A word from the Lê of Lê & Co.

Hi there! It’s nice to meet you. My name is Maxime Lê, but feel free to call me Max. That’s what most people call me, anyway! I am born and raised a proud franco-ontarian with Vietnamese heritage in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Growing up in a francophone household, I naturally became fully bilingual in both French & English just from living in the city.

Lê & Co. Health Communication has been incubating since 2018, but I officially launched the firm in 2021, right in the middle of a pandemic. At the time, it was known as Lê & Co. Consultants, and after helping out a few clients, I chose to position my firm to better reflect its work.

We know and do bilingual health communication.

Have a look at my bio below if you’re curious about my experience and background, or add me on Linked In! I hope I get to meet you one day soon, over a virtual or in-person coffee. Sound good to you? Book a call with me.

Experience

Maxime has been a trusted source of health communications advice for over eight years, with experience in the public, private, academic, healthcare and non-profit sectors in either policy, service delivery, advisory or communications roles.

Where he’s worked

Canadian Institutes for Health Research
Public Health Agency of Canada
Ottawa Public Health
University of Ottawa
Montfort Knowledge Institute
Pinecrest-Queensway Community Health Centre

Career highlights

Recognizing his health communication expertise, Maxime was directly recruited by Ottawa Public Health at the height of the COVID-19 to integrate into the social media and engagement and media relations team. There, he helped shape the communications strategy that engaged over one million people, encouraging them to get vaccinated. He also provided media training to Ottawa’s medical officer of health, advised on crisis and issues management, and trained over 200+ public health nurses and staff on how to have trust-building conversations about vaccination with people living in the city.

And he didn’t just work there, either. In 2021, he was recruited to work at the Public Health Agency of Canada and was the engagement lead in the planning unit of the Agency’s response to the Mpox outbreaks that were happening nationally. He earned two commemorative emergency management coins for his participation in the response.

Skills

Maxime is skilled in all areas of communications work, including:

media relations and social media
crisis and issues management
internal communications
strategic communications
public relations and engagement
marketing

He is also experienced in many facets of health research, including all elements of the research process, data analysis, and most importantly, public reporting, report production and publishing, and knowledge translation.

Maxime is known to be a charismatic communicator and people and project manager, and is valued for his bilingualism, being fully proficient in both French and English (reading, writing, speaking).

Education

Master of Arts degree in Communications, with Specialization in Science, Society and Public Policy from the University of Ottawa
Honours Bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences from the University of Ottawa
Certificate of Specialization in Leadership and Management from Harvard Business School Online;
Certificate in Climate Change and Health Communication from Yale University School of Public Health.

Expertise in patient and community engagement

Maxime been a Patient Advisor at The Ottawa Hospital and The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute since 2017, where he was able to lead several large-scale projects, including:

consulting on internal and external communication (digital and physical) surrounding the implementation of the 4th black box – an innovative technology – in operating rooms in Canada ;
conducting knowledge translation activities to improve patient care and the orientation curriculum for medical and surgical nurses;
reporting to the Board of Governors of The Ottawa Hospital to contribute to the strategic vision of the current hospital and the new campus to be built in 2028;
consulting on research projects with the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, having received over $100,000 in funding.

Maxime has also been a board member of the Patient Advisors Network since 2018, and has served as co-chair of Ontario Health East’s Patient and Family Advisory Council since 2022.

Additionally, he is a former member of the University of Ottawa President’s Advisory Committee on Mental Health and Wellness, and is familiar with the administration and management of university resources and campus operations.

Recognition

Recognized in the press and media as an authority on public health and communications;
2x finalist for the prize Intervenant en santé de l’année de l’Association des communautés francophones d’Ottawa (ACFO);
Received Public Health Insight’s 2023 “community star” award for his public health-related communications work.