An internationally renowned health management expert has been named the new director of the School of Public Health at the University of Saskatchewan.
Steven Michael Jones will join the school on Sept. 1 for a five-year term.
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He is currently the CEO of Cognoveritas Consulting Inc., and a senior advisor to McKinsey & Company global management consulting firm.
Jones, who spent a decade working for Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada, said he is thrilled to join the university.
“I am very much looking forward to working with the faculty and staff to deliver on the enormous potential that exists in the school and university,” Jones said in a release.
“Some of the biggest challenges of the next century will be public health issues, and the school is well placed to address these problems.”
During his time with PHAC, Jones was the acting director of bioterrorism and public health emergency response, and worked with the RCMP and Canadian Forces to manage biological security operations for the Vancouver Olympic Games and the G8 and G20 summits in Vancouver.
Jones was also a principal investigator on nine major research projects, exploring SARS, Ebola, Hantavirus and a variety of bio-threat agents, and was previously interim manager of Canada’s only Level 4 micro-biological lab.
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Michael Atkinson, the interim provost and vice-president academic at the Saskatoon-based university, said Jones’s wealth of knowledge position him to take a leadership role at the school.
“His remarkable record of achievement and service nationally and internationally will help strengthen the academic mission of the school and greatly enhance our community connections,” Atkinson said in a statement.
Jones takes over from Dr. George Mutwiri, who has served has interim executive director since July 2015.
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