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August/September 2014 Laboratory Focus www.laboratoryfocus.ca
aPPointments ing cash flow until he can hire a business development officer in the next six to eight months.
Michel Perron
The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) announces the appointment of Michel Perron to the position of vice-president, external affairs and business development. Since 1999, Perron has served as CEO of the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA) where he championed a national, collaborative approach to preventing and addressing the impacts of substance abuse. Among his many accomplishments, Perron spearheaded the creation of a national action plan on substance abuse and initiated the development and implementation of national strategies to address such issues as prescription drug and alcohol abuse. In addition to his role as CEO of CCSA, Perron also chaired the Vienna Non-Governmental Organization Committee on Drugs, which brings together not-forprofit organizations involved in drug policy, strategy and control, in order to advise the United Nations on international drug policy. He is a graduate of the University of Winnipeg and of the Harvard Business School. In an effort to help the business attract more venture capital, MRM Proteomics, a biotech spinoff from Genome B.C. and the University of Victoria, has enlisted Gary Kruppa as its new CEO. The New Jersey native joined the company July 7 and will continue working from his office in Boston. Kruppa, who has a PhD in chemical physics, said his main plan is to focus on building the customer base and increas-
Ron Dizy has been named managing director of MaRS Discovery District’s Advanced Energy Centre (AEC). The Advanced Energy Centre is a public-private partnership focused on innovative energy technologies in Ontario and Canada and fostering international market opportunities. The creation of the centre was announced by Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne at the Canadian Energy Innovation Summit at MaRS in February. In his new role, Dizy will work closely with Paul Murphy, the former president and CEO of Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) and founding chair of the centre’s advisory board. Dizy joins MaRS after seven years leading ENBALA, where he was responsible for strategy, recruiting the executive leadership team, financing, establishing corporate direction and business development. Prior to ENBALA, Dizy spent seven years as a Partner at Celtic House Venture Partners, where he opened its Toronto office, helped raise two venture capital funds (over $500M) and was responsible for all aspects of sourcing, selecting, negotiating and managing investments. Zenith Epigenetics Corp. announces it has appointed Dr. Julie Cherrington as president and CEO. Her employment record includes past positions such as CEO of Pathway Therapeutics Inc., president of Phenomix Corporation, vice president, preclinical research and exploratory development SUGEN/Pharmacia/Pfizer, and director, Virology at Gilead Sciences. Notably, she was a key contributor to the successful development of multiple FDA approved products including anti-virals (Vistide™, Viread™, Hepsera™) and anti-cancer agents (SUTENT™, Palladia™). Donald J. McCaffrey, founding CEO, will assume the title of chairman and Dr. Peter Johann will act as lead director for the company. Cipher Pharmaceuticals appoints Shawn Patrick O’Brien as its new CEO. O’Brien has spent the past 30 years in the pharmaceutical and
biotechnology sectors providing global executive leadership. He is one of the three founders of AltheRx Pharmaceuticals and served as president and CEO, where he built the business and secured funding to acquire and develop a mid-stage asset from GlaxoSmithKline Inc. Previous roles include president and CEO of Profectus BioSciences Inc., where he secured two rounds of equity financing and a major vaccine licensing deal with Wyeth, as well as president and CEO of Solstice Neurosciences, Inc., which was spun out of Elan Pharmaceuticals. At Solstice, he built a fully integrated organization of more than 150 employees and raised $125 million in private financing prior to the sale of the business. Previously, he spent 17 years with AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, where he held multiple senior-level positions in Canada and the U.S., most recently as vice president of commercial operations for emerging brands. Dr. B. Mario Pinto has been named the new president of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), effective fall 2014. Currently, Dr. Pinto is completing his second term as vice-president, research at Simon Fraser University, where he is a professor of chemistry and also served as chair of the Department of Chemistry from 1999 until 2004. He completed his post-doctoral work at the Centre national de la recherche scienti-
Dr. b. Mario Pinto
fique in France and the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa before joining Simon Fraser University in 1983. Considered one of Canada’s leading chemical biologists, he is a member of several organizations, including the Chemical Institute of Canada, the Royal Society of Canada, the American Chemical Society and the American Society for Microbiology. He is also a Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada and the Academy of Sciences of the Royal Society of Canada. Some of his past honours include receiving the Horace S. Isbell Award of the American Chemical Society in 1992, the Merck Frosst Award of the Canadian Society for Chemistry (CSC) in 1993, the Bernard Belleau Award of the CSC in 2002, the Frontiers in Research Award of the British Columbia Innovation Council in 2005, the R.U. Lemieux Award of the CSC in 2012, the Alfred Bader Award of the CSC in 2013 and the Montréal Medal of the Chemical Institute of Canada in 2014. Anie Perrault has been named the new executive manager of BIOQuébec, effective immediately. Perrault comes to BIOQuébec with more than 20 years of professional experience in both the public and private sectors. A member of several boards notably, that of Loto-Québec, Perrault is currently City Councellor for the City of Bromont and serves on the research and ethics committee for Génome Québec. She held the position of vice president of communications at Génome Canada from 2001 to 2006 and prior to this, she was national communications director for Canada’s Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (Rx&D). In addition to these past roles, she has solid knowledge of the political and media environment, having acted as consultant to several federal elected officials over the course of her career, among them, Joe Clark. Anie earned the designation of Administrateur de sociétés certifié (ASC) from Collège des administrateurs de sociétés de l’Université Laval. She completed her legal training at the École du Barreau du Québec in 1993 after having obtained her Bachelor of Civil Law from the University of Ottawa.
