St. Joseph’s Health System (SJHS) completed its search for a new president and CEO after parting ways with its previous leader during the emergence of a second wave in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The board of directors has appointed Elizabeth Buller, the current president and CEO of Scarborough Health Network and Research Institute, as the new boss of St. Joe’s overall operations in Hamilton, Dundas, Brantford, Guelph and Kitchener.
“Prior to her current position, Ms. Buller was President & CEO of St. Joseph’s Health Centre Toronto, where she was instrumental in the voluntary merger of three hospitals to create Unity Health Toronto,” the board said in a statement on Thursday.
A native of London, Buller obtained her bachelor of science in nursing from McMaster University.
Buller is the full-time replacement for past chief Dr. Thomas Stewart, who parted ways with the network following a trip he took to the Caribbean over the Christmas holiday in 2020 during the height of the pandemic.
At that time, a number of high-profile Ontario personalities, including then-finance minister Rod Phillips and Halton police Chief Stephen Tanner, took vacations out of Canada when the federal and provincial governments were not recommending travel out of Canada.
Stewart also resigned from two other panels and was removed as CEO of Niagara Health after the agency discontinued a purchase of CEO services from St. Joseph’s.
SJHS later confirmed he was on “approved vacation” from Dec. 18 to Jan. 5.