Alex Munter

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Alex Munter : biography

April 29, 1968 –

Alexander Mathias Munter (born April 29, 1968) is a former politician and journalist in Ottawa, Canada’s capital city. He is the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO).

Awards

Munter has won numerous awards from a wide range of organizations for his contributions to the community, including the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, the Canadian Institute for Child Health, United Way/Centraide Ottawa, the Federal Business Development Bank, l’Association Canadienne-Française de l’Ontario d’Ottawa, Leadership Ottawa and the Ontario Association of Social Workers.

Career

Prior to joining CHEO, Munter was Chief Executive Officer of the Champlain Local Health Integration Network (LHIN)- the provincial government agency responsible for planning, integrating and funding health services in the Ottawa Region with an annual budget of $2.2 billion. Prior to his work with LHIN, Munter was Executive Director of the Youth Services Bureau of Ottawa (YSB), one of Ontario largest accredited children’s mental health agencies.

Munter was a City and Regional Councillor in Ottawa from 1991 to 2003. From 1997 onward, he headed the council committees responsible for health and social services with oversight of the city’s $550 million human services budget. In that role, he led Council to adopt unanimously pioneering smoke-free regulations in 2001; helped open new child care centres, expand the number of child care spaces, and expand public health programs for children and youth; worked with provincial government to oversee the transfer of ambulance services and social housing to the municipal level; initiated Canada’s first comprehensive public access defibrillator program; expanded long-term care for seniors; funded hospital expansions and worked with the Community Care Access Centre and community support agencies to improve at-home support services for seniors and people with disabilities.

Munter’s family emigrated from Germany to Montreal in 1966, two years before he was born. His family moved to the Ottawa region in 1977, and settled in the Katimavik-Hazeldean area west of the city. At age 14, Munter began publishing the Kanata Kourier from his basement as a monthly local paper for the suburban community of Kanata, Ontario. In four years, the paper had a staff of seven and a circulation of 10,000 in the town of 27,000. In recognition of his success in business, he received an award as "Young Entrepreneur of the Year" from then-Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in 1988.

President and CEO of CHEO

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/Montfort+rejigs+perk+contract/5954535/story.html CHEO is the second largest hospital in the Champlain LHIN and one of only a few stand-alone pediatric hospitals in Canada. Each year, CHEO has more than 6,000 admissions, 7,000 surgeries and 165,000 clinic visits. Its pediatric emergency rooms treats more than 60,000 patients a year. CHEO runs specialized programs for eating disorders, autism, psychiatric mental health, sexual assault, telepsychiatry and early language development. It also houses several provincial and regional programs, including the Provincial Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health, the Ontario Newborn Screening Program, Better Outcomes Registry Ontario and Champlain Maternal Newborn Program. In addition to its clinical mandate, CHEO is an academic health science centre, providing education to 1,600 future pediatricians, students in nursing and health professionals. The 250 researchers at the CHEO Research Institute conduct $17 million in research. CHEO provide training for doctors and nurses in community hospitals on best-practices for pediatric care.

Chief Executive Officer of the Champlain LHIN

While Chief Executive Officer of LHIN, Munter strengthened the region’s health system by making strategic investments at hospitals and community-based agencies in both urban and rural areas of the Ottawa region. In particular, he made great strides in improving care for the elderly by putting in place programs that help vulnerable seniors stay independent and health for as long as possible in their own homes.