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| 8th Annual market access Summit | List of speakers |
Lisa Callaghan, AVP, Market Development, SunLife Financial
Tim Clarke, Benefits Practice Leader, Hewitt Associates
William Dempster, Director of Health and Pharma, Global Public Affairs Inc.
Martin Esterhammer, President, Shoppers Drug Mart Specialty Health Network
Laura Fitzgerald, Principal Consultant, In Initiative Inc.
Gerry Jeffcott, Principal, Gerry Jeffcott Health and Pharmaceutical Policy Consulting
Jeffrey Graham, Partner, Borden Ladner Gervais
Ron Hoskins, Assistant Vice President, Group Strategy and Research Manulife Financial
Chuck Johnston, Partner, Healthcare Practice Leader, NATIONAL Public Relation
Olaf Koester, Director, Drug Management Policy Unit, Manitoba Health
Suzanne Lepage, Private Health Plan Strategist
Aaron Levo, Manager of Public Issues, Canadian Cancer Society
Tania MacLeod, President, Pharmaceutical Health Policy & Market Access Strategy, Market Access Solutions; Past-President, Canadian Association for Healthcare Reimbursement
Joan McCormick, Principal Consultant Brogan Inc.
Vic Medland, President, Group Insurance Services, Ontario Teachers Insurance Plan
Laura Mensch, Senior Vice President, Health and Benefits Practice, Aon Consulting
Betsy Miller, Partner, Axia Research
Chad Mitchell, Procurement & Contracts Manager, Pharmacy Services, Alberta Health Services
Mike Moriarty, Principal Consultant, In Initiative Inc.
Claudia Neuber, Sr. Pricing Manager, AstraZeneca
Barbara Ouellet, Executive Director, Patented Medicine Prices Review Board
Karen Lee, Manager, Health Economics, Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health
Neil Palmer, Vice President, Pricing and Reimbursement, RTI Health Solutions
Hugh Paton, Past Senior Benefits Consultant, Bell Aliant Regional Communications
Dimitris Polygenis, VP, McKesson Specialty, McKesson Canada
John Vernon, Department of Health Policy & Management, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Bessie Wang, Director, Professional Services, Health Benefits Management Team, TELUS Health Solutions
Kevin West, Vice President, Operations, Specialty Services, Innomar Strategies, Inc.
Will Wilson, Director, Benefits and Compensation, Wal-Mart
Doug Worndl, Partner, Borden Ladner Gervais |
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| SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES |
 Tim Clarke,
Benefits Practice Leader,
Hewitt Associates
Tim leads Hewitt Associates’ Benefits practice in Canada, working out of Toronto. He is responsible for helping to develop and implement the business strategy for the practice, creating health and benefit plan solutions for Canadian employers that achieve business objectives. He has been with Hewitt for 15 years.
Tim works with clients across Canada on a variety of group benefits and actuarial projects, including the development of health care, wellness, and prescription drug strategies, as well as employee and retiree plan designs and pricing strategies, claims analyses, vendor management, and postretirement benefit valuations.
Tim is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries, is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, and is a member of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries’ Health Care Practice Committee. He holds a Bachelor of Mathematics degree in Actuarial Science and Economics from the University of Waterloo.
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 Martin Esterhammer,
President,
Shoppers Drug Mart Specialty Health Network
Martin is responsible for the general management of SDM Specialty Health Network as well as the strategic development of the company’s products and services. He has been employed at SDM Specialty Health Network, formerly Calea HealthAccess for over twelve years and has held senior positions with responsibility for marketing, business development, and corporate strategic planning.
Martin has also worked as a healthcare consultant at a major management consulting firm and has over eight years of sales and marketing experience in the pharmaceutical and medical products industries. Martin holds a BSc. in Toxicology from the University of Toronto, as well as an M.B.A. from York University.
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 Laura Fitzgerald,
Principal Consultant,
In Initiative Inc.
Laura has a long history of developing and implementing access and market development strategies. Her extensive experience in health policy analysis, understanding of legislation and experience in dealing with policy-makers directly allows her to extend a considerable competitive advantage to her
Clients.
