The Northern Health Region (NHR) will have a new chief executive officer next month, naming the replacement for the retiring Helga Bryant.
The NHR announced March 3 that the region's board has hired Raj Sewda as the new CEO, effective April 1. Sewda will take on the spot currently occupied by Bryant, who announced last year that she would step down from the job at the end of March.
A registered nurse by trade, Sewda holds a bachelor's of science in nursing, a master's degree in business administration and an Institute of Corporate Directors, Directorate. Sewda's most recent job has been as a clinical partner at Sienna Senior Living, an Ontario-based seniors' housing company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange - Sewda works with homes in both Ontario and B.C.
Sewda has formerly worked as a professor at Seneca College in Ontario and was a chief operating officer, executive vice-president and clinical and chief nursing executive at Runnymede Health Centre in Toronto. Sewda also received fellowship from the American College of Health Executives and the International Society for Quality in Health Care and is a surveyor and leading practice reviewer for Accreditation Canada.
“We believe Mr. Sewda has the right combination of experience, education and management skills to provide great benefit to the Region as we move forward,” said NHR board chair Cal Huntley in a statement released by the NHR March 3.
“Our national search yielded a number of high-quality candidates and we are pleased Raj has accepted the challenge of leading the region into the future.”
The job of finding a new CEO was given to the NHR’s board, who hired Toronto-based executive search consultants Pekarsky and Co. to conduct the hunt. The firm said in a listing that the CEO posting would be located in either Flin Flon, The Pas or Thompson and that "the successful candidate will have executive leadership and responsibility for effective day-to-day management of clinical and clinical-support services, through the divisions/portfolios and their teams.”
“We look forward to welcoming Raj and his wife, Sumi, to Flin Flon as they settle into the region,” said Huntley.
“On behalf of all of our citizens, the board again thanks retiring CEO Helga Bryant for her years of faithful, dedicated and valued service to the people of northern Manitoba.”
Bryant has been the CEO of the NHR and its predecessor, the Nor-Man Regional Health Authority, since 2010. Last June, Bryant announced she would be retiring from the post effective as of March 30, 2023. Bryant is still serving as the CEO of the region and has reached terms to join University College of the North (UCN) in May as the schools’ new dean of health.
