adMare

Paul Buron

Chair of the Board, Former Executive Vice President, Government Mandate and Programs Management, Investissement Québec

Paul Buron has more than 30 years experience in financial management, risk management and business strategies, including as the Executive Vice-President, Government Mandates and Programs Management at Investissement Québec from 2017 to 2019, where he coordinated the full range of mandates, financial programs and tax measures administered by the organization on behalf of the Government of Québec through the Economic Development Fund (EDF).

From 2006 to 2017, Paul served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC). Until 2016, he was also in charge of risk management for BDC. In 2011-2012, he held the post of Interim Executive Vice President, Financing and Consulting in addition to his other responsibilities.

Before joining the BDC team, Paul was Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of TVA Group from 2000 to 2006. In that capacity, he was in charge of television operations and regional stations, IT services, investor relations and human resources.

He is Chairman of the Board of Oxfam-Québec, and is a member of the boards of Flying Whales inc, Kraft Nordic and Pliteq inc.

He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from HEC Montréal, and was a member of the Ordre des comptables professionnels agréés du Québec (CPA) for more than 30 years.

John DeLucchi

President & CEO, Madison Venture Corporation 

John is President & CEO of Madison Venture Corporation (Madison).  Madison is a diversified private company with interests in companies in several industries.  Madison employs approximately 2000 people in different markets in Canada and the US and serves customers and clients primarily in Canada, the US, and internationally.

Prior to joining Madison, John was a partner with PwC in BC from 1999 to 2020.  John has 35 years of experience with PwC where he served both private and public clients in several industries with operations in Canada, the US, Europe, South America, Asia, and Africa.
John was a member of PwC Canada’s National Board of Directors from 2018 to 2020 until he joined Madison.
John served as PwC’s Managing Partner for the BC Region from 2009 to 2017 and was a member of PwC’s National Extended Leadership Team for over 12 years. 

In addition to Managing Partner John held various leadership roles during his career at PwC including National Life Sciences Leader, National Technology Leader and National Consumer and Industrial Products Leader. John also started and led PwC’s National China Business Network which focused on working with clients to establish operations and/or invest in Canada and China.

While at PwC John primarily worked with growing companies advising them with respect to developing their business strategy, corporate governance matters and risk management.  He also advised his clients regarding complex financial reporting matters, internal controls, regulatory issues, raising capital both privately and publicly in Canada and the U.S as well as mergers & acquisitions.

John is currently on the Board of Directors of Canuck Place Children’s Hospice and was previously on the Board of Directors of Covenant House Vancouver.  John also served on the Board, Executive Committee and was Chair of the Audit Committee of the United Way of the Lower Mainland as well serving on the Board and Executive Committee of the BC Business Council.

Theresa Firestone

Director, Orion Biotechnology

Theresa Firestone is a global healthcare executive with over 35 years experience in retail, pharmaceuticals, health & wellness and government. Theresa is an accomplished business leader and has held senior leadership positions in Canada, Europe and Asia and led teams in 15 different countries.  Prior to retirement in 2021 Theresa was Senior Vice President, Health and Wellness at Shoppers Drug Mart (SDM), Canada’s largest retail pharmacy chain. Theresa was responsible for leading the company’s health and wellness initiatives including developing new growth strategies, the development and launch of the Health Clinics by Shoppers, dietitian services, pharmacy services including vaccines and the recently launched PC Health App.  Theresa was also responsible for leading several Shoppers businesses including MediSystem Pharmacies, Specialty Health Network, Sanis Health (a generic company owned and operated by SDM), 43 corporately owned Wellwise retail outlets, Medical Cannabis and the Beauty Clinic by Shoppers.  She has extensive P&L, strategy development and operations experience. 

Prior to joining Shoppers Drug Mart, Theresa was Regional President of Emerging Markets Asia with Pfizer Inc (Shanghai and HK) and had responsibility for a P&L of $1.4B and 13 countries in Asia.    

Theresa is currently a board member with Cybin Inc. (NEO:CYBN, NYSE: Cybin), , Aurora Cannabis Inc. (NASDAQ: ACB, TSX: ACB) and Orion Biotechnology.  She was a Corporate Director for Merus Labs International (TSE: MSL) from 2014-17 and has held board positions with several not-for-profit and industry organizations.     

Patricia Gauthier

Global Commercialization Head for Rare Diseases and Latent Viruses, Moderna

Patricia Gauthier joined Moderna in 2020 as President, General Manager to set up and lead Moderna’s Canadian organization. In about two years, she led the deployment of COVID-19 vaccines to protect Canadians at the height of the pandemic while creating and negotiating a long-term partnership with the Canadian Government around pandemic preparedness, R&D collaboration and local biomanufacturing.  

In 2023, Patricia transitioned to a global role where she leads the Global Franchise for two of Moderna's most promising areas: the rare disease business and the latent vaccines portfolio. She oversees the development of global commercialization strategies for these products, from ensuring access to disease awareness and preparing for market entry. 