Recently, Laura led Johnson and Johnson Medical Products as their Executive Business Director. Prior to JJMP, Laura spent 20 years at Pfizer Canada Inc, most of it driving access and policy initiatives in Western Canada.
Laura has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Alberta, and is pursuing an Executive MBA in Healthcare Administration at the Sauder School of Business, UBC.
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Suzanne Lepage,
Private Health Plan Strategist
Suzanne is a private health plan strategist with strong pharmaceutical industry, group insurance and employer relationships.
Suzanne's professional experience includes several years as the National Manager Private Healthcare with Roche Canada, one of the world's leading specialty pharmaceutical manufacturer. During that time she developed and executed private healthcare strategies for leading biologic drugs, developed and maintained strategic partnerships in the private market and recommended and implemented innovative solutions to meet shifting market needs. In addition she managed a patient assistance program for biologic medications.
She has also helped stakeholders, such as government agencies, medical professionals and patient groups better understand the private health plan market in Canada.
Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry Suzanne worked in group benefits in a wide variety of roles for almost 20 years. Most recently she was the Product Manager for the drug programs for Manulife Financial, on of Canada's largest insurance companies, where she developed extensive knowledge and a broad, real-world perspective on pharmacy benefit management.
Suzanne is a graduate of Wilfrid Laurier University with a degree in Communication Studies and a certificate in Marketing.
Suzanne is Co-Chair of GIPC (Group Insurance Pharmaceutical Committee) and has been an active member of two key industry associations: CLHIA (Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association) and RX&D (Canada's Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies). She is also a frequent contributor to industry publications and conferences.
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 Vic Medland,
President, Group Insurance Services,
Ontario Teachers Insurance Plan
After eight years in the insurance industry, Vic joined OTIP in March 1997 as Director of Sales & Service. In 2001, Vic was promoted to the position of Senior Vice President of Marketing, Insurance and Underwriting where he was responsible for managing the group benefits sales, service, underwriting and third party administration services. Vic was then promoted in September 2004 to President of OTIP Member Services, leading the client relations, consulting and member advocacy support services. Vic is now President of Group Insurance Services. His new post puts him in charge of the Group Life & Disability Claims department, the Consulting & Insurance department, Benefits Services and Underwriting.
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 Laura Mensch,
Senior Vice President, Health and Benefits Practice,
Aon Consulting
Position and Responsibilities
Laura Mensch is the leader for our Health & Benefits practice and chairs Aon's national Health & Benefits Practice Council. In her role, Laura is responsible for the strategic and operational aspects of the practice operations, overseeing a team of more than 100 actuarial and benefit consulting professionals. Laura brings more than 15 years of experience in health and benefits from an employer, provider and consulting perspective.
Areas of Specialization
Laura's clients value the integrated benefit healthcare philosophy and strategy development she brings to her consulting approach. She specializes in the design, implementation, financial management and auditing of benefit arrangements for major Canadian plan sponsors. Recent consulting assignments have included plan redesign, implementation and communication; multi-national pooling arrangements; mergers and acquisitions; union facilitation and negotiation; governance systems; and provider searches. Laura also serves an important role as Client Relationship Manager (CRM) for many of Aon’s key clients.
Background
Laura brings extensive experience with a major global consulting firm and a Canadian health benefit manager where she was responsible for product research, development, marketing, regulatory compliance and enabling technologies. She has also managed disability operations for providers and employers.
Laura played a key role in audits with both the Auditor General of Ontario, where she conducted a value-for-money audit for the Worker's Compensation Board, and the Auditor General of Canada, where she reviewed medical health services, disability claims and physician support for Veteran's Affairs. This experience has allowed Laura to develop a sound auditing methodology that she brings to many other clients.
Earlier in her career, Laura spent time with two major sponsored benefits plans. She worked for the Canadian Union of Public Employees (C.U.P.E.) as the Trust Fund Administrator Officer representing the Flight Attendants Associations for Air Canada and Canadian Airlines Divisions of C.U.P.E. In this role, she was responsible for managing the administrative and financial aspects of the association insurance programs. She worked in a similar capacity with the B.C. Healthcare Trust Fund, which comprised nursing associations, interns, administrative and other non-medical personnel.
