Anne-Marie Malek Retirement

“Our time has come. West Park is on the cusp of another milestone that will significantly change its course. This big, beautiful, bold vision will lead us into the next era of our evolution.”

That’s Anne-Marie Malek, West Park’s recently retired CEO and its biggest cheerleader, reflecting on the hospital she has helped shape. Thanks in large part to her leadership and passion, West Park is celebrating a beautiful new building, and a merger with one of Canada’s top healthcare organizations. Says Malek, “I’m very eager to observe from afar how this unfolds!”

Malek always knew what she wanted to do with her life. Born in Nova Scotia and raised in Ontario, she chose to study nursing at Dalhousie University in Halifax. “I always had a very special feeling about being in hospitals—I felt very comfortable, so I knew that I wanted to work in health care.”

Hard as it is to believe today, nursing jobs were in very short supply when she graduated from her program. After a long search, she was considering moving to Texas to work. Then one day she walked into the human resources department at Sunnybrook and begged for a job. She was hired. Experience as a charge nurse whetted her appetite for leadership, and she completed a master’s in health services administration at the University of Alberta. Her career accelerated, with increasingly senior positions at Sunnybrook and Toronto East General, until she took time out to have her two daughters.

She joined West Park in 1995 as Vice President of Programs and Chief Nursing Executive on a two-year contract that was soon extended. Nearly three decades later, she retired as CEO on March 31.

Under her leadership, West Park’s clinical service delivery and programs were transformed, areas of specialization deepened, and innovative new programs developed. West Park was named the Provincial Centre of Excellence for Long Term Ventilation, the Provincial Resource for Tuberculosis, and a Best Practice Spotlight Organization by the RNAO, and achieved Accreditation with Exemplary Standing. West Park played a critical role in the SARS and COVID-19 pandemics given its deep expertise in respiratory rehab.

But of course, it is the new hospital building that Malek puts at the top of her list of proudest achievements.The process of developing a new hospital started in 2005, the year she assumed the CEO role. “It has been a very long road, with many twists and turns,” she says. “But 19 years later, we’re moving into a state-of-the-art rehabilitation facility that compares to anything you’d find anywhere in the world.” Alongside that achievement, Malek ranks the strategic positioning of the organization, which enabled it to enter into merger talks with University Health Network with so much to offer.

How has she achieved so much? By working hard, setting goals, and being driven by a vision focused on patients. And ultimately, says Malek, by paying attention to people.

“We’re in the business of relationships,” she says. “Whether with colleagues, patients, medical staff, system partners, or other stakeholders, it’s all about finding common ground and working together toward common objectives. To me, that’s what really drives the success of an organization.”

Among West Park’s stakeholders she includes the volunteers, including the hospital and Foundation board members, and the donors who support West Park, year in and year out.

“Without the Foundation, we would never have been able to achieve the very lofty vision of a new building,” she says firmly. “It’s the kindness and generosity of our donors that made this dream a reality.”

To recognize her many contributions to West Park’s bright future, the two Boards raised $250,000 from current and former board members, and named the Acquired Brain Injury Behaviour Service Unit in her honour. The news was shared with her at an event on March 21, and Malek admits she was caught off guard. “I wasn’t just surprised, I was shocked!” she said, her voice breaking. “It was quite overwhelming emotionally. I do what I do because my heart and mind are in it, but to be recognized in this way means the world to me.”

Malek knows she will miss the people of West Park, many of whom she has worked with for years. She looks forward to spending more time with her family in retirement and admits she won’t miss her alarm clock and the 90-minute commute. Beyond that, she is content to see what the future brings. “I am deeply committed to the healthcare system and not ready to give it up entirely,” she says. “I hope there will be opportunities for me to remain engaged in some way.”

Recently, Malek walked into the newly-completed hospital building she worked so hard to create. While she had visited the construction site many times, she says this experience was different. “It’s almost indescribable,” she says. “I walked into an inpatient unit and saw that we had finally arrived at a place where staff and patients have the environment they deserve. That was a phenomenal feeling.”

This story originally appeared in the Spring 2024 issue of the Giving Lives Back newsletter. You can read the issue here.