Northern Health stays local for new executive

Northern Health has decided to hire from within for its new president and chief executive, Friday's paper had the complete details on the decision.


Strength from within for Northern Health
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Friday, May 25, 2007

After an extensive search, Northern Health has chosen one of its own employees to take over the position of president and chief executive officer.

Yesterday, Northern Health chair Jeff Burghardt announced that the board has appointed Cathy Ulrich to the position, effective June 15.

"In recruiting our new CEO, the board's goal was to select a strong leader who would engage Northern Health's capable staff and maintain and build upon our partnership with Northern physicians," said Burghardt.

"We want to ensure that we strengthen our open relationship with Northern communities, and enhance on-going efforts with our many partners to build better health services across Northern British Columbia. We're confident that Cathy will provide exceptional leadership as Northern Health continues to develop."

Ulrich takes over from Malcolm Maxwell, who is leaving Northern Health for a position at a hospital in Ontario. Since 2002, she held the position vice-president of clinical services and chief nursing officer with Northern Health.

She has spent the majority of her career in rural and northern locations where she gained a solid understanding of the nature of rural and northern communities, their health needs and concerns, and the unique approaches required to meet these needs.

Burghardt added she has a proven track record of successfully garnering and engaging resources specifically for rural and northern initiatives.

She has also been actively engaged in health services research, teaching and graduate student support.

"I believe Northern Health is well positioned to be a provincial and national leader in the delivery of high quality health care services to rural and northern populations," said Ulrich.

"I look forward to leading the implementation of Northern Health's strategic directions and working with our many partners to develop creative and innovative solutions that will ensure a sustainable system of health services in the North."

Ulrich said she will spend her time between now and June 15 bringing herself up to speed with the many projects already underway at Northern Health.

Burghardt said that during the coming years Northern Health needs to migrate away from acute care and Ulrich can help in this goal.

"We need to move to healthier communities and so much of that requires program development," he said. "Largely in Cathy's role to this point, she's been responsible for the direction of program development. Malcolm relied heavily on Cathy in the last few years."

He added they wanted to hire someone who could accept and work with goals and objectives already being implemented by senior staff.