Education and Industry
Laura has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Manitoba. She is a member of the editorial board for the Canadian Employee Benefit News publication. She is a former chair the Ontario Group Insurance and Pharmaceutical Committee and participated in the Ministry of Health’s Ontario Drug Benefit Program Administration Working Group.
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 Barbara Ouellet,
Executive Director,
Patented Medicine Prices Review Board
Barbara Ouellet became Executive Director of the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB) on January 31, 2005.
The Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB) is the federal agency responsible for prices of patented pharmaceuticals and analysis in Canada. Created in 1987 as an independent quasi-judicial tribunal, the PMPRB has a dual mandate – a regulatory mandate, to ensure that the prices charged by patentees for patented medicines are not excessive; and a reporting mandate, to analyse and report on pharmaceutical price and cost trends and on the pharmaceutical patentees’ performance in research and development.
As the senior full-time officer of the PMPRB, Ms. Ouellet is responsible for the corporate leadership of the agency, including its strategic direction, voluntary compliance and pricing guidelines, and the management of human and financial resources. The PMPRB also works in partnership with the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) to implement the National Prescription Drug Utilization Information System (NPDUIS). Approved and announced by F/P/T Ministers of Health in 2001, NPDUIS aims to provide critical analyses of price, utilization and cost trends so that health system decision-makers have comprehensive and accurate information on the utilization of prescription drugs and the sources of costs changes.
Prior to joining the PMPRB, Ms. Ouellet was the Director of the Quality Care, Technology and Pharmaceuticals Division, in the Health Care Policy Directorate, Health Policy Branch of Health Canada. During her over twenty-five years at Health Canada, Ms. Ouellet held a number of increasingly challenging positions in the areas of health policy, health promotion and health care. For the last nearly fifteen years, Ms. Ouellet’s work has focussed on various policy issues fundamental to the development, modernization and sustainability of Canada's health system. This has involved working closely with provincial and territorial governments and a wide range of national non-government and industry organizations to develop national policy approaches, strategies and tools to improve the quality of health care, and the appropriate and cost-effective use of the health system and health care resources. Key areas of involvement in the health care field have included, for example, quality care and patient safety, health care technology, pharmaceuticals management, home and continuing care, palliative and end-of-life care, health human resources, and primary health care.
Ms. Ouellet was born in London, Ontario and educated at Queen’s University in Kingston.
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 Neil Palmer,
Vice President, Pricing and Reimbursement,
RTI Health Solutions
Neil Palmer is responsible for leading RTI Health Solutions’ (RTI-HS) pricing & reimbursement practice. He was co-founder of Palmer D’Angelo Consulting Inc (PDCI), a leading pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement (P&R) consultancy established in 1996 and acquired by RTI International in December 2006. Before founding PDCI, Mr. Palmer was a senior official with the Canadian Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB) in Ottawa. Prior to the PMPRB he worked with the Health Division of Statistics Canada and the Kellogg Centre for Advanced Studies in Primary Care in Montreal. A graduate of the University of Western Ontario, he has written extensively on pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement issues and is a frequent speaker at pharmaceutical congresses in Europe, the United States and Canada.
About RTI-Health Solutions
Formed in 2000, RTI Health Solutions (www.rtihs.org) is a business unit of RTI International that focuses on research and services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industry. RTI Health Solutions has more than 180 employees in the United States, Canada and Europe including experts in pricing & reimbursement, health economics, epidemiology, biostatistics, psychometrics, medical writing and clinical development. The group combines consulting with research expertise to evaluate economic and clinical impacts of treatment, develop reimbursement dossiers, implement patient-reported outcomes and health-related quality of life studies, assess drug safety, conduct epidemiologic studies, and design and evaluate risk management programs. RTI-HS is headquartered in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina with offices in Waltham, Massachusetts; Ann Arbor Michigan; Ottawa, Canada; Manchester, UK and Barcelona, Spain.
