Margaret McNeil

Margaret McNeil is Chief Executive Officer of Canuck Place Children’s Hospice and leads a 190+ multi- disciplinary employee team and over 400 volunteers.

Margaret has dedicated her 45-year professional career to the care of vulnerable populations. During her eight-year tenure at Canuck Place, Margaret led the organization through significant and positive growth and change. She led the organization through an organizational redevelopment including a strategic fundraising shift, rebranding, and developing and growing a talented and engaged team. Her leadership resulted in a 100 per cent increase in revenue to support needed complex care for the increasing number of children with over 190 different diseases and conditions, and the families who love them.

Dedicated to increasing care and developing a sustainable not-for-profit organization, Margaret led increased care from 500 to over 800 children with life-threatening illnesses and families from across BC and Yukon. She oversaw the completion of an $11.2 million capital campaign to build and operate the organization’s second pediatric palliative care hospice. Additionally, Canuck Place launched a community-care program serving children and families who require in-home services across BC. Margaret also led the initiation of additional fundraising strategies that engaged a wider, more sustainable, donor base for the organization.

With the impact of COVID-19 affecting the organization at all levels, Margaret spearheaded the team to shift the care model to increase virtual and in-home care for vulnerable children and families, redirect fundraising and marketing initiatives, and support staff and volunteers through the pandemic. As a result, children and families have more care options, the reach to donors has increased, and the organization has continued to sustain all services during the pandemic.

Committed to thought leadership, Margaret promoted research and teaching from staff physicians and clinicians. These have positioned Canuck Place as a globally recognized leader in pediatric palliative care. Also committed to quality, the organization received Exemplary Standing from Accreditation Canada twice during her tenure.

As a community leader committed to leadership in the sector, Margaret is a former Board member of WorkSafeBC, an Executive Mentor with the SFU Beedie School of Business, and she sat on the Boards of a number of non-profit organizations. A Registered Nurse, she holds a BSc in Nursing from McMaster University, and an MSc in Community Health Nursing from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. She holds the Chartered Director designation from Conference Board of Canada. In 2017, Margaret received the CEO of the Year from Business in Vancouver in the Non-Profit category.