Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
Geoff serves as the Executive Director for the Global Surgery Foundation, a UN-incubated initiative based in Geneva, Switzerland. He also served as the senior health consultant at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) from 2019 to 2025. He has more than 25 years of experience in medical humanitarian and disaster relief work during which he has served as a front-line surgeon in multiple countries and several conflict zones. He has also led disaster response activities, developed strategic programmes and guided organizational and governance reviews and re-structuring. While maintaining a busy surgical practice in Canada, he served as the Director of Trauma Services for the North West of Alberta from 2008 to 2016 and was the Chair of the Alberta Provincial Trauma Committee from 2014-16, which coordinated an integrated trauma system for 10 trauma hospitals in Alberta. He attended medical school at the University of Toronto and completed his training as a general surgeon at the University of Calgary in 2000. He is a fellow of both the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and the American College of Surgeons. Dr. Ibbotson also has a Master’s of Science Degree from Queen’s University and has multiple research publications. He has previously lived overseas for many years in low resource settings with his wife and 3 children, as they served together with local health care providers at mission hospitals with the goal to improve access to surgical care in those countries. https://www.globalsurgeryfoundation.org
The Director of Health Services Development was mandated to lead the strategic development plans for the health sector of INF - in particular the transformation of the Green Pastures Hospital and Rehabilitation Centre in its goal of becoming a "centre of excellence in the holistic care and prevention of disability" through providing excellent trauma care to the poorest and most marginalized people of Nepal.