Previously, Patricia Gauthier spent 12 years with GSK, where her roles included Head of Vaccines Business and Head of Government Affairs and Market Access. She has lived in the United States, Singapore and France, and in London while working as a lawyer at McCarthy Tetrault. In addition to her legal studies, Patricia Gauthier holds an MBA from HEC Montreal, and certifications in Strategic Negotiation from Harvard Business School and Leadership in Context from IMD. She is involved in rethinking innovation and inspiring leadership, including with the Creative Destruction Lab, and is a board member of adMare BioInnovations, which fosters commercial opportunities for biotechnology innovations in Canada. 

Nancy Harrison

Venture Partner, Amplitude Venture Capital

Nancy Harrison is former co-founder and the past President of MSI Methylation Sciences, a private venture-backed development company with a novel treatment of depression in Phase II development. She is a former Partner and Senior Vice President of Ventures West Management Inc.

During her tenure with Ventures West, the life sciences portfolio grew from 0% of the overall investment portfolio to approximately 30% of investments. The firm grew from about $90 million to about $750 million under management in eight historical funds. Nancy participated in over 30 investments over her time at the firm, and specialized in helping Canadian life sciences companies raise Series B rounds through accessing US venture capital funds. Some of these investments include companies such as Angiotech Pharmaceuticals, Inc., AnorMed, Inc, Caprion Pharmaceuticals Inc., Celator Technologies Inc., Alder Biopharmaceuticals, Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc., Salmedix Inc., Sembiosys Genetics Inc., and many other biotechnology firms while with Ventures West.

Nancy has served as Chair of Life Sciences BC, and Board member of NRC IRAP, Presentation House as well as other not-for-profit organizations. She has won The Canadian Caldwell Partners 40 Under 40 Award for outstanding young business professionals and Business in Vancouver’s Top 40 Under 40 award for young entrepreneurs, professionals, and executives.

She holds an MBA from McGill University and a BSc in Geophysical Engineering from Queen’s University.

Martin LeBlanc

Co-Founder and Vice-Chairman, CellCarta Biosciences

Martin is co-founder and was recently named Vice-Chairman of CellCarta Biosciences after having been its CEO for the past 16 years. Formerly known as Caprion Biosciences and headquartered in Montreal, Canada, CellCarta is a leading global provider of specialized precision medicine laboratory services to the biopharmaceutical industry. CellCarta operates globally with over 1000 employees in its 11 facilities located in Canada, USA, Belgium, Australia and China.

Under Martin’s leadership the company has sustained strong organic growth, concluded 10 company mergers and acquisitions, and has been successively managed under the ownership of 4 leading healthcare private equity firms. Martin is also the chairman of the board of Montreal InVivo and a member of numerous private company and not-for-profit boards.

Prior to Caprion, Martin was a management consultant for McKinsey & Company as well as co-owner and senior executive of another successful biotech venture, Advanced Bioconcept. Martin earned his bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Moncton prior to completing an M.A. in Economics and Politics at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.

Gordon C. McCauley

President & CEO, adMare BioInnovations

Gordon C. McCauley was appointed President and CEO of adMare BioInnovations in 2016 after four years on the Board. Gordon has demonstrated leadership in various roles, notably executive and investment management in public and private biotech companies and venture capital firms. Additionally, Gordon was a senior advisor to several prominent Canadian political leaders and has integrated this experience into his work within the life sciences sector. 

Gordon is currently the Chair of BIOTECanada, Canada's national biotechnology industry organization, and CGEn, Canada's national genomics enterprise. He is an independent Director of Forus Therapeutics, BIOVECTRA, and Montreal InVivo. Gordon Co-Chairs the Canadian Chamber of Commerce Life Science Council and is actively engaged with the Canadian Public Policy Forum Life Sciences Leadership Table.  

Previously, Gordon has been Chair of LifeSciences British Columbia, Acetech, and The Toronto Rehab Foundation. In 2008, he was the first Canadian to join the Board of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) in Washington, D.C., serving in leadership roles until 2013.  

Gordon holds a B.A. in Political Science from McMaster University, an MBA (with honours) from IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland, and earned the ICD.D certification from the Institute of Corporate Directors and the Rotman School of Business at the University of Toronto. He is currently a doctoral candidate at Grenoble École de Management in Grenoble, France. 

Travis McCready

Head of Life Sciences, Industries Americas, Jones Lang LaSalle

Travis McCready is the head of life sciences markets in the Americas for JLL, one of the largest commercial real estate advisories in the world.  In this capacity, he leads a multi-country platform that includes brokerage, capital markets, project management, consulting & advisory, and valuation services for life sciences companies, developers and investors.  He is also a member of the firm's Innovation Districts Practice, helping plan, build and finance innovation districts all over North America. 

