Senior Leadership Team
Arden Krystal
President and CEO
Arden Krystal is the President and CEO of Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket, Ontario. Southlake serves a population of almost 1.5 million people in York Region and Simcoe county, with regional cancer and cardiac programs and a full slate of services from surgery to mental health to children’s and women’s care.
Prior to her arrival at Southlake, Arden held senior executive operations roles at two of the largest health authorities in British Columbia – the Fraser Health Authority and the Provincial Health Services Authority, with responsibilities spanning the full continuum of care, including public health, acute community, tertiary and quaternary research and academic organizations. Her portfolios also included responsibility for non-clinical services, such as quality, risk and human resources; and she has overseen, as clinical executive sponsor, major public-private partnership (P3) capital projects in the hospital sector.
Arden started her career as a registered nurse in medical and surgical oncology. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing (hon) and a Master of Health Administration, both from the University of British Columbia, and completed the Managing Health Delivery certificate program at Harvard University.
Barbara Steed
Executive Vice President, Clinical Services
Regional Vice President, Cancer Program
Barb Steed is the Executive Vice President, Clinical Services at Southlake Regional Health Centre and Regional Vice President, Cancer Services, Central Regional Cancer Program, Ontario Health (Cancer Care Ontario).
Barb most recently held the role of Executive Vice President of Patient Services and Chief Practice Officer at Markham Stouffville Hospital. Barb began her career as an Emergency Department nurse and since then has held a number of progressive leadership roles within the health care system covering a diverse range of hospital clinical services including Oncology, Medicine, Surgery, Maternal Child, Complex Continuing Care, Brain Health, Regional Child Development and Intensive Care. Her experience also includes Quality, Risk, Patient Safety, Pharmacy, Laboratory Services and Diagnostic Imaging.
Barb is a Registered Nurse who holds a Master of Health Studies from Athabasca University and has a Certified Health Executive certification with the Canadian College of Health Leaders. She has completed the Advanced Healthcare Leadership Program at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. She is a values based leader whose accomplishments focus on innovative approaches to patient centred care, patient experience and quality.
Dr. Charmaine van Schaik
Chief of Staff
Dr. Charmaine van Schaik trained in Paediatrics at McMaster University, after completing a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Psychology and Master’s of Science in Kinesiology. Since joining Southlake in 2004, Charmaine has acted as a Physician Leader at Southlake in multiple capacities, as well as the previous Chief of Paediatrics and Medical Director of the Paediatric Oncology Group of Ontario (POGO) Satellite Clinic when it launched at Southlake in 2009. More recently, Charmaine served on the Southlake’s COVID-19 Clinical Advisory Panel (CCAP) and is the Co-Medical Lead for Southlake’s COVID-19 Vaccination Committee, where she was instrumental in promoting community awareness through regular appearances in local media.
Dr. van Schaik advises Ontario’s Ministry of Health on pediatric cancer care as the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors at POGO and is a Lecturer with the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Toronto.
Charmaine is also a very proud mother of five children.
Tyler Chalk
Vice President, Strategy, Analytics and Communications
Prior to joining Southlake in 2018, Tyler was Director, Strategy and Optimization at SickKids. He has also served as Senior Manager, Quality and Performance at Mount Sinai Hospital and in a number of roles at the Ontario Ministry of Health.
He has an undergraduate degree in economics from McMaster University and did his masters at the London School of Economics in the UK. He has completed the Advanced Health Leadership Program at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto and the IDEAS Advanced Learning Program in quality improvement.
He has contributed to published research on the impact of hospital funding reform in Ontario and has spoken at national and international conferences on data-driven outcomes improvement, healthcare strategy, and the shift to value-based care.
Elizabeth Ferguson
Vice President, Clinical Transformation, Patient Experience and Chief Nursing Executive
Liz is a nurse executive with expertise in strategic change initiatives in acute care hospitals and a passion for patient and family centred care. Prior to joining Southlake, Liz was the Vice-President, Patient Programs, Flow and Chief Nursing Executive at Royal Victoria Health Centre and Vice-President Clinical Operations and Chief Nursing Executive at Sault Area Hospital. Liz also served as Director, Clinical Programs, Centre for Brain and Mental Health at SickKids where she also started her nursing career as a pediatric intensive care nurse.
Liz is a Registered Nurse who holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Toronto and Master of Science in Nursing from D’Youville College. She has completed the Advanced Healthcare Leadership Program at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Liz has recently chaired regional clinical steering committees in multi-site projects for the implementation of Meditech Expanse in both Northern Ontario and Central North and served as a key influencer in the Provincial Epilepsy Strategy in 2016. Liz is a visionary, value-based leader and advocate for the design and delivery of an innovative, quality-driven health care system.
John Marshman
Vice President, Capital, Facilities and Business Development
John Marshman is the Vice President, Capital, Facilities and Business Development at Southlake Regional Health Centre where he oversees facilities operations while leading the planning and execution of Southlake’s extensive redevelopment agenda.
Prior to joining Southlake, John served as Associate Vice President of Facilities Operations for the William Osler Health System where he was accountable for Building Engineering and Maintenance, Environmental Services, Parking, Food Services, Materials Management and Public Safety for three healthcare campuses. John also supported the planning and execution of Osler’s multiple redevelopment projects.
After studies in engineering and music, John pursued parallel careers in consulting engineering as well as a performing Cellist. Drawn by the complexities of healthcare systems, John focused his consulting work on the design and implementation of hospital construction and renovation projects. In 2012, John joined the Brant Community Healthcare System where he served as Director of Facilities, Planning and Redevelopment before moving to William Osler in 2013.
John keeps active in the broader healthcare facilities community serving as the Vice Chair of the Canadian Healthcare Engineering Society (Ontario) and is a sought after speaker on topics from facilities operations and planning to procurement models. John has been the recipient of multiple awards including the 2020 ASHRAE Technology Award for Health Care Facilities.
Dr. David Makary
Vice President, Medical Affairs
Dr. Makary joined Southlake in 2012 as an Associate Staff Physician and has served in several Southlake departments, including: Emergency, Paediatric and General Internal Medicine.
During his time at Southlake, Dr. Makary has served as Chief of the Department of Family and Community Medicine, Primary Care Lead and Co-Chair of the Executive Steering Committee for the Southlake Community Ontario Health Team (OHT). He also has experience in quality improvement through his work establishing and growing the Southlake Academic Family Health Team’s Quality Improvement Plan. Dr. Makary is also a Lecturer for the University of Toronto’s Department of Family and Community Medicine.