Mr. Simon Kennedy was named Deputy Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, effective September 3, 2019. Previously, he served as Deputy Minister of Health from January 2015. During his tenure at Health Canada, that department took on a national leadership role in responding to the opioids crisis; negotiated agreements with the provinces and territories to allocate $11 billion in new funding to home care and mental health services; and launched important reforms to pharmaceutical pricing, nutrition labelling, and vaping and tobacco product packaging. Mr. Kennedy in a variety of progressively senior roles, including in six deputy minister-level appointments at the Privy Council Office; Industry Canada; Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada; Health Canada; and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. As the Canadian lead on the bi-national Beyond the Working Group, he negotiated with the White House the 2011 Canada-U.S. Action Plan for Perimeter Security and Economic Competitiveness.  He holds a Bachelor of Public Relations from Mount Saint Vincent Border University and a Master of Science in Communications Management from Syracuse University and is a graduate of INSEAD's Advanced Management Programme. Mr. Kennedy also received his ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD) and is co-chair of the ICD Ottawa Chapter. Expertise on how to prompt the Canadian Science ecosystem to grow, innovate and expand and to bring forward how the cluster system is changing how innovation and science are done in Canada