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Day 1

Speaker Profiles

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Dr. Lesley Esford, President & CEO, LifeSciences BC

Dr. Lesley Esford is the President of LifeSciences BC, a not-for-profit, industry association that supports and

represents the Life Science community of British Columbia through leadership, facilitation of investment and

partnering, advocacy, and promotion of our world-class science and industry. Lesley received her PhD in

Microbiology and Immunology from UBC and has spent many years in academia, industry and government in

positions supporting the growth of the Life Sciences sector. Since 2006, she has worked as an ITA for NRC-IRAP,

helping over 100 entrepreneurs developing a wide array of products and services, at every stage of the innovation

process, from concept to commercialization. Lesley is a Kauffman Fellow, which is a Silicon Valley-based

international leadership program for venture capitalists and innovators.

Neal Hill, Vice President, Market Development, BDC

Neal Hill was appointed Vice President, Market Development with BDC Capital in 2016. His main responsibilities are

to ensure the continued execution and future development of Canada’s Venture Capital Action Plan (VCAP) and to

identify and develop high-potential Canadian general partners (GPs).

Neal has more than 30 years of experience in technology management and marketing, venture capital, and mergers

and acquisitions in Canada and the U.S. Before joining BDC Capital as Vice President, Fund of Funds, in 2012, he was

founder and Senior Managing Director of Great Northern Capital, Canada’s first attempt to create a growth-stage

venture capital fund of substantial size focusing on emerging technology firms.

Prior to this, he was Senior Vice President, Corporate Development, for Cognos Incorporated, an Ottawa-based $1

billion worldwide leader in business intelligence and performance management software, now a unit of IBM. In this

role, he was responsible for mergers, acquisitions and strategic alliances, including the IBM alliance that led to its $5

billion acquisition of Cognos

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Jerome Nycz, EVP, BDC Capital

Jérôme Nycz was appointed Executive Vice President, BDC Capital in 2013.

In this role, he leads the activities of BDC Capital, the investment arm of BDC that offers venture capital, equity as

well as growth and business transition capital. He also oversees BDC’s deployment of the Venture Capital Action

Plan.

Mr. Nycz has over 20 years of experience in the financial and public sectors.

He joined BDC in 2002, overseeing corporate strategy and planning, and shareholder relations. In subsequent

years, he added responsibility for enterprise risk management, economic analysis and knowledge management to

his portfolio. During this time, he conducted several internal strategic reviews of operations units and led a

multidisciplinary team that prepared the Bank’s submission for the 2010 legislative review of the BDC Act.

David McGovern, Associate Deputy Minister, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

David McGovern is an Associate Deputy Minister with Innovation, Science and Economic Development. He joined the department in May 2017 and his addition reflects the Department's ambitious agenda of serving its three ministers in implementing the Innovation and Skills Plan. Prior to his most recent appointment, David was the Deputy National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister from January 2015 until May 2017. Previously, he served as Senior Advisor to the Privy Council Office, responsible for Border Action Plan Implementation and the Regulatory Cooperation Council starting in May 2014. David was the Senior Assistant Deputy Minister of Strategic Policy and Research at the department of Employment and Social Development Canada from 2011. He was a participant in the 2012 cohort of the Government of Canada’s Advanced Leadership Program. From 2005 until 2011, David was the Assistant Deputy Minister of the International Affairs Branch at Environment Canada. From 2003 until 2005, he supported the Secretary of the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) on several key files and led a series of horizontal and vertical expenditure management reviews.

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Dr. Nadine Caron, Associate Professor, Dept. of Surgery, Co-director of UBC’s Centre for Excellence in Indigenous

Health

Dr. Nadine Caron, a General and Endocrine surgeon, was born and raised in Kamloops, BC. She is an associate

professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Northern Medical Program; an adjunct professor at the

University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC); Scientist at the BC Cancer Genome Sciences Centre, and an

associate faculty member at the Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health's Center for American

Indian Health. She is also co-director, UBC Centre for Excellence in Indigenous Health.

Nadine completed her Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology at Simon Fraser University (1993). In 1997, she became the

first female First Nations student to graduate from UBC’s medical school. During her surgical residency, she completed

her Masters of Public Health from Harvard University (2001). After finishing residency (2003), Nadine moved to San

Francisco for Postgraduate Fellowship Training in Endocrine Surgical Oncology at the University of California.

Thomas G. O’Shaughnessy, Western Leader Healthcare, Deloitte

Thomas is a seasoned executive with over seventeen years of strategy and operations experience with a core focus

in health care. His areas of expertise include strategic planning, system design, project implementation, and senior

level stakeholder engagement.

