C. David Naylor is professor of medicine and president emeritus at the University of Toronto. He served as president from 2005 to 2013 and was previously dean of medicine (1999–2005), founding director of clinical epidemiology (1990–1996) at Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, and founding chief executive officer of the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (1991–1998).

Naylor is the co-author of approximately 300 scholarly publications, spanning social history, public policy, epidemiology and biostatistics, and health economics, as well as clinical and health services research in most fields of medicine. He has been active as an advisor to governments, institutions, and enterprises in Canada and abroad over the course of more than 25 years.

Naylor was involved in the initiation and early governance of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. In 2003, he chaired Canada’s National Advisory Committee on SARS and Public Health; the committee’s report sparked the creation of the Public Health Agency of Canada. In 2009–2010, he was a member of the Global Commission on the Education of Health Professionals for the 21st Century, and in 2014–2015 chaired Canada’s federal Advisory Panel on Healthcare Innovation. Most recently, he has chaired (2016–2017) a federal panel reviewing Canada’s extramural research funding agencies.

Naylor is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, an international member of the US Academy of Medicine, and an 0fficer of the Order of Canada.