We’re excited to announce that we’ve recently welcomed Paul Maindonald as our first Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, an addition that reflects our continued growth and expanding work with provinces, EMR vendors, and health system partners across Canada.

Paul brings more than 15 years of leadership experience across digital health, cybersecurity, and large-scale technology transformation. Prior to joining Ocean, he held senior executive roles at Canada Health Infoway, the Government of Saskatchewan, and eHealth Saskatchewan, where he helped lead provincial technology strategy and digital health initiatives.

What drew you to working in healthcare and digital health?

I didn’t originally plan to work in healthcare, I actually fell into it after spending the early part of my career in mining and manufacturing, focusing on continuous improvement and IT. When I moved into consulting, I took on a healthcare technology role and quickly realized how complex and rewarding the work can be.
Two things really hooked me. First, the sheer complexity. Healthcare involves a wide range of stakeholders, competing priorities, and operational realities that you don’t see in most industries. You have to truly understand the ecosystem to be successful.

Second, the impact. The problems you solve ultimately benefit society. That combination of challenge and purpose is what kept me in digital health.

After more than a decade working within government environments, what motivated you to join Ocean?

After 15 years working across broader government systems, I saw this as an opportunity to contribute from a different perspective. Government plays a critical role, but it can move slowly due to political and structural realities. On the vendor side, there is more room to innovate and respond quickly to system needs.

Ocean stood out to me because it’s a Canadian company solving one of the health system’s biggest efficiency challenges. The platform is already trusted across multiple provinces, and the product speaks for itself.

I also bring the perspective of having sat on the other side of the table. People often ask why governments move slowly — but decisions are rarely simple. They reflect political priorities, funding pressures, and system-wide considerations. Understanding that complexity is essential to building strong partnerships.

At the end of the day, technology is the easy part. The real challenge is implementing it across stakeholders with different priorities. If you ignore that, the technology often gets blamed for issues it didn’t create.

How do you see your role supporting teams across Ocean?

It starts with defining our partnership pillars: government partners, integration and vendor partners, delivery partners, and national health organizations, and then building strategies for each.

Once those foundations are clear, teams can align on shared objectives rather than overlapping efforts. The goal is to be thoughtful about where we invest our time and how we grow.

We also want to strengthen delivery partnerships so that when opportunities arise, regionally or nationally, we already have trusted experts ready to support implementations. Healthcare environments are unique, and experience matters.

From your perspective, what enables provinces and large partners to succeed with digital health initiatives?

Many provinces are now building formal digital health strategies, which is encouraging. Historically, technology was often treated as an afterthought, rather than as a core enabler of care. Technology needs to be part of the conversation from the beginning.

Funding is another ongoing challenge. Technology investments often compete with visible priorities like hospital beds, even though technology underpins much of modern care delivery. That tension has contributed to chronic underinvestment across Canada.

Successful initiatives require alignment between strategy, funding, political leadership, and operational execution. When those elements come together, meaningful transformation becomes possible.

Outside of work, how do you spend your time?

My wife and I stay busy with our kids. We spend a lot of time at our cottage and we travel frequently. We have family in the UK so we often visit family there and use it as a jumping-off point to explore Europe. So far, some of my favorite destinations have been the UK, Italy, and southern France.

We’re actually heading to Japan for a few weeks, including a cruise through southern Japan and Korea before spending time in Kyoto and Tokyo.