Features Business Policy
Prime Minister appoints new CFIA President

The agency responsible for safeguarding Canada’s food supply has new leadership.

Siddika Mithani took over as president of the Canada Food Inspection Agency on Feb. 27, filling a nearly two-month old vacancy. The CFIA’s last president, Paul Glover, left in early January to take over the reins at Shared Services Canada.

To take the position, Mithani will leave her post as president of the Public Health Agency of Canada. Chief Public Health officer Theresa Tam will fulfill the duties of president on an “interim basis,” while Mithani’s successor will be announced in “due course,” according to Shank.

Born and educated in the United Kingdom, Mithani holds a bachelor’s of pharmacy degree and doctorate in psychopharmacology (the study of the effects of drugs on moods and behaviours) from Aston University. She also completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of British Columbia’s Neuroscience Department.

Mithani joined Canada’s civil service in 1997, working as a scientific evaluator with Health Canada. She eventually became a director general in the department’s Veterinary Drugs Directorate before being promoted to associate assistant deputy minister of the health products and food branch.

Mithani left Health Canada in 2010 to become an assistant deputy minister (ADM) with Fisheries and Oceans, staying in two years before leaving to assume an ADM role with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. She spent a year as associate deputy minister at Environment Canada before taking over at PHAC.