Alex Munter

Munter's father emigrated from Germany to Montreal in 1966, his mother had arrived the year before.

They met in a French class for immigrants, which his mother was teaching.

Alexander Mathias Munter (born April 29, 1968) is the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), and a former elected official and business owner in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Throughout his career, Munter has been at the forefront of numerous social change initiatives.

His family then moved to the Ottawa region in 1977, and settled in the Katimavik-Hazeldean area west of the city.

At age 14, Munter began publishing the Kanata Kourier from his basement as a monthly local paper for the suburban community of Kanata, Ontario.

In four years, the paper had a staff of seven and a circulation of 10,000 in the town of 27,000.

In recognition of his success in business, he received an award as "Young Entrepreneur of the Year" from then-Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in 1988.

In August 1989, he sold his paper to Runge Newspapers Inc. for over $300,000 due to competition from the rival paper Kanata Standard, but stayed on as publisher.

In November 1989, Munter left the Kourier to focus on his ongoing studies in Political Science at the University of Ottawa.

He became a political reporter for the Ottawa Citizen, but left to run as a candidate of the Ontario New Democratic Party in the 1990 provincial election, contesting the riding of Carleton.

Munter placed third in this conservative riding, but received more votes than any previous NDP candidate in the area.

Munter briefly returned to the Citizen, then worked for the Spicer Commission on Canada's Future before re-entering politics to run for Kanata City Council against incumbent Bev Read.

After winning the election, Munter quickly became a prominent member of the council.

Munter was a City and Regional Councillor in Ottawa from 1991 to 2003.

From 1997 onward, he headed the council committees responsible for health and social services with oversight of the city's $550 million human services budget.

In 2001, as head of the city of Ottawa's Health and Social Services Committee, he led the adoption of Canada's first big-city workplace and public place smoking ban on city council.

In that role, he led Council to adopt unanimously pioneering smoke-free regulations in 2001; helped open new child care centres, expand the number of child care spaces, and expand public health programs for children and youth; worked with provincial government to oversee the transfer of ambulance services and social housing to the municipal level; initiated Canada's first comprehensive public access defibrillator program; expanded long-term care for seniors; funded hospital expansions and worked with the Community Care Access Centre and community support agencies to improve at-home support services for seniors and people with disabilities.

The Ottawa by-law became a model for many other jurisdictions, including New York City, which invited Munter to present to its city health commission in 2002.

While second-hand smoke prohibitions are now commonplace, Ottawa's regulations broke new ground and came only a few years after Toronto had been forced to repeal a similar by-law due to public protest.

In 2003, Munter was approached by Canadians for Equal Marriage, a coalition of churches, professional groups and citizen organizations, and was asked to be the group's National Co-ordinator.

In that role, he led a successful national campaign in support of Bill C-38: Civil Marriage Act, the federal legislation to entrench same-sex marriage rights in Canadian law.

Since moving into health and social services administration in 2007, Munter has continued to be a national voice on important public policy issues like gene patenting, obesity, mental health and the future of health care.

In October 2011, Munter was named the next CEO of the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario] (CHEO) replacing Michel Bilodeau who retired from CHEO after a 30-year career in health administration.

In 2012, Munter was appointed co-chair of a provincial expert panel on childhood obesity.

In 2012 and 2013, Munter served as co-chair of the Ontario Healthy Kids Panel along with Kelly Murumets, president and CEO of ParticipACTION.

The final report recommended starting kids on the right path from conception to birth, changing the food environment, and creating healthier communities.

Munter was Executive Director of the Youth Services Bureau of Ottawa (YSB), one of Ontario largest accredited children's mental health agencies.

He was also the Chief Executive Officer of the Champlain Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), the provincial government agency responsible for planning, integrating and funding health services in the Ottawa Region with an annual budget of $2.2 billion.

Munter holds a Bachelor of Social Sciences degree from the University of Ottawa, a Master of Science degree in Behavioural Science from the London School of Economics and a professional designation as a Certified Health Executive (CHE) from the Canadian College of Health Leaders.

After leaving city government, he was a Visiting Professor in the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa, teaching there and at Montreal's Concordia University.

Munter became much involved in local politics in his role as editor of the Kanata Kourier.

He was frequently at odds with Kanata Mayor Des Adam.

Its 2013 report proposed a three-pronged strategy to reduce rates of childhood obesity: putting kids on the path to lifelong health, changing the food environment and building healthier communities.

Recommendations included baby-friendly hospitals, better support for breastfeeding and restrictions on the marketing of junk food to children.

Munter has also been a vocal advocate of improved access to mental health care and to champion the adoption of innovative technologies within Canadian hospitals, as well as is a frequent speaker on the future of Canada's universal medicare system.

In 2014, Munter spoke for the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) when the organization launched a lawsuit against a private company, Transgenomic, challenging the legality of gene patents in Federal Court in Canada.

CHEO argued that genes and other segments of the human genome should not be subject to patents for commercial purposes.

CHEO declared victory in 2016, when it secured the right to use the disputed genes for all public hospitals and non-profit labs and created a public access framework that could be replicated for other genes.

Munter called it "a historic day for Canada and Canada's health care system."