Canadian Blood Services mourns passing of friend and colleague

Sophie de Villers
Office of Strategy Management

February 22, 2011 (OTTAWA) - Canadian Blood Services has lost a dear friend and colleague. Sophie de Villers, Vice-President, Strategy Management, passed away on Sunday, February 20 after a courageous battle with cancer.

Sophie joined Canadian Blood Services at its inception in September 1998, initially as Executive Assistant to the CEO. She successively assumed additional roles and has been an instrumental member of the Executive Management Team, playing an integral role in helping shape the transformation of Canadian Blood Services into the world-class organization it is today.

While covering many roles during her tenure with Canadian Blood Services, Sophie is most identifiably associated with the Office of Strategy Management, which was created in January 2005, and which she headed since then. In this role, she had the responsibility for guiding the organization in its adoption of best practices in strategic performance management. During this period Canadian Blood Services was inducted into the Balanced Scorecard Strategy Hall of Fame, putting it amongst a small number of organizations globally that achieved recognized excellence in strategy management. The efforts required getting there, and the benefit afforded to the organization as a result, are a direct testament to her leadership abilities and far reaching vision.

"Sophie will be remembered as a visionary in the field of strategy management," says Graham Sher, Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Blood Services. "Those who knew Sophie had the privilege to engage and interact with a fine mind, a remarkable insight and a committed passion. She was relied on for her analytical skills, her creativity, her business acumen and her big picture thinking."

Since 2008, as well as leading Office of Strategy Management activities, Sophie had been heavily involved in the strategic development of plans toward an integrated national system to improve organ and tissue donation and transplantation in Canada.

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