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 John Vernon,
Department of Health Policy & Management,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
John A. Vernon is a professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he also holds appointments in the Kenan-Flagler Business School and the UNC School of Pharmacy. Prior to joining the faculty at UNC, he was a professor in the Finance Department in the School of Business at the University of Connecticut and a visiting professor at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the former senior economic policy advisor to the Office of the Commissioner at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and is a Faculty Research Fellow with the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). He has twice testified before the United States Senate on issues related to the economics of pharmaceutical price regulation. His research has appeared in such journals as The Journal of Law and Economics, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, The International Journal of Healthcare Finance and Economics, Health Economics, Inquiry, The Southern Economic Journal, and Regulation. He recently guest edited a special issue of the journal Managerial and Decision Economics devoted to the economics of the pharmaceutical industry. Vernon frequently advises both government and industry on a broad range of issues affecting the pharmaceutical industry.
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 Kevin West,
Vice President, Operations, Specialty Services,
Innomar Strategies, Inc.
Kevin began his healthcare career in the group insurance industry after which, as V.P. RxPlus (know by us today as ClaimSecure) Kevin developed and implemented Canada’s first electronic prescription claims submissions and adjudication system.
Kevin took his talents to ESI Canada (formerly Eclipse Claims Services Inc.) where he developed and managed business, operating plans, and development of new generation, fully integrated electronic healthcare adjudication software systems from scratch.
While at RxCanada, Kevin effectively championed and managed the efforts of competitor pharmacy chains in the development and implementation of numerous multi-stakeholder alliances and partnerships across healthcare verticals and developed and marketed unprecedented, revenue-generating, multi-stakeholder patient care / education programs for large-scale implementation by independent and chain pharmacies across Canada.
Kevin’s vast resume includes dealing directly with pharmaceutical manufacturers, drug wholesalers, and payer communities to ensure “best-in-class” service to long-term care contracts and retail pharmacy clients.
Over the years, Kevin has participated with industry colleagues in the definition and development of industry strategies, standards and projects for the improvement of overall health care delivery in Canada and the U.S.
Today, Kevin is the Vice President, Operations and Specialty Services at Innomar Strategies responsible for strategic consulting, specialty services, specialty pharmacy and new business development.
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 Doug Worndl,
Partner,
Borden Ladner Gervais
Doug Worndl is a partner in our Toronto Office. He was called to the Bar in Ontario in 1989, after having graduated with an LL.B. from the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto. Doug has also earned an LL.M. degree from Osgoode Hall Law School specializing in securities law. Doug graduated with distinction from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the University of Toronto earning a B.A. degree, specializing in economics and history.
Following his call to the Bar in Ontario, Doug joined the Federal Commission of Inquiry into the Air Ontario Crash at Dryden, Ontario, where he served as Director of Research and Counsel until 1991.
Doug joined the firm in 1991 and became partner in 1995.
AREAS OF PRACTICE AND RECOGNTION
- Doug practices in the areas of commercial litigation, products liability litigation; and aviation insurance litigation (defence), and has appeared before all levels of court in Ontario and in the Supreme Court of Canada and on a number of private commercial arbitrations.
- Doug was on the editorial board of the LexisNexis Commercial Litigation Review (2004-2009) and has written and spoken on current issues in securities law, product liability law, aviation law, and other topics.
- Doug has been listed in Euromoney Legal Media Group "Guide to the World's Leading Aviation Lawyers" (September 2002).
- Doug has a “BV” rating by Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Doug has provided ongoing advice to variety of clients in the prosecution and defence of claims arising out of commercial, shareholder, product liability, and aviation/airline related disputes, including:
- interim and interlocutory injunction applications, including Anton Piller injunctions (Doug was successful co-counsel before the Supreme Court of Canada on the leading Canadian case on Anton Piller relief: Celanese Canada Inc. v. Murray Demolition Corp. (2006) 269 D.L.R. (3d) 193 (S.C.C.))
- shareholder disputes including, actions and applications under the Ontario Business Corporations Act, and the Canada Business Corporations Act (ie.oppression and other shareholder remedies) and the Ontario Securities Act (including advising on "Part XXIII.1" shareholder class action issues);
- disputes relating to the liability of underwriters, investment dealers and financial analysts;
- professional liability claims against accountants, auditors and solicitors;
- defence of products liability claims;
- defence of defamation actions;
defence of claims against international airlines, airports, and manufacturers of aircraft and aviation products.
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