Arthur Thomas Porter IV (June 11, 1956 – June 30, 2015) was a Canadian physician and hospital administrator.
In February 2004, Porter was appointed to replace Hugh Scott as the Director General and CEO of the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, Quebec, one of Canada's largest academic health centres. He left that position in December 2011.
Porter also served as chair of the Canadian Security Intelligence Review Committee, which reviews the activities of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Canada's spy agency. He was appointed to that committee by Prime Minister Stephen Harper on September 3, 2008, and along with that appointment, was made a privy councillor.
On May 27, 2013, Porter was arrested in Panama on fraud charges, which alleged that he took part in a $22.5 million kick-back scheme related to the construction of McGill University Health Centre's new $1.3 billion hospital. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation called it the biggest fraud investigation in Canadian history. Porter denied any wrongdoing.
Porter composed his memoirs, The Man Behind the Bow Tie: Arthur Porter on Business, Politics and Intrigue, with writer and biographer T. R. Todd, and the book was released on September 12, 2014.
Porter died just before midnight on June 30, 2015, at a cancer hospital in Panama. His death was announced on July 1, 2015.
Early life and education
Porter was born in Sierra Leone. He held both Canadian and American citizenship. He was married to Pamela Mattock Porter and had four children. His mother was Danish. His father, Arthur Porter III, spearheaded the expansion of the University of Nairobi in Kenya during the years when Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta was in power.
Porter received his early education in Sierra Leone and Kenya. After attending the University of Sierra Leone, he studied in England at the University of Cambridge, including its School of Clinical Medicine. Porter earned his M.B.A. from the University of Tennessee and certificates in medical management from Harvard University and the University of Toronto. He also studied at Western University in London, Ontario. He was bestowed a Fellowship and Diplomate status in Healthcare Administration from the American Academy of Medical Administrators.
Initial career
Following his training in medical and radiation oncology, Porter assumed several senior positions in Canada, including that of senior specialist at the University of Alberta, Chief of Radiation Oncology at the London Regional Cancer Centre (University of Western Ontario), and Chairman of Oncology at Victoria Hospital in London, Ontario.
In 1991, he was appointed Radiation Oncologist-in-chief, professor and chairman of the Detroit Medical Center and Wayne State University. During the subsequent five years, Porter accepted several other concurrent positions, including Director of Clinical Care at the Karmanos Cancer Institute and associate dean at the Wayne State University School of Medicine.
He also founded a cancer clinic in Nassau, in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, known as the Cancer Centre.
In 1999, Porter was named CEO of the Detroit Medical Center, a US$1.6 billion (~$ in ) health system, which is one of the United States' largest urban health systems and the biggest non-government employer in Detroit. He resigned from this position in 2003.
In 2001, Porter was appointed to the presidential commission charged with reviewing the health care provided by the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration.
In August 2002, Michigan Governor John Engler appointed Porter to a four-year term as chairman of Michigan's Hospital Commission.
McGill University Health Centre
In February 2004, Porter was appointed as the Director General and CEO of the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, Quebec, despite warnings given to McGill University's recruiters in 2003 by the former dean of Wayne State University School of Medicine, John Crissman, as well as articles in the Detroit Free Press revealing his involvement in multiple side businesses. The McGill University Health Centre is one of Canada's largest academic health centres and was engaged in a multibillion-dollar redevelopment project at the time.
On February 12, 2008, Porter, as Director General and CEO of the McGill University Health Centre, announced the launch of the Institute for Strategic Analysis and Innovation website.