Asmita Gillani

Asmita is a recently retired healthcare executive with over 30 years of executive leadership experience at the C-suite level. She is currently an independent healthcare advisor at Empheon Consulting which specializes in digital solutions and enables innovation in various sectors including healthcare. Asmita's most recent position was the Executive Director at Accreditation Canada where she lead all Canadian Accreditation services of Accreditation Canada which included every hospital, every health care system, all publicly operated Long Term Care facilities, home care, Diagnostic services and several other services within the healthcare ecosystem. Asmita's senior executive experience, includes leadership in Canadian hospitals and internationally in the UK, the Middle East and Africa. Prior to joining Accreditation Canada she served as the CEO of Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi, the largest private academic hospital in sub-Sahara Africa and Regional Director for Health Services, Africa Region. During her time in Africa, Asmita led major multi-national transformations including: designing Aga Khan Development Network’s major, complex multi-national health care services into an Integrated Health System in four countries; Transforming a community hospital into a major Academic Medical Centre and establishing post graduate residency programs; Redefining the role of Primary Medical Centres in rural Africa to include birthing services with dramatic improvements in MDG (SDG) goals in select populations. Before her tour of duty in Africa, Asmita was the Chief Operating Officer and interim Chief Executive Officer of Mackenzie Health Centre (formerly known as York Central Hospital) in the Greater Toronto Area. Asmita has received awards for her professionalism and volunteerism, served on various boards and committees, published articles (as a former scientist in virology research) in indexed journals and authored a book chapter. Through her extensive travels to some of the poorest healthcare settings, Asmita has developed a deep appreciation of the resilience of the human spirit and of the innovations that come from necessity.