Travis has over 25 years of experience leading public, private, and nonprofit ventures with a focus on technology and innovation based economic development.  The former President & CEO of the $1.6 billion life sciences funding agency Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, Travis is passionate about supporting tech-based entrepreneurship and is a frequent speaker on the evolving role of technology-based economic development at the community and regional level.  He remains active in the life sciences community serving on the boards of the global business accelerator MassChallenge, the global life sciences business enabler Nucleate, and Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston.  He also serves in advisory capacities at Harvard University, MIT, and Johns Hopkins University.  No stranger to public service, Travis has served on the Economic Development Planning Council under three Massachusetts governors, has been appointed to state and national initiatives ranging from the arts to advanced manufacturing.  

Travis received his B.A. in Philosophy from Yale University, and J.D. from the University of Iowa. 

Laurence Rulleau

Managing Partner, CTI Life Sciences

Dr. Terrisse-Rulleau brings 25 years of experience in investing in life sciences and building companies in the sector. Dr Laurence Terrisse Rulleau has been a partner with the CTI Life Sciences fund since 2014 where she has played a key role in the fund's investments but more specifically in the creation of 5 new companies in Quebec: Dalcor, a spin-off of the Montreal Heart Institute; Ilkos, a spin-off of Servier, Precithera based on innovative science, Find Therapeutics, which developed a new remyelinating compound and more recently Epitopea, a spin-off of IRIC developing new cryptic antigens. 

Dr. Rulleau also led the investment in Profound Medical and was an observer on the board of Directors of Visterra, a Boston-based biotechnology company acquired in August 2018 by Otsuka Pharmaceuticals.

Prior to joining CTI LSF II, Laurence served as Vice-President Business Development at Univalor where she oversaw the licensing of 55 compounds to the industry and created 8 spin-off companies. Prior to Univalor, she served as a life sciences analyst covering the Canadian life sciences sector for more than 10 years and was involved in numerous mergers and acquisitions as well as IPOs. Dr. Rulleau was ranked Canada's leading life sciences analyst by the Starmine survey (a Thomson Reuters company) and the first independent analyst by the Brendon Wood poll. Laurence is also very active in the life science Canadian community and is a board director of AdMare Bio Innovations (formerly the Center for Drug Research and Development or CDRD in Vancouver and the Neomed Institute in Montreal). She is also a BOD director of Dalcor, Find Therapeutics, Domain Therapeutics and Epitopea. Additionally, she is a member of Women Innovating Together in Healthcare (WITH), Women in BIO (WIB) and Reseau-ELLE. Dr. Rulleau holds a Ph.D. from the University of Montreal executed at Montreal Clinical Research Institute.

Michelle Savoie

Professor, Faculty of Pharmacy, Université de Montréal, and President, Consilio Manuque Inc.

Dr. Michelle Savoie has over 30 years experience in the life sciences and pharmaceutical sector including as the CEO, Montreal InVivo, the Montreal Life sciences cluster, from 2008-2015, where she was actively involved in the creation of the CQDM, the Quebec Personalized Healthcare Strategy, NEOMED, and the early phase clinical research known as Catalis Québec.  

She is a Professor of practical training at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Université de Montréal, and CEO, Consilio Manuque. Until 2021, she was also CEO of the Quebec Network for Personalized Healthcare. Michelle has held strategic positions at Schering Canada, Eli Lilly Canada and Bristol-Myers Squibb, and participated on several boards including those of the Comité d’investissement – Innovation et Capital de risque du Fonds de solidarité FTQ, Advisory board for the advancement of health, iQVIA, Quebec Network for Personalized Healthcare, Montréal InVivo, Personalized Medicine Partnership for Cancer and NEOMED.

A biochemist by training, Michelle also earned an MBA from Ottawa University, a Masters in Public Health from Boston University, a PhD in biomedical sciences from Université de Montréal, a Masters in Law and Health Policy from Université de Sherbrooke and holds the ICD.D certification from the Institute of Corporate Directors. 

Tim van Biesen 

Head of the Global Healthcare Practice, Bain & Company

Tim van Biesen is the head of Bain’s Global Healthcare Practice; he is based in the New York office. Tim was previously a senior scientist in neuroscience research at Abbott Laboratories. He has more than 20 years of consulting experience in the healthcare industry, and more than 10 years experience in scientific research. 

Tim’s areas of expertise span the full range of healthcare sub-sectors, including manufacturers, payers, providers and services – with differential expertise in medical devices and pharmaceuticals (branded and generic). He has helped clients develop corporate growth strategy, R&D strategy, brand sales & marketing strategy, licensing and acquisitions, post merger integration and, manufacturing and supply chain strategy.  In addition to his work with corporate clients, Tim plays an active role in the firm’s advisory work for private equity investors in the healthcare sector.

Dr. van Biesen has published more than 30 academic research papers in peer-reviewed journals including Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, and The Journal of Biological Chemistry – which have been cited >7000 times. He is an inventor on two patents covering four human genes (in neurological signaling) and has presented his research at international symposia.

He received his MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University and has a Ph.D. and B.Sc. in Molecular Microbiology from the University of Alberta. Tim conducted his post-doctoral fellowship at Duke University/Howard Hughes Medical Institute in the laboratory of Dr. Robert J. Lefkowitz, the 2012 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry.