Citizenships: British and Canadian
Languages: Mother tongue English, basic German, intermediate Neo Melanesian (Papua New Guinea)
Employment, Volunteering, and Governance roles
Nov/13 – Present: Principle, Chris Houston Management Services Inc
Consulting. clients include: Médecins Sans Frontières, kid-E-care, Kindercare Pediatrics, Social Solutions Inc, Grand Challenges Canada, McGill University (Humanitarian Studies Initiative)
May/22 – Present: Director, Public CPR Initiatives, Heart & Stroke Foundation
Running all local and national initiatives to reduce death from out-of-hospital cardiac arrests
Sept/17– April/22: Director of Humanitarian Innovation, Grand Challenges Canada (Toronto, Canada)
Leading a $53m humanitarian innovation program, in partnership with four federal governments, creating systems change in the humanitarian sector to save lives, reduce suffering, and restore dignity.
Jan/22 – October/22: Chair of Board, Humanitarian Partners International (Montreal, Canada)
Resigned in order to pursue consulting work with HPI (i.e. to avoid a conflict of interest).
Dec/21 – Present: Board of Directors, The Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA), Canada
Apr/20 – Present: Humanitarian Advisor, and Board of Directors, Conquer COVID-19 (Toronto, Canada)
Advised a team that delivered millions of PPE to Canadian healthcare institutions. Volunteer work designing ethical distribution strategies, government relations, and humanitarian principles.
Apr/13 – Present: Faculty, Global Health Education Initiative, University of Toronto [part time]
Teach the Complex Humanitarian Emergencies Module
Teaching Award of Excellence winner (2013, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022)
Mar/17 – Sept/17: Team Leader, Operations Support and Logistics, World Health Organization (Sana’a, Yemen)
Managed logistical aspects of ~$200 million WHO response to conflict, famine, and cholera in Yemen, including managing hubs in Djibouti and Jordan.
Aug/16 – Dec/16: Surge Officer, Canadian Red Cross (Beirut, Lebanon)
Represented the Canadian Red Cross and supported multiple health programs (mobile health units for refugees, EMS, first aid training, hospital supply) for the Lebanese Red Cross & Palestine Red Crescent.
Oct/15 – Dec/15: Program Manager, Hospital Director, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) (Quetta, Pakistan)
Managing a 67-bed, 369 staff, pediatric hospital in an insecure setting, MSF Holland’s largest program.
July/15 – Aug/15: Surge Officer/Evaluator, International Operations, Canadian Red Cross (Dunche, Nepal)
Evaluated the Red Cross health response to the Nepal earthquakes
Aug/14 – Oct/14: Deputy Head of Mission, MSF (North Syria)
Managed refugee mental health programs, aid distribution, water & sanitation, mother and child health.
Nov/13 – Jul/18: Co-owner/co-founder, Operations Director, kid-E-care (Toronto, Canada)
Designed and set up a pediatric urgent care clinic treating over 10,000 patients per year
Aug/13 – Aug 2016: Consultant, Humanitarian Studies Initiative/Humanitarian U (Montreal, Canada)
General consulting, managed Massive Humanitarian Disaster Simulations, Digital Communications
Aug/12 – Aug/14: Operations and Human Resources Manager, Kindercare Pediatrics (Toronto, Canada)
May/12 – May/18: Board of Directors, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Canada (Toronto, Canada)
Governance of the Canadian office of a global $1 billion humanitarian health organization, collectively providing care to over 10 million patients per annum.
Jan/12 – Mar/12: Program Manager, MSF (Buramino refugee camp, Liben zone, Somali Regional State, Ethiopia)
Refugee health project on Ethiopia/Somalia border.
Aug/11 – Jan/12: Program Manager, MSF (Geladi & Danot, Somali Regional State, Ethiopia)
Opening of Danot and closure of Geladi extended basic healthcare projects
July/10 – Apr/11: Logistics Manager (and interim Program Manager), Emergency Response Unit, MSF (Sokoto, Nigeria)
Led responses to cholera, measles, meningitis, and flooding emergencies.
Jan/09 – Oct/09: Logistics Manager, MSF (Lae and Tari, Papua New Guinea)
Lae, sexual-gender-based-violence and Tari, primary & secondary healthcare programs.
Jul/07 – May/10: Senior Consultant / Associate Vice President- Marsh Risk Consulting (London, UK)
Property risk management consulting [with 1 year sabbatical, for MSF Papua New Guinea role]
May-05 – Oct/09: Fire & Emergency Response Team, Ambulance Team [part time, volunteer], British Red Cross (UK)
EMS crew at festivals, concerts and sporting events, back up to UK ambulance service
Dec/04 – Jan/05/: Founder, TsunAid organization, Tsunami response, (North East Sri Lanka)
Jan/02 – May/07: Risk Management Consultant, Team Leader, Zurich Risk Services (London, UK)
Managing 10 consultants
Selected Training, Education and Professional accreditations
- Leading with vulnerability, Grand Challenges Canada
- Media training, spokesperson training, MSF and Canadian Red Cross
- Anti-racism training, MSF and Grand Challenges Canada
- Storytelling training, Grand Challenges Canada 2019
- International Development Innovation Alliance, “Managing Innovation for Impact”, 2018
- Security Situational Awareness for Field Environment, United Nations Security course, 2017
- BA Risk Management, Glasgow Caledonian University, 1998
- Certificate in Security Management, RedR (accredited with Oxford Brookes University)
- Fellow, The Institute of Risk Management
- Red Cross Emergency Response Unit course
- Red Cross Operations Manager course
- Red Cross IMPACT training course
- Introduction to Global Health (passed with distinction), University of Copenhagen (online)
- Water Supply and Sanitation for Precarious Situations, Loughborough University
- Learning from shared experience in humanitarian assistance, IFRC 2013 (online)
- “Zurich Aspire” management training program (4 weeks of training between 2005 and 2007)
Additional volunteering:
- World Health Organization Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, Steering Committee
- Jack.org youth mental health promotion
- Masomo Education Foundation, selection committee
- David Suzuki Foundation, Butterfly Ranger Program