Maliha Aqeel, PMP

Director of Global Communications, Fix Network World

Director of Global Communications

Maliha Aqeel is an award-winning senior communication professional. She is currently a Director of Global Communications at Fix Network World . She serves on IABC’s international executive board and is a past president of IABC/Toronto. 

Her accomplishments include developing ICD’s new brand and revamping ICD’s Director Journal magazine, which earned IABC Gold Quill awards of merit and IABC Canada Silver Leaf awards of excellence. She also led EY’s Tax Canada Bot-a-thon campaign, which won several awards in internal communication and employee engagement including a Gold Quill “Best of the Best”, which represents the very best entries seen from around the globe.   

Previously, she spent several years in agency and led the financial communication practice for APCO Worldwide’s Dubai office. She is a Strategic Communication Management Professional (SCMP) and a Project Management Professional (PMP).

Donald Steel FCIPR FRSA

Former Chief Communications Adviser, BBC

International Crisis Communications Expert

Donald Steel is uniquely placed to lead the workshop on crisis communications in a health care setting.  He began his working life in Britain’s National Health Service.  After qualifying as an RN, he went on to work in regional and national neurosurgical units in Scotland, before moving to a career in broadcasting.  He was a radio presenter and producer, and later joined the British Broadcasting Corporation’s press and publicity division, becoming the broadcaster's chief media spokesman for 11 years.   He is now a widely admired global specialist in crisis communications and corporate relations, and works with a wide range of clients, including UN agencies, leading airlines, government departments, sports bodies and high profile individuals.  His recent crisis experience includes commercial air crashes, allegations of corruption, court proceedings and data theft.  He also regularly advises health care facilities, including a leading London private hospital and highly specialist hospital units.   He is an associate director of crisis communications at Kenyon International Emergency Services, the world’s leading commercial responder to incidents involving death or injury.  He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and was the BBC Academy’s first Associate Fellow.   He is in demand as a speaker on crisis communications, most recently in the United States, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Dubai and South Korea.  He is based in London.

Robert Mackle

The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center

Sr. Dir. of Brand Journalism and Media

Bob Mackle is the Senior Director of Brand Journalism and Media at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. He leads a team of media relations and content professionals in identifying and amplifying the brand’s message using brand journalism and other PR techniques. He’s a frequent speaker at national conferences, including the PRSA International Conference and the PRSA Health Academy. Prior to joining Ohio State, he served as Vice President of Public Relations at the Muscular Dystrophy Association National Headquarters. He also worked as an award-winning journalist at the Dallas Times Herald and taught editing classes at the University of Arizona’s School of Journalism.

Patrick Bartosch

Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute San Diego, California

Senior Director, Communications

As senior director of communications at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP), Patrick oversees all aspects of internal and external communications. Specifically, he focuses on reputation management, content strategy, and media relations. Prior to joining SBP, Patrick managed external communications for Stanford Health Care, Stanford University’s health system. He holds an M.A. degree in political science from the University of Munich, Germany.

Lee Aase

Mayo Clinic

Communications Director, Social and Digital Innovation

Lee Aase is director of the Mayo Clinic Social Media Network, which provides training resources, educational and networking events and a collaboration platform for health care professionals who want to safely and effectively apply social and digital strategies to fight disease, promote health and improve health care.

Lee also leads Mayo Clinic’s Social & Digital Innovation team, which manages Mayo Clinic’s presence on general purpose social networks like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter as well as its owned blog and community platform. Key sites include Mayo Clinic Connect, an online patient community, Mayo Clinic News Network, and Sharing Mayo Clinic, a patient stories blog.

Prior to joining Mayo Clinic in 2000, Lee spent more than a decade in political and government communications at the local, state and federal level. He was elected to Mayo Clinic’s Voting Staff in 2016.

Nicole Wise

Yale School of Medicine

Chief Communications Officer

Lorenzo Benet

Children's Hospital Los Angeles

Director of Public Relations

Meg Aldrich

Keck Medicine of USC Marketing and Communications, University of Southern California

Director, Media Relations

Lori Spadorcia

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

Vice President, Communications and Partnerships

Kate Torrance

SickKids Foundation

Vice President, Brand Strategy & Communications