BC Business
After nearly three years, the Fraser Health Authority has finally concluded its search to replace CEO Bob Smith, who vacated the position in February 2005. Looking at Nigel Murray’s resumé, it’s easy to see why it took so long.
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It’s not every day that you find a health administrator who has helped set up a health-care system from scratch in a country ravaged by civil war and who has also headed employee relations for a national system of regional health authorities very similar to B.C.’s provincial system. Murray brings a military can-do approach to civilian health administration. A physician by training, he practised in his native New Zealand before enlisting in the army to take advantage of opportunities for advanced training and overseas experience. The army footed the bill for his master’s degree at Harvard University and his continued specialization in occupational and environmental health planning in London, England. All his training was put to the test when Murray was seconded to the UN, where he joined the UN Special Commission in Iraq following the first Gulf War. His mission: ensure the safety of diplomats and health officials charged with decommissioning Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. (Yes, he reminds us with a wry chuckle, there actually were such weapons when the U.S. invaded the first time.) Following that tour of duty, Murray was parachuted into another hot spot of global conflict. This time it was Bosnia where, in the midst of that country’s civil war, he was charged with helping rebuild a health-care infrastructure. Following his return to New Zealand in the mid-1990s, Murray retired from the military to take on increasingly senior roles in New Zealand’s public health system, culminating in the position of CEO of the Southland District Health Board, where he also led the New Zealand health sector’s industrial and employee relations. Public health care is a hot-button issue in Canada. Is it equally contentious in New Zealand? Certainly. Public health services where taxpayers’ money needs to be wisely spent are always going to be on the top of the agenda, making sure every dollar spent goes as far as it can to deliver more and more health care. So there are similar issues to New Zealand, but I couldn’t possibly say they are all the same, and I’m going to be spending a period learning about those differences. You have a very colourful background, including tours of duty as a medical officer in Bosnia and Iraq. Can you explain what your duties were in those two locations? I was serving with New Zealand’s Special Air Service in 1991 when I was seconded to UN duty at the very end of the first Gulf War. I went to the UN Special Commission, or UNSCOM, which was the original weapons-inspection capability. If you remember, back in that first Gulf War, there was huge concern over weapons of mass destruction, and there actually were stockpiles of those weapons. I had to make sure everybody’s countries were satisfied that their scientists and diplomats who were coming through on rotations were adequately covered. And I also had to set up the infrastructure to ensure the safety of handling all those types of weapons, because we had to destroy a lot of nerve agent, and we were in nuclear sites and biological sites. And did you perform a similar role in Bosnia? I came back to New Zealand to serve in the Special Air Service for another year. At that time, New Zealand put a unit into central Bosnia as a contribution to the UN protection force, similar to how Canada is serving in Afghanistan. They wanted me to set up the health-care program for the New Zealand troops and also to provide the infrastructure to help the local community rebuild its health system in central Bosnia. It was professionally very challenging, under very tragic circumstances. It was very difficult. Civil wars are particularly nasty. Do you see any connection between your military experience and your subsequent civilian experience; are there any lessons you’ve carried over? The military is a great place to learn about leadership: leading teams, learning about what is appropriate for a leader to be successful in various circumstances. So yes, there are some things I learned through those periods about how to organize teams and be successful in reaching goals. Can you give me an example of what your most recent work in New Zealand entailed? I’ve worked in New Zealand in the last few years with a number of hospitals in an urban setting where we got together and said we need a better way of working. We streamlined the way that we delivered care, made it more patient-focused, built new facilities that were organized around the patient and reduced the bureaucracy. And in the end, after a long project – this was building a brand-new urban hospital and bringing together disparate pieces of it that were spread around in a dysfunctional way, with the doctors, the nurses, the allied health professionals, the government, the local board – we delivered a fantastic project. In addition to Iraq and Bosnia, your resumé includes stops in the U.K., France, Niger and Kenya. Is B.C. another stop on your itinerary, or do you plan on settling here? I certainly am here for the long haul. I truly believe that Fraser Health has got all the ingredients to be the best health authority in Canada. To me that’s tremendously exciting, and that will take a commitment from me to do that, working with the teams that we’ve got here. I understand you have kids. Have they moved here with you? I’ve got four children, and they range in age from eight to 18. The 18-year-old is heading off to university, but yes, they’re joining me here in B.C. We’re just renting a place in South Surrey to get ourselves orientated for the next few months. I’m looking forward to purchasing property at the appropriate time. I’ll be looking within the Fraser Health Authority area.