Appointments

Quark Venture Inc., a venture capital investment firm, has hired Karimah Es Sabar as its new CEO while also naming her a partner at the firm. Ms. Es Sabar, most recently led the Centre for Drug Research and Development as president & CEO, and before that,

Life Sciences BC. Her expansive global career spans multi-national pharmaceutical/biotechnology companies, start-ups, not-forprofit organizations and venture investment. She has also received multiple awards and recognitions for her pioneering work and holds an Executive Certificate in Management and Leadership from the MIT Sloan School of Management, a MSc degree in Neurochemistry from the Institute of Psychiatry – University of London, England – and a BSc Joint Honours degree in Biochemistry/Chemistry from the University of Salford in Manchester, England.

The PEI BioAlliance and

Natural Products Canada

(NPC) welcome two new faces to NPC’s Charlottetown head office as Karen Wight, VP Investment and Finance, and Stephen Ball, Regional Director of NPC-Atlantic, have joined the organization. Wight and Ball are two of five new hires that will be tasked with fulfilling NPC’s mandate to align and optimize Canada’s assets – natural resources, technologies, platforms, expertise, and world-class research – into a vibrant, pan-Canadian natural products ecosystem. Additional hires across the country include Sue Coueslan, VP Communications and Stakeholder Relations; and two regional directors: David Gauthier of NPC-West will work closely with the regional node, Ag-WestBio in Saskatoon; and Paul-Thomas Lacroix of NPCQuebec will collaborate with Quebec’s regional node, the Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods, Université Laval. Other regional directors will be recruited in the near future.

Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc.

announces that Dawn Svoronos has been appointed to its board of directors. Ms. Svoronos is a pharmaceutical industry executive whose experience includes a 23-year career at Merck & Co., as well as board positions at Medivation Inc. and Theratechnologies Inc. Svoronos retired in 2011 from Merck & Co., most recently serving as president of Europe and Canada.Previously held positions with Merck include vice president of Asia Pacific and vice president of Global Marketing for the Arthritis, Analgesics and Osteoporosis franchise.

Kimberly Stephens has joined Appili Therapeutics Inc. as chief financial officer, bringing with her over 15 years of financial management experience in senior financial positions with private and public companies. Most recently, she

served as CFO of Immunovaccine Inc. from 2011 to 2016, where she managed the raising of more than $40 million through equity financings and government grants. Prior to joining Immunovaccine Inc., she served as director of finance for the Canadian subsidiary of Germanischer Lloyd. She has also been the director of finance for SolutionInc, and started her career as an audit manager in the assurance and advisory group at PwC. Stephens will continue to serve Immunovaccine as chief financial officer through December 2016 while the company conducts its ongoing process of identifying and transitioning her successor.

Aquinox Pharmaceuticals has hired Dr. Barbara Troupin as its new chief medical officer and vice president, clinical development. In her new role, Dr. Troupin will lead overall clinical and medical affair strategies for Aquinox’s ongoing programs as well as future development and potential commercialization plans. Dr. Troupin most recently served as senior vice president and chief medical officer at Apricus Bioscience, Inc. where she led the development and execution of clinical strategy for three drug development programs ranging from proof-of-concept to NDA filing. Prior to Apricus, Dr. Troupin held the role of vice president in Medical Affairs at VIVUS, Inc. Dr. Troupin received her Doctorate in Medicine in 1995 from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine where she also completed her Master’s in Business Administration, with an emphasis in health care management, from the Wharton School of Business.

Alexandra D.J. Mancini has joined InMed Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in the role of senior vice president, Clinical and Regulatory Affairs. Ms. Mancini has over 30 years’ global biopharmaceutical R&D experience with a particular emphasis on clinical development and regulatory affairs. In addition to her activities via her private consulting company True North Synergy, she has been an executive with several biotech companies. As Sr. VP of Clinical & Regulatory Affairs at Sirius Genomics, her role included identifying and managing external resources for medical expertise in sepsis; clinical data management; and statistical theory, programming and analyses. While at INEX Pharmaceuticals as Sr. VP of Clinical & Regulatory Affairs, Ms. Mancini oversaw Clinical Research, Medical Affairs, Clinical Data Management, Medical Writing, Regulatory Affairs, and Quality Assurance for oncology. She served as VP of Regulatory Affairs at QLT Inc. for oncology and ocular diseases, playing a significant role in the development of VISUDYNE® from the preclinical stage through to its approval as the first drug for agerelated macular degeneration.

Ontario Genomics appoints Ihor P. Boszko as its new vice president, Business Development. Boszko will lead and manage all aspects of the organization’s business development activities in

various sectors including human health, agriculture, mining, water and forestry. For nearly 15 years he has been developing, commercializing and partnering innovative technologies in the medical diagnostics industry. Most recently, in his role as vice president, Business Development of Xagenic Inc., Mr. Boszko led the company’s global commercialization plan for a breakthrough molecular diagnostics platform.

Panasonic Healthcare Corp.

of North America has hired on Murray Wigmore as vice president of Sales. In his new position, Wigmore will manage a multi-channel distribution and consultative sales team and will be responsible for sales in North America, South America and adjacent markets associated with the life science, pharmaceutical, clinical and industrial laboratory industry. Mr. Wigmore joins Panasonic Healthcare Corporation of North America most recently from Sartorius Japan K.K, where he served as president and managing director.

Karimah Es Sabar

Kimberly Stephens Ihor P. Boszko