Matthew Spence served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (AHFMR) from 1990 to 2004. Trained in neurobiochemistry, he was on faculty at McGill and Dalhousie Universities. In Halifax, he was Director of the Atlantic Research Centre for Mental Retardation, Professor of Paediatrics and Biochemistry at Dalhousie University School of Medicine, a Medical Research Council of Canada Career Investigator, and Chief of Research and a member of the active staff of the lzaak Walton Killam Hospital for Children. He has served as President of the Canadian Society for Clinical Investigation, Vicepresident of the MRC, a member of the CIHR Interim Governing Council. the National Cancer Institute of Canada, the Research Council of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, the Board of the Institute of Health Economics, and Vice-Chair of the Board of the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation. He is a member of the Board of the Alberta Centre for Child, Family and Community Research, and a member of the Canada Foundation for Innovation. Dr. Spence received the Outstanding Leadership in Alberta Science Award in 2003, and was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2004.