President & CEO
Carmichael Worldwide Inc., Canada
Business Lecturer
DeGroote School of Business
With over 25 years of extensive executive management and start up experience, Dianne has had the opportunity to work in four distinct industries – Consumer Packaged Goods, Technology, Financial Services and Healthcare. She has been involved in multi-national, entrepreneurial and growth companies, rising to President and CEO in two of those industries.
In 2004, Dianne’s father was diagnosed with cancer, affecting her profoundly. This led to a major shift in her career and personal focus. Dianne chose to make a difference in the lives of Canadians stricken with profound illness by advocating and championing for patients, contributing to the highest quality of care in Canada and working to transform the health care system through disruptive innovation.
As the former President of Best Doctors Canada, she is credited with growing a strong consumer movement and market for remote second opinion and healthcare navigation services, resulting in Best Doctors becoming one of the most sought after employee benefits. With Dianne’s leadership, Best Doctors Canada now makes a difference in the lives of over 5 million Canadians and 40 million globally – changing diagnosis 22% of the time and modifying treatment 61% based on tens of thousands of second opinions. In addition to her role as President, Dianne helped drive the global branding and go-to-market effort of the Best Doctors organization, which operates in 30+ countries worldwide.
In 2012, Dianne was appointed Founder & President of UHN Solutions at UHN (Toronto General Hospital, Toronto Western Hospital, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre & Toronto Rehab Hospitals). Her role at UHN Solutions combined her passion for patient advocacy and empowerment with her belief that unique funding models can be created to help feed Canada’s universal healthcare eco-system – ultimately enhancing the quality of care for all Canadians. She was a member of the Executive Team and International Business Committee Member.
In 2014 Dianne was acting CEO of a digital health technology startup, taking it from ideation to MVP and contracts in the US and Canada within 6 months.
Prior to her leadership roles in the healthcare industry, Dianne created and spearheaded Worldsource Wealth Management (a subsidiary of publicly-traded Guardian Capital Group Ltd.) where she was Chairman and CEO. While overseeing four operations nationally – with three reporting Presidents and 1,200 employees and Advisors – Dianne, grew Worldsource Wealth Management to more than $8 billion in AUA.
Before taking the helm at Worldsource, Dianne was with TD Waterhouse where she was promoted to Vice-President. She built, and later sold, one of the largest individual investment advisory practices, focused exclusively on sophisticated investors.
Earlier in her career, Dianne held progressively more senior sales and marketing management roles at leading consumer packaged goods organizations including Procter & Gamble, Gillette, RJReynolds-Nabisco and in technology organizations such as Memorex-Telex.
Dianne is currently a Board Member at Holland-Bloorview Kid’s Rehabilitation Hospital and The Patient Canada and is Co-Chair of Operation Smile Canada Gala. Dianne also sits on the Advisory Boards of CAPCH (Canadian Association of People-Centred Health), ARC (academic e-health research collaborative), York University’s Faculty Heath. Dianne is a Business Lecturer at McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business.
As an international keynote speaker and expert panelist, Dianne has spoken at podiums such as The Economic Club. She writes for the Huffington Post, PolicyMatters, and Health & Lifestyle Magazine. Dianne has been interviewed extensively about healthcare, innovation, leadership and branding in the media and on television, including the Globe and Mail, BNN, SunMedia TV, The Charles Adler Show and CBC. She has been profiled twice on the cover of Women’s Post Magazine and interviewed for FIND YOUR GREAT WORK, a series highlighting major international leaders who have made significant contributions to society and business.
Dianne is a member of two CEO groups – TEC (The Executive Committee) and IWF (International Women’s Forum), which represents 6,500 female CEOs globally.
Dianne holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Waterloo. She also holds a 3-year Business Diploma in Marketing, and various investment industry designations including CIM1, PFP, CSC Honours, CPH, and Officers and Directors.
In 2009, Dianne was recognized as one of the Top 20 Business Women in Canada, she has been nominated for Entrepreneur of the Year and was profiled as one of the Top Women to Watch in 2012. Schulich School of Business profiled her amongst the Top 100 Business Leaders in Canada. She was recognized one of Canada’s Top Women Transforming Health Care 2015.
Dianne’s dream is to drive disruptive innovation that will positively impact healthcare, leading to sustainable, consumer-centred transformation.
Guided by this dream, Dianne founded Carmichael Worldwide Inc. in 2011 to provide executive leadership, innovation, commercialization while bringing digital health and consumer health & wellness solutions. The focus is on helping dynamic healthcare and wellness organizations whose mandates include enhancing the quality of patient care, enhancing the patient experience or impacting system sustainability through disruptive innovation, technology, delivery systems or unique funding models.
In 2015 Dianne was appointed Managing Director, Health Innovation & Ventures at MaRS Discovery District, North America’s largest Urban Innovation Hub. In this role, she hopes to exponentially impact health care globally by helping to scale Canada’s most innovative health ventures – driving innovation and economic advantage – with those digital technologies poised for global impact.
