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November/December 2015 Laboratory Focus www.laboratoryfocus.ca
Appointments
RepliCel Life Sciences Inc. has appointed Geoff MacKay as an independent director of the firm. Over the past 20 years, his career has been focused in the field of regenerative medicine. He is currently CEO of AVROBIO Inc., a clinical stage company focused on delivering step-change cell and gene therapies targeting cancer and rare disease. Previously, he spent
Geoff MacKay
11 years as CEO of Organogenesis Inc. in Boston. He is credited with helping build Organogenesis into the leading cell therapy business. MacKay also has a strong pharma heritage, having spent 11 years at Novartis where he held senior leadership positions within the immunology franchise in Canada, USA and at the global office in Basel Switzerland. Other examples of his broad international experience include: chairman of the board of MassBio, chairman of the board of the Alliance of Regenerative Medicine, advisory council to the Health Policy Commission for Massachusetts, Deans advisory Council Western University School of Podiatric Surgery, and chairman of Audit Committee of the Center for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM). Robert Verhagen has resigned as president and CEO of Helix BioPharma Corp. and is no longer a member of the company’s board of directors. The company intends to appoint Yvon Bastien, chairman of the board, to assume the role of president and
CEO on an interim basis. Bastien joined Helix’s board of directors in 2013 and has over 30 years of experience in the life sciences industry. His previous leadership roles include CEO and president at Sanofi Canada, founder and president at Delta Healthcare and president at Jouveinal. Additionally the company has appointed Gary Littlejohn as a director and consultant to Helix. Littlejohn brings over 30 years of experience in the financial and biopharmaceutical industries. From 2008 to 2015, he served as the CEO and advisor to the chairman of the Arab National Investment Company, the investment banking subsidiary of Arab National Bank located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. His other past roles include executive vice-president and director of Ecopia BioSciences Inc., a publicly-listed Canadian biotechnology company and director and audit committee member of Aegera Therapeutics Inc., a Canadian privately-held biotechnology company. He has also held senior investment banking positions with investment banks in Canada. The executive committee of the Université de Montréal has appointed Jacques Bernier and Jacques Parisien to the board of directors of the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) at the Université de Montréal for a three-year term. Bernier, a managing partner at Teralys Capital, is an engineer by training and former senior vice-president of the Solidarity Fund QFL. He is a venture capital specialist, primarily in the field of technological innovation. Bernier has also been an active stakeholder in more than a dozen emerging high-tech companies as founder or CEO, or as angel investor with young entrepreneurs. Parisien is a corporate director and advisor to businesses. Trained as an attorney, he has devoted his career to the communications industry. He also served as a member of the executive committee of Bell Media until he retired in December 2013. Earlier he had been part of upper management at Astral Media since 1994, most recently as executive vice-president and chief operating officer until its acquisition by Bell Media. He sits on the board of a number
of companies, including Investors Group, Mackenzie, Square Victoria Communications Group and Gesca. Contract research organization KGK Inc. has named Skip Hammock as its new director of business development in the U.S. In this role, he will be responsible for identifying new business opportunities, building partnerships and managing key client relationships. Hammock has been featured in the Nutritional Outlook People to Watch Directory, as well as in the Wall Street Journal for his pioneering work with Dean Mosca and Pharmachem on chia seeds. Prior to this appointment he was director of technical affairs for Pharmachem Labs.
ing, managed markets and sales leadership. Norma Biln, CEO of Vancouver’s Augurex Life Sciences Corp., has been elected as the new chair of BioTalent Canada’s board of directors. A non-profit human resource organization for Canada’s bio-economy, BioTalent Canada works with corporate partners and national and provincial biotechnology member associations to ensure Canada’s biotech businesses have access to the most skilled talent available. Prior to her role as CEO of Augurex, she began her career in clinical research with Pfizer Canada after completing
Tornado Spectral Systems Inc. has named Dr. Andrew Boorn as its new CEO. Dr. Boorn, who currently serves as chairman of the Tornado Spectral Systems board, previously served as president of Bruker Chemical and Applied Markets Division, as chief operating officer at ABSciex, and as president at MDS Analytical Technologies. He received his B. Sc. in Chemistry from Thames Polytechnic, his a PhD in Analytical Chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and has an MBA from the University of Toronto. ‘ Telesta Therapeutics Inc. has named Brian J. Groch its new chief commercial officer. In this role he will be responsible for leading the development and execution of Telesta’s commercial strategy beginning with the U.S. commercial launch of MCNA1 for 2nd line high risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer. He has more than 25 years of global commercial experience having held positions in both top-tier and start-up U.S. biopharmaceutical companies. Most recently he was the vice president of market access at Horizon Pharma. Prior to that he helped build the commercial organization at Dendreon in preparation for the launch of Provenge™. A seasoned biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry professional, his broad experience in the commercial sector includes multiple product launches at Novartis and Merck where he held positions in market-
Norma Biln
her Bachelor of Science in Physiology at McGill University. She has held senior positions with Pfizer Canada, Amgen Canada and Abbott Laboratories. She later joined Stressgen Biotechnologies as director of corporate market development and then as director of sales and marketing. She also served in a senior consulting capacity with Aspreva Pharmaceuticals on business development, commercial and communications initiatives. Biln holds a Master of Business Administration degree. She succeeds François Schubert, who recently retired as general manager & COO of the Research Institute of McGill University’s Health Centre in Montréal and was recently named to the Order of Canada for his career contribution.
