After almost 20 years with the Canadian Orthopaedic Association, Doug Thomson has made the decision to retire and begin the transition out of his role as CEO over the next year.
It gives me great pleasure to announce that Cynthia Vezina will be named CEO
, effective January 1, 2020
. Doug will work closely with Cynthia and the rest of our excellent staff through to the conclusion of our Annual Meeting next year in Halifax.
Cynthia first came to the COA in March of 1999 as administrative coordinator. Throughout the years, her performance excellence has earned her increasingly senior positions, becoming involved in almost every aspect of the COA’s operations, projects, and initiatives. Cynthia’s most recent promotion was to Executive Director, Strategic Initiatives in 2016. Her creativity, leadership, and facility to work effectively and professionally with members from coast to coast made her the obvious candidate for the Board of Directors.
Cynthia’s ability to bring tremendous levels of innovation to our organization and focus on delivering increasing value to our members will continue to accelerate in her new role as CEO. In the past few years, she rose to the challenge and tackled increasingly important strategic issues that have been critical to the COA’s continued growth: the improved use of technology to allow a more sophisticated approach to serving the needs of our members, initiatives to expand our core mission beyond the Annual Meeting, refine the COA’s membership offerings and communications to strengthen and expand our membership base, diversify our revenue opportunities, seek new opportunities to better engage members with the COA, and manage the Association’s expansion into improved strategic planning and advocacy.
Her vision for the COA and future successes will continue to be instrumental for our organization, and I ask you to join me in congratulating Cynthia on her outstanding performance and wish her every success in her new position.
Kishore Mulpuri, MHS, MBBS, MSc
Secretary, COA