Thomas has partnered with stakeholders to advise on health system integration initiatives and to implement new

organizational strategies and has experience working with groups on large change transformation initiatives.

Currently, Thomas is a Partner in Deloitte’s health care consulting practice based in Vancouver and a health leader

for Western Canada. In this role, he actively works with health system payers and providers as well as private sector

clients across the country, with a particular focus in the west.

Prior to this, Thomas served as leader of health care advisory services at KPMG in British Columbia. In addition to his

work in Western Canada, Thomas served as a member of the Senior Leadership Team at one of Ontario’s fastest

growing and most diverse Local Health Integration Networks, where he led health system planning and strategic

engagement portfolios.

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Mike Standing, Global LSHC EMEA Regional Leader, Deloitte

Mike Standing is Life Sciences and Health Care industry leader for the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA)

region. He has consulted to the life sciences and health care industries for over 20 years, working with

pharmaceutical companies, medical device firms, hospitals, research institutions/foundations, and health insurers

and government on corporate strategy, commercial transformation, operations, medical innovation, and

organizational issues.

Karimah Es Sabar, CEO & Partner, Quark Venture Inc., Director of the Global Health Sciences Fund (GHS Fund)

Karimah Es Sabar's role as CEO and Partner at Quark Venture Inc. and the Director of the Global Health Sciences

Fund (GHS Fund), is the most recent in her successful and expansive global career, which spans multi-national

pharmaceutical/biotechnology companies, start-ups, not-for-profit organizations and venture investment. Prior to

joining Quark Venture, Ms. Es Sabar led the Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) as President & CEO.

She has also held senior roles with Life Sciences BC. MedSurge Medical and Sanofi Pasteur (Connaught

Laboratories). She has raised significant funds, brought products to market, and has also developed and executed

innovation and translation strategies in the life science sector and in biotech investment. Karimah has received

multiple awards and recognition for her pioneering work and serves on numerous boards including the National

Research Council and Triumf Innovations.

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Ela Borenstein, Program Director, BDC

Dr. Elai Davicioni received his PhD in pathobiology from the University of Southern California in 2006 for research on genomic-based classification of pediatric sarcomas and the development of novel diagnostic and prognostic signatures. After graduate school, he cofounded GenomeDx and have served as its Chief Scientific Officer since 2007. Based in Vancouver, the company has been focused on developing practice changing, clinically actionable cancer genomics in collaboration with leading academic researchers. Their platform technology uses clinical grade genome-wide expression analysis and machine-learning algorithms. In 2013 they opened their laboratory in San Diego and began offering the Decipher RP test, which is used to help decide on the need for secondary therapy after surgery. In 2015 Decipher received coverage in the US for all Medicare beneficiaries and has been included in the NCCN clinical practice guidelines for localized prostate cancer. In 2016, they launched the Decipher Biopsy test, which is used to help decide on initial treatment after a diagnosis of prostate cancer. In 2017 they launched the Decipher Bladder test, which is used to help decide on chemotherapy treatment prior to surgery and partnered with Color Genomics to offer hereditary testing to their cancer patients. Their research team has co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed articles and built the GRID registry consisting of over 50,000 prostate and bladder cancer patient genomic profiles. Furthermore, they have bridged the gap between industry and academia by implementing a policy and ethos of data sharing and collaboration to ‘crowd-source’ the use of genomics to enhance clinical decision making and a precision medicine approach to cancer care. The aim is to systematically, continuously study cancer using genomics at the population level and share this data with the research community in order to accelerate the pace of innovation and our understanding of this complex disease. Dr. Thomas Hawes, Managing Director Healthcare, Sandbox

Tom Hawes is a Managing Director of the BlueCross BlueShield Venture Fund. He serves on the Board of Directors of

AbleTo, BehaveCare, Healthify, HeartFlow, Oncology Analytics, Patientco, and Phreesia as well as formerly on the

Board of InVivoLink, Nexidia and Wellspring Healthcare. Before joining Sandbox, Tom matched at Yale School of

Medicine for residency and completed his first year of medical training at Greenwich Hospital. During his medical

training, he worked on clinical studies at the ISK Institute for Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine and on outcomes

research at the National Cancer Institute and NYMC’s Cardiothoracic Surgery Department. Tom is on the National

Advisory Board of the Desmoid Tumor Research Foundation. Tom holds a BA from Brigham Young University, an

M.D. from New York Medical College and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is also a Kauffman Fellow.

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Robert Scully, Director, Manulife Capital Ventures

Rob is the Director of MCV (Manulife Capital Ventures), a returns-driven, North American software venture investor.

