Erin O’Neill promoted to chair and CEO of AHS

EDMONTON – Erin O’Neill (pictured), senior vice-president of finance and shared services, is now the chair and CEO of Alberta Health Services on an interim basis. AHS said O’Neill has 20 years of experience in emergency management operations and government administration, including five years at Alberta Health. She has served as the assistant deputy minister of primary healthcare.

She replaces Andre Tremblay, who is on a leave of absence from his role as CEO and official administrator, AHS told Global News. Tremblay took on the role less than a year ago, after the previous AHS CEO was fired while looking into allegations of private healthcare contract corruption.

O’Neill served as the AHS executive director of research and innovation, where she led the project management office for the Alberta Surgical Initiative, which aims to increase capacity to reduce surgery wait times.

“AHS is confident that Ms. O’Neill’s leadership will help deliver on its core mandate of providing high-quality, hospital-based services to Albertans across the province,” a statement said.

Tremblay was a deputy minister for several ministries under former premier Jason Kenney’s government and in 2023, was made deputy minister of health by premier Danielle Smith. That same year, he was appointed to the board of AHS.

This past January, Tremblay became the interim AHS president and CEO after that role’s predecessor, Athana Mentzelopoulos, was fired.

The entire AHS board of directors was dismissed soon after that, and Tremblay was appointed official administrator to oversee all remaining activities to transition AHS to its role as a service delivery provider.

Mentzelopoulos alleges in a lawsuit she was wrongfully dismissed by Tremblay from her job for looking into questionable contracts pushed by government officials as high up as the premier’s office.

She alleges she faced political pressure, including from the premier’s then-chief of staff, Marshall Smith, to sign off on surgery deals despite outstanding questions surrounding excessive costs and who was benefiting.

Mentzelopoulos was appointed CEO in December 2023 amid a time of drastic change at AHS and a revolving door of leaders.

In April 2022, previous CEO Verna Yiu – who’d held the CEO position since May 2016 – was dismissed.

Mauro Chies was brought on as interim leader, and in March 2023 the interim title removed – only to be replaced eight months later amid an AHS executive team shakeup.

In November 2023, Sean Chilton, vice president and chief operating officer of clinical operations and information technology, was named acting president and CEO.

A month later, Mentzelopoulos was hired, only to be fired 13 months into a four-year contract.

Statements of defence by AHS and minister of Primary and Preventative Health Services Adriana LaGrange claimed Mentzelopoulos was failing badly in her mandate to downgrade the health authority from its role as the provincewide leader of frontline health delivery to one of many agencies that would oversee care under a new governance model.

In February, as the allegations of inflated private surgical contracts being awarded by the province grew, Tremblay was replaced as deputy minister of health but remained head of AHS.