Leadership Academy

Showing biography of Brian Golden .

Brian Golden is the academic director for The OCFP Leadership Academy and is the Sandra Rotman chaired professor in health sector strategy at the Rotman School of Management, The University of Toronto and The University Health Network. He is the founding academic director of The Sandra Rotman Centre for Health Sector Strategy, a policy, research and leadership development institute. His research has informed policy around collaborative leadership, system design, funding models and primary care.

As an adviser and director of leadership development programs, Golden has worked with a variety of organizations, including the Canadian Medical Association, provincial and territorial medical associations, Canadian provincial governments, Britain’s National Health Service, several Local Integration Health Networks and hospitals and agencies, including the Hospital for Sick Children, UHN, Hamilton Health Sciences, London Health Science Centre, Sunnybrook College Health Sciences Centre, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Cancer Care Ontario, the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Baylor Medical Center. Private-sector clients include Tieto (Finland), General Electric and Baxter. He is the founding academic director of the Rotman School’s Advanced Health Leadership Program and the Global Executive MBA in Healthcare and Life sciences. Golden was the founding director of the Judy Project, Canada’s premier program for senior women leaders in the private and public sectors.

Showing biography of Nouman Ashraf .

Nouman Ashraf is an associate professor, teaching stream within the organizational behaviour area at the Rotman School of Management.

He possesses a broad range of professional, academic and research interests, with a specialized focus on enabling inclusive and innovative practices within teams, organizations and boards. For the last decade and a half, he has held progressively senior roles at the University of Toronto. He is a recognized thought leader in governance, and has taught thousands of directors in the national Rotman program on Not for Profit Governance in partnership with the Institute for Corporate Directors since its inception in 2007.  

Winner of numerous teaching awards, Nouman teaches Emancipatory Leadership within the OMNIUM GEMBA program, Leading Social Innovation with the 2 and 3 year MBA program and Leading Across Differences within the Rotman Commerce Program.  

Nouman has advised numerous clients such as Shopper’s Drugmart, Tory’s, the Canada Pension Plan and Investment Board, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Ontario Trillium Foundation, United Way Toronto, and numerous post-secondary and healthcare institutions. Nouman serves as Teaching Fellow at the Institute for Gender + the Economy. He is also an Associate at Trinity College within the University of Toronto.   

At lunch time, he can be found at Massey College within the University of Toronto, where he mentors exceptional post-graduate students in his capacity as Senior Fellow Emeritus.  

Showing biography of Maja Djikic .

Maja Djikic, Ph.D. is a personality psychologist specializing in adult development. She is an Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior and HR Management, the Executive Director of the Self-Development Laboratory, and the Academic Director of the Rotman Executive Coaching Certificate program at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.   

Her research has been featured in over 50 media outlets (including The New York Times, Salon, Slate, and Scientific American Mind), in 15 countries.   

Maja has been selected by Thinkers50 as one of 30 thinkers around the world whose ideas have the potential to shape the future of organizations. Her first book, The Possible Self: A Leader’s Guide to Personal Development, was published in March 2024 by Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc. The book won the Gold Award in Psychology from the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) in May of 2025.  

Showing biography of Mark Weber .

 Mark Weber is Special Advisor to the Provost on Leadership Strategy and Development and Professor of Management and Organizations at the University of Waterloo. 

Prior to his current role, Mark was the inaugural Director of the Graduate Diploma in Social Innovation at UW and served on the faculty of the Rotman School of Management and UTM at the University of Toronto for several years. He earned his PhD in Management and Organizations at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, and also holds a masters degree in social psychology and an MBA.  

Mark’s research focuses on leadership, cooperation, negotiations, decision-making, and trust. His work has been published in outlets like Research in Organizational Behavior, Organizational Psychology Review, Culture and Negotiation: Integrative Approaches to Theory and Research, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Social Psychological and Personality Science, Trust and Distrust across Organizational Contexts: Dilemmas and Approaches, and Personality and Social Psychology Review.  

Mark is an award-winning teacher and researcher who has been on faculty and taught courses on negotiations and organizational behavior to students at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, INSEAD and at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. He consults extensively and has provided training to executives and professionals in the automotive, education, healthcare, pharmaceutical, broadcast media, entertainment, telecommunications, technology, and financial services industries, and in government at all levels. He also facilitates strategic planning for not- for-profit and for-profit organizations alike. Mark’s early achievements included both national and international awards for public speaking and debating. His previous professional experiences included managerial and leadership roles in local government, the financial services sector, and in not-for-profit organizations 

Showing biography of Dr. Tara Kiran .

Dr. Tara Kiran is a family physician and a health systems researcher with nationally and   internationally recognized expertise in primary care policy, quality improvement, and health system evaluation. She holds the Fidani Chair in Improvement and Innovation at the  University of Toronto where she also serves as Vice Chair, Quality and Innovation for the  Department of Family and Community Medicine.

Dr. Kiran’s research focuses on  understanding and addressing gaps in access, equity, and quality in primary care, with  recent work examining shifts in the physician workforce, the impact of team-based care,  and public priorities for reform. Dr. Kiran is the founder and national lead of OurCare,  Canada’s largest public engagement initiative on the future of primary care, which has  shaped policy direction in multiple provinces and informed Ontario’s Primary Care Act. She  also hosts Primary Focus, a podcast that explores innovative primary systems and clinics— in Canada and around the world. She practices family medicine at St. Michael’s Hospital,  Unity Health Toronto where she is also a Scientist at the MAP Centre for Urban Health  Solutions. Throughout her work, she is motivated by a deep commitment to improving  access to high-quality, equitable, and patient-centred care.

Showing biography of Dr. Joseph Cafazzo .

Dr. Joseph Cafazzo is the inaugural Wolfond Chair in Digital Health, Executive Director of Biomedical Engineering and Senior Scientist, Centre for Global eHealth Innovation at the University Health Network, a state-of-the-art research facility hosting 80 staff and students devoted to the evaluation and design of healthcare technology.   

Over his career, he has built a network of clinicians, designers, engineers, researchers, that challenge the norms of healthcare and to empower patients and their families. Together they push the boundaries of what’s possible, which has led to the creation of technologies that act to facilitate patient self-care of complex chronic conditions. He’s received the Stanford 2.0 Award and the People’s Choice Award at the World Congress of Health Innovation for his work in digital health for children with diabetes. His body of work has also recognized by the Canadian Health Informatics Association, with their Excellence in Telehealth Award and the Dr. Mo Watanabe Lecture.   

Dr. Cafazzo is the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee in Digital Health for Health Canada, is a Professor at the University of Toronto, in the areas of clinical engineering, human factors, and health informatics and is the recipient of the Career Scientist award by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care . 

Showing biography of Dr. Pauline Pariser .

Dr. Pariser is Associate Medical Director, Primary Care Lead for the SCOPE Provincial Program at University Health Network (UHN) and Women’s College Hospital (WCH), Senior Advisor to the Social Medicine and Population Health Program at UHN and Strategic Medical Advisor for the Akwesasne Project, Ganawishkadawe, the Center for Wise Practices in Indigenous Health, (WCH).

Her research interests include advancing primary care integration and co-designing compassionate models of care with people with lived experience.

As Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto, she has contributed to educating trainees and faculty in health system leadership within the Department of Family and Community Medicine, the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Rotman School of Management. Dr. Pariser has been recognized with teaching and leadership awards from her department, the Ontario Medical Association, the College of Family Physicians of Ontario and Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care.