Rob joined MCV in 2016 and has 15 years of technology operations and VC experience. Prior to MCV, Rob spent 5

years with a Toronto-based early stage venture fund (IAF), where he was involved with origination, execution and

portfolio management of 20 early-stage startup investments, with a primary focus on enterprise SaaS. Previously,

Rob worked in enterprise applications with Oracle and with two mobile software startups, Polar and Mobile

Semantic. Rob began his career with positions in competitive intelligence (Ericsson) and venture capital (EDC).

Rob holds an Honours Bachelor degree (Economics and International Trade) from the University of Waterloo.

Pamela Fralick, President, Innovative Medicines Canada

Pamela Fralick is an experienced leader who has been fostering positive change in Canada’s health sector for decades. Throughout her career, Ms. Fralick has distinguished herself in a variety of senior roles. A convener and innovator, Ms. Fralick is one of Canada’s leading, compassionate voices in the health sector. As the President of Innovative Medicines Canada, Ms. Fralick leads the industry association for Canada’s innovative pharmaceutical companies, working with its members and communities to ensure Canadians have access to the medicines they need, when they need them. Prior to joining Innovative Medicines Canada, Ms. Fralick was President and CEO of the Canadian Cancer Society, Canada’s largest health charity, where she oversaw a three-year process of intense transformation, resulting in historic changes to the operational and governance structures of the organization. Ms. Fralick previously served as president and CEO of the Canadian Healthcare Association (CHA) and as CEO of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association. At both Associations, Ms. Fralick led organizational initiatives designed to enhance sustainability and improve outcomes for the associations, their members and stakeholders. Ms. Fralick has also held senior positions with the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse and Health Canada’s Alcohol and Other Drugs Unit.

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Dr. Lesley Stolz, Head J&J Innovation, JLABS, California

Lesley Stolz, PhD, fosters Johnson & Johnson’s external R&D engine and supports the innovation community by

leading the Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JLABS business on the West Coast. She has 20 years of business and

corporate development experience working for companies that have been both technology platform and

therapeutics focused. Previously, she was Senior Director of Transactions negotiating partnering deals for Johnson

& Johnson Innovation at the California Innovation Center. Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson Innovation, she held

executive positions with BioTime, Inc., Sutro Biopharma, Inc., and Sunesis Pharmaceuticals where she was

responsible for corporate strategy, fundraising and all aspects of partnering. Earlier in her career, she served as

Senior Director, Business Development for Aerovance, Inc. and for GPC Biotech AG in Munich, Germany from 2002

to 2006. She also served in senior management positions at Cell Genesys, Discovery Partners International and Axys

Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Stolz received her Ph.D. in chemistry, and conducted postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical

School’s Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology.

Ohad Arazi, VP & GM, TELUS Health Living Labs

Ohad recently joined TELUS Health to lead the Living Labs organization: a new group TELUS created to work with

partners and portfolio investments to experiment with new products and drive innovation in some of the most

dynamic health care sectors in Canada.

Before taking on this position, he served as SVP and General Manager for McKesson/Change Healthcare's Cardiology

business, a top 3 global market leader in the Cardiology IT segment. During Ohad’s 11 year tenure with McKesson,

he also served as VP of Product Management for their overall medical imaging business. Prior to joining McKesson in

2006, he held several leadership roles with technology firms in the telecommunications industry in Israel, including

as CEO of a start company in the field of VoIP.

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Ohad is passionate about developing solutions that bridge healthcare and information technologies. He believes

technology can play a tremendous role in transforming outcomes, decreasing cost and enhancing collaboration.

Dr. Catalina Lopez- Correa, Chief Scientific Officer, VP Sectors, Genome BC

With more than 20 years of international experience in both the academic and private sectors, Dr. Catalina Lopez-

Correa’s deep understanding of genomics has inspired leaders in science and industry to collaborate toward solving

some of the world’s greatest challenges.

Prior to joining Genome BC, Catalina was the CSO and Vice-President Scientific Affairs at Genome Quebec, where

she was instrumental in developing competitive teams for national and provincial research projects raising the

profile of Canadian genomics on the global stage.

Before becoming one of Canada’s leading advocates for genomics research and translation, Catalina held senior

research positions with pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and the renowned deCODE genetics lab in Iceland. From

leading teams to identifying genomic biomarkers in therapeutic areas of oncology, cardio-metabolic and

neurosciences to developing screening strategies associated with disease, Catalina’s leadership helped drive the

discovery and development pipelines.

As part of her commitment to international development, Catalina has championed several initiatives aimed at

demonstrating the impact of genomics in developing countries. Since 2002 she has served as evaluator for large

multinational projects funded by the European Commission and has been recognized with several awards nationally

and internationally.

