where everyone thrives. The work of PHSA is guided by the Coast Salish Teachings gifted to the organization by Coast Salish Knowledge Keeper Siem Te Ta’in (Shane Pointe). 

PHSA’s Board of Directors is seeking a seasoned leader who can oversee a significant period of transformation for the organization. They will work closely with government to transition designated corporate services to a new shared services organization; refresh the mandate of PHSA; and onboard a new Board of Directors. At the same time, the new CEO will create clarity and the ideal conditions to develop renewed focus on delivering specialized services to patients in a more sustainable way. This work is informed by PHSA’s strong academic focus, and can only be done by working in close cooperation with the province’s regional health authorities, First Nations Health Authority, patients and families, our post-secondary sector, and government to ensure seamless, high quality, integrated, patient-centred care.

The CEO will steward a $6.5B budget and over 28,000 staff through a period of significant fiscal constraint and health human resource shortages. They will oversee the delivery of distinct services in the organization’s seven clinical program areas, including BC Cancer, BC Emergency Health Services, BC Centre for Disease Control, BC Mental Health & Substance Use Services, BC Children’s Hospital, BC Women’s Hospital + Health Centre, and the Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, as well as their respective research institutes. These clinical program areas plus various provincial planning, policy and other corporate supports vary significantly in scope and scale of services, operating models, work environments, and cultures. Within this context, the CEO will be tasked with looking for ways to build capacity across the system through better integration and collaboration.

As the ideal candidate, you are a change leader, comfortable with a diverse portfolio, ideally with experience in a health care organization. You foster cohesion, stability, and shared purpose across diverse service lines. You demonstrate resilience and tolerance for ambiguity, thriving in uncertainty, advancing large-scale change in a human-centred way, while maintaining service excellence and safety. You build strong and respectful relationships with colleagues and leaders across the sector to ensure the integration of the work of the PHSA with the regional health authority sector.

You seek to continuously learn, understand and act to eradicate Indigenous-specific racism and bring humility to your leadership to acknowledge and advance, honour and incorporate First Nations (Indigenous) ways of knowing and being into the western colonial system. You uphold the inherent rights of Indigenous peoples, take action on specific Foundational Commitments to Indigenous Peoples (such as UNDRIP, TRC, MMIWG & In Plain Sight) are trustworthy in relationships with Indigenous partners, and are committed more broadly to culturally-safe, anti-racist and equity-oriented leadership. You are a relational, collaborative leader who trusts and enables internal experts and partners, adopting a systems view to lead flexibly from the front or behind. At the same time, you are not afraid to make decisions to allow an organization to move forward with momentum. You exhibit humility, openness, and a learning orientation, and have a track record of creating a people-centred culture of innovation and risk taking.

This is a highly unique and rare opportunity to lead the organization through complex governance and organizational change, while supporting staff through significant role, process, and relationship shifts.

Given the substantial transformation of the organization over the next several years, the search committee is primarily seeking applicants interested in a 2-3 year initial term, with an option to extend based on the status of the shared services transition and evolution of clinical programs, the capacity for the new CEO to continue to lead, and the CEO role responsibilities post-transition.