Innovation foundation gets new top executive

Ottawa, ON – February 19, 2004 – Dr Eliot A Phillipson has been named president and CEO of the Canada Foundation for Innovation. He succeeds the CFI’s current president, Dr David Strangway, who announced last August that he would be stepping down on March 31, 2004.

Dr Phillipson, who currently serves as chair of the department of medicine at the University of Toronto, will begin his new responsibilities at the CFI as of July 1, 2004. As president and CEO, he will be responsible for managing a $3.65 billion budget and will work to strengthen the capacity of Canadian universities, colleges, research hospitals, and other non-profit research organizations to carry out world-class research and technology development.

He received his MD and master of science from the University of Alberta. Following postgraduate training in internal medicine, he undertook research training at the Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California San Francisco. In 1971 he was recruited back to Canada, to the University of Toronto as a clinician-scientist, with a research focus in the regulation of respiration. From 1987 to 1997 Dr Phillipson served as physician-in-chief at Mount Sinai Hospital. In 1993 he was appointed Sir John and Lady Eaton professor and chair of the department of medicine, a position he holds until June 2004.

"Dr Phillipson is an outstanding researcher and leader who is committed to shaping the future of science in Canada," says Dr Alan Bernstein, president of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and a CFI board director. "His appointment ensures that the CFI will continue to support research in areas of strategic importance to Canada."