Catalina holds a Medical degree from the UPB in Colombia, a Master’s degree in Human Genetics from Paris V

University in France, a PhD in Medical Sciences from the KU Leuven in Belgium, and a mini MBA from McGill

University in Canada.

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Dr. Elai Davicioni, President & CSO, GenomeDx Biosciences

Dr. Elai Davicioni received his PhD in pathobiology from the University of Southern California in 2006 for research on genomic-based classification of pediatric sarcomas and the development of novel diagnostic and prognostic signatures. After graduate school, he cofounded GenomeDx and have served as its Chief Scientific Officer since 2007. Based in Vancouver, the company has been focused on developing practice changing, clinically actionable cancer genomics in collaboration with leading academic researchers. Their platform technology uses clinical grade genome-wide expression analysis and machine-learning algorithms. In 2013 they opened their laboratory in San Diego and began offering the Decipher RP test, which is used to help decide on the need for secondary therapy after surgery. In 2015 Decipher received coverage in the US for all Medicare beneficiaries and has been included in the NCCN clinical practice guidelines for localized prostate cancer. In 2016, they launched the Decipher Biopsy test, which is used to help decide on initial treatment after a diagnosis of prostate cancer. In 2017 they launched the Decipher Bladder test, which is used to help decide on chemotherapy treatment prior to surgery and partnered with Color Genomics to offer hereditary testing to their cancer patients. Their research team has co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed articles and built the GRID registry consisting of over 50,000 prostate and bladder cancer patient genomic profiles. Furthermore, they have bridged the gap between industry and academia by implementing a policy and ethos of data sharing and collaboration to ‘crowd-source’ the use of genomics to enhance clinical decision making and a precision medicine approach to cancer care. The aim is to systematically, continuously study cancer using genomics at the population level and share this data with the research community in order to accelerate the pace of innovation and our understanding of this complex disease. Dr. Mark Gelfer, Chairman, GenXys

Dr. Mark Gelfer is a family physician in Vancouver, BC practicing Executive Health with a focus on Preventive

Medicine. Dr. Gelfer is Chairman of the Board of Directors of GenXys Health Care Systems Inc., a next-generation

pharmacogenomics and prescribing-decision support software company spun out of UBC’s Personalized Medicine

Institute.

Previously, Dr. Gelfer was the Founder and Medical Director of VSM MedTech Ltd., a TSX-listed medical device

company. Dr. Gelfer completed his medical degree at the University of Toronto and Family Medicine residency at

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the University of Ottawa. He has served as President of the College of Family Physicians of British Columbia and is

currently a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia in the Department of Family Practice. Dr.

Gelfer’s commitment to lifelong learning earned him a Fellowship from the College of Family Physicians of Canada.

Sue Paish, Healthcare Leader

For over 35 years Sue has led transformation and innovation across professional services, healthcare and technology. Recognized as one of Canada’s leading employment and labour lawyers, Sue became Managing Partner of her Firm, leading it through one of the most significant Canadian law firm mergers, building the firm to nine offices on three continents. In healthcare, as the CEO of Canada’s largest chain of independent retail pharmacies and as a member of the Pharmaceutical Review Task Force, Sue encouraged the transformation of pharmaceutical public policies and practices for physicians and pharmacists while leading the introduction of industry leading technologies for dispensing, patient education and medication management. Most recently Sue has been the CEO of Canada’s largest diagnostic lab, doubling the company’s size through successful acquisitions and integrations, organic growth, and entry into transformative markets including genetics, pharmacogentics and naturopathy, while introducing industry leading technologies that benefit patients, healthcare providers and Canada’s healthcare system. Sue has been recognized for her with awards including, Queen’s Counsel, Honorary Doctorate Degree in Technology, Hall of Fame for Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women, UBC Distinguished Alumni, and YWCA Woman of Distinction. Sue actively contributes to the community through organizations such as the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, the Vancouver Board of Trade, BC Business Council and CORIX Group of Companies. Dr. Simon Pimstone, President & CEO, Xenon Pharmaceuticals and Founder, SAVE BC

Dr. Simon Pimstone received his MD from the University of Cape Town. He is an internal medicine specialist (FRCPC, UBC, 2001) with an interest in cardiovascular disease. Prior to his specialization, he trained as a clinical research fellow with the Department of Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia and obtained his PhD through the University of Amsterdam in cardiovascular genetics in 1998.

