Goan Doctor Honoured for Leadership in House-staff Education Dr. Vincent Xavier DeSa’s family roots are traced to the village of Moira, Goa, formerly a Portuguese colonial enclave located half way down the west coast of India. Born in Nairobi, Kenya, 1947, Dr. DeSa attended grade schools in Nairobi, received his medical education, University of East Africa, Uganda, and interned, Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi. Immigrating to Canada following Idi Amin’s expulsion of Asians, 1972, Dr. DeSa and his family settled in Thunder Bay in northwestern Ontario, 1976, following post graduate training at both McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, and the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto. Today, in addition to being the Medical Director, Perinatology, and the Chief of Paediatrics, Thunder Bay Regional Hospital, Dr. DeSa is also President, Medical Staff, St. Joseph’s General Hospital, Thunder Bay, as well as Associate Professor, Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University. A keen volunteer in his Thunder Bay community, Dr. Vince DeSa is deeply committed to family medicine where, as a pediatrician, his interests focus on asthma, neonatal care, diabetes, and eating disorders. In this view, Dr. Vince DeSa, far right, is honoured with other of his colleagues practicing medicine in Ontario, by the Professional Association of Interns and Residents of Ontario (PAIRO) for his ongoing leadership in house staff education. [Photo, courtesy Dr. Vince DeSa]

Goan Bringing Business Success to Brampton Born to parents who had immigrated to Uganda from Goa, India, Eric De Souza, left, born 1936, became a civil servant in Uganda, first working for the Ministry of Education and then the Ministry of Finance as Head, Department of Tax and Industrial Promotion.  Two of the five Tax Budgets he wrote there occurred when Idi Amin was in power.  Fleeing Uganda, 1973, he first landed in the U.K., then Australia.  Settling in Canada, 1976, Mr. De Souza was made President and CEO of Monarch Plastics Limited, the same year.  Taking this Brampton, Ontario, business with 40 employees and sales of 1.5 million to a company in 1999 with some 250 employees, $40 million in sales and three plants - two in Canada and one in Kenosha, Wisconsin - Mr. De Souza's business acumen is much respected and appreciated as he accepts from two S.C. Johnson executives, Ed Furey, Centre, and Ron Lenz, Right, its fifth "Partners in Quality" Award, 1999.  [Photo, courtesy Eric De Souza]