Coalition for Community & Healthcare Acquired Infection Reduction
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Executive Director – Steve Reinecke


 

Steve Reinecke is the Executive Director of CHAIR Canada.

 

Steve shares his time between his small hometown of Strathroy, Ontario, and his boat in Sarnia, Ontario. His career started as a Medical Technologist / Clinical Scientist. Following college, his Healthcare journey began by working at his small hometown hospital and later moving to a major Toronto, Hospital. Steve’s professional training is in Microbiology, Immunohematology, Chemistry, Pathology, and Hematology, and he spent time working in a Cardiac Investigation Lab in a hospital Transplant Unit. In the mid 90’s, Steve was tapped on the shoulder to move from Medicine to IT and started his IT management career. Steve worked on two large Electronic Medical Record implementations (Meditech and Cerner) in Canada at two different facilities (Toronto – Humber River and London – London Health Sciences Center).

 

Steve’s career in the late ’90s took him into the sales of point-of-care computing equipment, and he worked for 17 years for Ergotron, traveling to over 30 countries as one of the premier experts in Healthcare IT Point-of-care Technologies. Steve left Ergotron in 2015 as the Global AVP of Healthcare and joined Proximity Systems in Business Development – Healthcare and Long-term Care and then as a Clinical Scientist. Steve was responsible for everything Safety and Science related to Proximity’s UVC disinfection technologies. In addition to his medical credentials, Steve is a Certified Professional of Health Information Management Systems (HIMSS – CPHIMS) and is working toward his APIC CIC Certification. In 2019, Steve authored and published a peer-reviewed paper on the use of small UVC disinfection technologies in Healthcare, garnering industry accolades and international recognition.

 

Steve recently wrote a paper on his testing and experiences in 2021 and 2022 with COVID-19 disinfection practices. This study compares enhanced liquid disinfection practices and automated UVC light devices on high-touch surfaces in retail, transportation, and other public settings.

 

 

Board Chair – John Baxter


John Baxter is currently the President & COO of Aereus Technologies located in Guelph Ontario.

 

In this role John is currently transforming Aereus, to strengthening our core competences to meet our customers needs, currently and in the future. By introducing key measurables and strategies that align with customers expectations, with focus on hi quality product and process improvements.

 

John, started with Aereus in August 2021 and he has made significant changes to the business profitability and sustainability.

 

Previous to this role, John has spent more than 30 years in senior and executive positions in the manufacture, business development industry with global experience. John brings a wealth of knowledge to our board and sits several other boards both for profit and non-profit.  

 

John has a B.Sc. Engineering and an Executive MBA .

 

Treasurer – Louis Goldberg 


Louis Goldberg is the Founder and CEO of Canadian-based Coptek Copper Covers.

 

Coptek transforms nasty high-touch surfaces into self-sanitizing surfaces with antimicrobial copper. Coptek's solutions can be found across a number of industries including Senior Care, Universities, Airports, Malls, and Commercial Spaces.

 

Previous to Coptek, Louis was in a Director role at a boutique investment bank in Toronto. In search of a more fulfilling career, Louis left finance to pursue innovations that create a safer environment and save lives.

 

Board Member and Co-Founder of CHAIR – Richard Dixon


 

Richard has 40 years of experience in senior administration, planning, design, construction, commissioning plus infection prevention & control of health facilities in Canada, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Egypt and Qatar.

 

Richard has been a significant contributor to the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) and other organizations:

 

  • Chair – CSA Cleaning and Disinfection Committee (Z317.12),
  • Past Vice Chair of the CSA Infection Control during Construction, Renovation or Maintenance in Health Care Facilities Committee (Z317.13), plus has taught the CSA Infection Control and Design standards to hospitals, consultants and contractors throughout Canada and in the Middle East,
  • Chair of the CSA Wayfinding standard (Z317.14). 
  • Past Member – CSA Health Care Facilities Committee (Z8000),
  • Member – CSA Health Care Facilities Operations & Maintenance Committee (Z8002),
  • Member – CSA Health Care Technical Committee,
  • Member - CSA Regulators Committee,
  • Member - CSA Plumbing Committee (Z317.1),
  • Long standing member of the Canadian Healthcare Engineering Society (CHES); education coordinator for CHES 2017 conference in Niagara Falls plus Richard has written several articles in the CHES national magazine.
  • Co-founder and Board member of the non-profit organization Coalition for Community & Healthcare Acquired Infection Reduction (CHAIR). This unique organization researches Engineering Infection Prevention (EIP) solutions, promotes these solutions and provides education & research in Canadian healthcare facilities.

