Dr. Graham D. Sher
Chief Executive Officer

Graham is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Blood Services, the agency charged with managing Canada's national blood, plasma and stem cell programs in all provinces and territories across Canada, excluding Quebec. He has been with Canadian Blood Services since it began operations in September 1998, when he joined as its first Vice President Medical, Scientific & Clinical Management. He was appointed to the position of CEO in June 2001.

In this capacity, Graham continues to lead Canadian Blood Services through an extensive, multi-year Transformation journey. Under Graham's leadership, the early phases of this transformation were focused on a comprehensive service delivery model redesign aimed at ensuring safety, adequacy and efficiency of products and services, with a firm focus on innovation. More recently, the organization has renewed its strategy to become a trusted partner in health care delivery. Graham is leading Canadian Blood Services in its work to develop an integrated national system for organ and tissue donation and transplantation (OTDT), which is being undertaken in collaboration with the broad OTDT community.

Graham is a recognized expert in transfusion medicine and science, and is widely sought after as a speaker nationally and internationally. He sits on a number of blood system and health care related advisory bodies, and has provided consulting support to other countries in the transformation of their blood systems. Graham is a founding member and current Chair of the Alliance of Blood Operators and is the first international director on the Board of the AABB (formerly the American Association of Blood Banks). Beyond blood system governance, Graham has a passion for health system design and management, and is active in a number of areas of health system performance improvement.

Although serving exclusively in administrative roles since joining Canadian Blood Services, Graham is a hematologist by training, having acquired his medical and doctoral degrees at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and his specialty certification at the University of Toronto, Canada. He was formerly a physician and scientist on staff at the Toronto Hospital and on faculty at the University of Toronto.

He is happily married, has three sons, and is constantly struggling to find more time for his other passion in life: photography.

Mr. Ian Mumford
Chief Supply Chain Officer

Ian Mumford is responsible for ensuring Canadian Blood Services consistently provides high quality transfusable, plasma protein and stem cell products to our customers at the right time, at the right place, and at the right cost.

Ian’s role is to ensure our ability to meet customer needs is predictable and consistent; we provide an outstanding experience for our donors; our collections, production, testing and logistics processes are standardized across the country; and our operations are productive and efficient.

Ian joined Canadian Blood Services at its founding in 1998 as a Vice-President tasked with vastly increasing blood collections, rebuilding the donor base and restoring public trust in the nation’s blood system. His successful programs received numerous national and international awards.

Prior to joining Canadian Blood Services, Ian held various executive positions of increasing scope and complexity in the health, energy and communications sectors.

Based at Canadian Blood Services’ Head Office in Ottawa, Ian continues to be involved in professional and community organizations. He is Chair of the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, and a past Chair of the Hospice at May Court and Ottawa Civic Hospital.

Dr. Christian Choquet
Vice-President, Quality and Regulatory Affairs

Dr. Christian Choquet joined Canadian Blood Services on Aug. 9, 2004. Dr. Choquet is responsible for the overall guidance of Canadian Blood Services’ quality systems, focusing on ensuring that all operations meet or exceed applicable standards and regulations.

Dr. Choquet holds a B Sc (Hons.) in Biochemistry and M Sc in Microbiology from Laurentian University, as well as a Ph D in microbiology from the University of Ottawa. During his academic career he received numerous awards and was widely published in his field of expertise.

Between 1994 and 1999, Dr. Choquet worked at Health Canada in the Medical Devices Bureau, during which time he gained considerable insight and experience in regulations and standards. Prior to leaving the federal government, Christian was Section Head, In Vitro Diagnostic Devices, Device Evaluation Division, of the Medical Devices Bureau. He then joined Infectio Diagnostic Inc. (I.D.I.) in October 1999, based in Quebec City. I.D.I. develops and manufactures molecular in vitro diagnostic test kits for the detection of infectious microbiological agents. Most recently he was Vice-President, Regulatory, Clinical and Quality Affairs at I.D.I.

Mr. Watson Gale
Vice-President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary

Mr. Gale is responsible for overseeing Canadian Blood Services' legal, governance, privacy and access to information activities as well as aspects of the organization’s risk management functions. In addition, the general management of the organization’s two captive insurance subsidiaries falls within his portfolio.

Mr. Gale has extensive corporate and commercial law experience and came in-house to Canadian Blood Services in 2001 after many years as a partner with a major national law firm.

Watson is a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada as well as the Law Societies of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. He is also a Chartered Director and is a member of the Board of Directors of both the Canadian Stroke Network and the University of Ottawa Institute for Mental Health Research.