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He serves as consultant physician at the UBC Medical and Cardiology Clinic at UBC Hospital in Vancouver. He is a founder and co-PI of the Study to Avoid cardiovascular events in BC (SAVE BC), a provincial program of families with very premature atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. After seeing two close friends suffer major myocardial infarctions under forty years of age, he was moved to establish a screening platform in BC to ensure we do what we can to identify high risk individuals as early as possible. SAVE BC was the solution to this challenge. Dr. Pimstone is also a founder, Director, and President and Chief Executive Officer at Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc., one of Canada’s leading publicly traded biotechnology companies (Nasdaq: XENE). He has also held positions on a number of life sciences and biotechnology boards.

Dr. Cedric Bisson, Partner, Teralys Capital

CÉDRIC BISSON is partner at Teralys Capital, Canada’s largest technology fund of funds management organization,

where he focuses on healthcare and life sciences investments. He has spent the past two decades across Canada, in

Europe and the USA creating, building and advising innovative businesses, serving as founder and partner of iNovia

Capital (a leading pan-Canadian VC firm), founder of MSBi Valorisation (now Aligo, seed technology transfer), and

associate principal at McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm. Mr. Bisson obtained a M.D.

degree from McGill University and a J.D. (law) degree from Université de Montréal.

Dr. Steven Xanthoudakis, Chief Business Development Officer, CQDM (Consortium Québécois sur la découverte

du medicament)

Dr. Steven Xanthoudakis has more than 25 years of experience working in the Pharmaceutical industry. He received

his doctoral degree from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at McGill University in 1990. Following

post-doctoral training at the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology in New Jersey, he assumed the position of

Research Investigator in the Department of Neurogenetics at Hoffman La Roche. He was recruited back to Montreal

in 1996 to join Merck Canada as a Senior Research Scientist where he focused on advancing several early stage drug

discovery programs in the Neuroscience, Respiratory and Cardiovascular disease areas. In 2007 he transitioned to

the position of Director, Business Development & Licensing for Merck Research Laboratories and was involved in

coordinating Merck's Canadian and LATAM R&D out-reach programs. His primary role was to build lasting

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relationships with the venture capital, biotechnology and academic research communities and to help foster

partnering opportunities that aligned with Merck’s strategic R&D goals. He was instrumental in establishing a

number of strategic alliances with Canadian Biotech Companies including Innovative Targeting Solutions, Alectos

Therapeutics, Abcellera, EnWave Corporation, Xenon Pharmaceuticals and Zymeworks. He also managed Merck's

Venture partnerships with Lumira Capital and Amorchem Financial and launched alliances with IRICor, MaRS

Innovation, CDRD and Exactis . Before Joining the CQDM as Chief Business Development office in Sept 2017, he was

the Chair of CQDMs Strategic Orientation Committee.

Karen Wichuk, Executive Lead, Edmonton Health City

Over the course of her career Karen has worked in both the private and the public sector. A lawyer by profession,

Karen practiced law with the firm Shores Jardine until joining the University of Alberta in 2002, first as the Director

of Government Relations and then in 2007 as the Associate Vice-President of Government and Corporate Relations.

In 2014, Karen took a two year secondment to Executive Council in the Government of Alberta, first as the ADM of

Strategic Planning and Policy and then as the ADM of Operations and Machinery of Government. In 2016, Karen

returned to the UofA and took a secondment into TEC Edmonton where she served as Vice-President Public Sector

and Government Relations. Since October of 2016 Karen has been contracted by the City of Edmonton to be the

Executive Lead of Health City. Karen is also the Founder and President of Deep Strategies Inc.

Dr. Rachael Ritchie, Vice President, Strategy & Partnerships, CDRD

Dr. Rachael Ritchie: Vice President, Strategy and Partnerships, The Centre for Drug Research & Development

Dr. Rachael Ritchie was appointed Vice President, Strategy and Partnerships in 2017. Dr. Ritchie is an innovation

leader with over two decades of hands-on experience in the generation and mobilization of science and technology.

Dr. Ritchie has worked in public sector organizations across North America and Europe successfully creating and

advancing partnership-driven, solutions-oriented science. Her accomplishments include leadership of Genome

British Columbia’s European R&D partnerships, creation of OECD analytical frameworks for science and technology

policy, and delivery of molecular biology-based solutions to industry and governments in Atlantic Canada. She is an

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active participant in regional, national and international innovation system growth and has served on national and

international expert panels, working groups and committees.

Dr. Ritchie received a BSc (Hon) in Biochemistry from the University of British Columbia in 1991 and a DPhil in

Clinical Medicine from Oxford in 1995. She was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute postdoctoral fellow at Harvard

University, Boston Children’s Hospital, from 1996-1998.