 

What drives Richard to do all these things??  Only one thing... Creating ‘safe spaces’ for people!

 

Board Member and Co-Founder of CHAIR – Barry Hunt 


“Life is short. Have fun. Make a difference.” 

 

 

Barry is President of the Canadian Association of PPE Manufacturers (CAPPEM) where he leads the charge to develop the highest quality PPE products and standards to protect Canadians. He initiated the movement to better breathability for respiratory PPE and champions the move to more comfortable and environmentally friendly products including reusables and plant-based disposables.

 

Barry received his Honour’s degree in Biological and Biomedical Sciences from the University of Guelph and studied Post-Degree Sciences at the University of Waterloo.  He co-founded the Coalition for Community and Healthcare Acquired Infection Reduction (CHAIR), a collaboration among academia, industry and healthcare to reduce preventable community and hospital acquired infections (HAIs) in Canada.  CHAIR has successfully sponsored research and trials, provided education, become a hub for collaboration and innovation, sponsored Canada’s first CSA National Standard for cleaning & disinfection of hospitals and provided a catalyst to initiate the use of copper high-touch surfaces in airports and public transit.

 

Barry was inspired to take action after a 2009 World Health Organization report showed Canada had the highest HAI rate in the developed world.  His concept of Engineered Infection Prevention was awarded a 2017 Top 10 World Patient Safety Innovation by the Patient Safety Movement.

 

Barry has had many leadership roles at CSA since 1995 including Chair of several Standards development committees and Vice-Chair of the Strategic Steering Committee for Healthcare Standards. He is Vice-Chair of the Canadian Mirror Committee for ISO Technical Committee 121, Anesthesia & Respiratory Standards. He is past-Chair of the Infection Prevention and Control Canada (IPAC) Environmental Hygiene Interest Group, a member of the Canadian Healthcare Engineering Society (CHES), the Canadian Coalition for Indoor Air Quality (CCIAQ), and the International Ultraviolet Association (IUVA) Healthcare Working Group and CoVID19 Task Force.  He is a member of the American Society of Healthcare Engineers (ASHE), American Society of Heating, Refrigeration & Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), American Professionals in Infection Control (APIC), and Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA). Barry is a volunteer with the World Health Network (WHN), CoVIDisAirborne, and Zero Covid Canada. 

 

 

Board Member – Keith McGlone


 

Keith McGlone is currently Sr. Vice-President, Medical at Sanuvox Technologies Inc. Based in Waterloo, ON. with a North American focus to bring engineered infection prevention to healthcare.

 

With over 40 years of Sales and Marketing experience in Healthcare, Food, and Agricultural marketing globally, Keith has led several major brands and product categories to international success.

 

The past 7 years has been focused in healthcare in North America and U.K. with efforts to bring awareness and action to reducing healthcare acquired infections. This makes joining the board at C.H.A.I.R. a great step to participate in raising awareness and taking action across community and healthcare areas.

 

Graduating from McMaster University, with on-going education at Ivey, and University of Arkansas. Keith participates with IPAC Canada, APIC, CCHL, and other groups.

 

Board Member – Roger Holliss


As a P. Eng within Ontario, Roger has spent over 2 decades operating & maintaining acute hospitals within S-W Ontario. 

 

During this period he gained significant insight on virtually every non-clinical aspect of healthcare from Engineering/construction to parking/security to Housekeeping and everything in between.  It was also during the latter portion of this period that he was able to pursue and positively impact improvements in these same departments.  This is where Roger became aware of the gap that needed to be addressed relative ensuring that healthcare facilities systemically through engineering prevention addressed hospital acquired infections (HAIs).  Since then he’s been a strong advocate and facilitator in educating, promoting and implementing both a change in culture, mindset and physically within healthcare thru the adoption and implementation of science-based technologies systemically addressing HAI’s. Roger pursuit of continuous improvement is why he still is active in numerous facets of healthcare including being a member of two CSA standards (Medical Gas Pipeline Systems & Cleaning & Disinfection within Healthcare), Immediate Past President of Canada largest professional associated dedicated to improving members expertise within healthcare engineering (Cdn. Healthcare Engineering Society (CHES)) and his own private healthcare engineering firm, Holliss Consulting Inc. (HCI).