Board of Directors

The primary mandate of Ontario Genomics’ Board of Directors is to provide strategic insight and operational governance. The Board comprises leaders from Ontario’s life science sector, including not for profit research and education institutions, pharmaceutical and biotechnology enterprises, financial entities, public policy centres, and government. Through quarterly meetings, the Board aims to fulfill Ontario Genomics’ guiding principle promoting world-class research, creating strategic genomics resources and advocating the development of a globally competitive life sciences sector. The Board members’ time and expertise are essential to our ongoing success and future direction, and we are grateful for their contributions.

Observers

  • Rob Annan (Observer)
  • Colleen Hogan (Observer)
  • Tanzeel Merchant (Observer)
  • Jehoshua Sharma (Student Representative Observer)

Deb Stark Vice Chair, University of Guelph and Former Deputy Minister of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA)

Dr. Deb Stark is the former Deputy Minister of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA). During her public service career, Deb held various senior leadership roles within OMAFRA and the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) including serving as Ontario’s first chief veterinary officer.
Deb has been a Trustee and Chair of the OPSEU Pension Trust (OPT), Chair of Hospice Wellington, and on the boards of the Veterinary Infectious Diseases Organization (VIDO), and the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA). Deb is currently on the boards of the Canadian Agriculture Policy Institute and the Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame Association. TOP

Nancy Carter Vice President, Legal and Corporate Governance of CANARIE Inc.

Nancy Carter is the Vice President, Legal and Corporate Governance of CANARIE Inc., a key partner in Canada’s National Research and Education Network. Nancy is responsible for legal matters, governance, risk management, compliance, and global projects, as well as aligning CANARIE’s equity, diversity, and inclusion goals with business outcomes. Nancy has been with the organization since 1997, and most recently served as CANARIE’s Chief Financial Officer for 15 years.
Nancy serves on the Board of Trustees of the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), chairing the Finance Committee, and is the former Treasurer of the Board of Directors for the Internet Society, Canada Chapter. Nancy has served on the CIRA NomCom, since 2018, acting as Chair since 2020. In addition, she has chaired the Steering Committee for the Canadian Internet Governance Forum since 2018. TOP

Tom Corr, DBA, MBA, ICD Former President and CEO, Ontario Centres of Excellence

Tom was previously the President and CEO of Ontario Centres of Excellence for 10 years. His background includes over 40 years of experience in the venture capital, start-up, technology transfer, entrepreneurship, and academic sectors. Tom is a leader in bridging together the worlds of entrepreneurship, academia, financing, and industry.
Prior to joining OCE in 2010, Tom was CEO of the Accelerator Centre and AVP – Commercialization at the University of Waterloo. Prior to joining the University of Waterloo, he served as Director of Technology Transfer at the University of Toronto – Innovations Foundation. Before joining the University of Toronto, he spent 25 years in the private sector as an entrepreneur and as an executive with several major international technology corporations.
He holds a Doctor of Business Administration degree from Henley Management College/Brunel University in England, an MBA from the University of Toronto, the ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors and an Advanced Post-Graduate Diploma in Management Consultancy from Henley Management College.
Tom currently also serves on the boards of C-FER Technologies (Alberta Innovates), Ontario Centre of Innovation, Tyromer Inc, Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Laboratory (SNOLAB) and AI Partnerships Corp.
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Stephen L. Cummings, B. Sc. (Econ.), CPA, CA, FCA (UK) CEO and General Managing Partner, Rizolve Partners

Stephen is CEO and General Managing Partner of Rizolve Partners, a strategic consulting practice advising clients on: value creating strategies where the establishment of profitable, sustainable growth is the imperative; and the planning for and execution of strategic transactions and liquidity events to realize value. The firm advises CEOs and other stakeholders of both public and private concerns and has conducted numerous consulting assignments advising on acquisitions, disposals, financings, reorganizations, turnarounds, strategic positioning and growth.
Stephen’s career has foundations as a financial expert where latterly it has been focussed within the investment industry. He has held leadership positions with top quartile performing Private Equity and Venture Capital firms investing institutional capital across the globe. Prior to that he was the CFO at a global publisher. He trained and qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Deloitte in London, UK.
Stephen is a member of the Board of Directors of Ontario Genomics and is Chairman of the audit committee.
Stephen received a B. Sc. in Economics with honors from the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom. He has international credentials being a qualified CPA, CA in Ontario and is an FCA in England and Wales. He is a member of the Canadian Venture Capital Association where he has held leadership positions and Financial Executives International.
He is also a sought after speaker who has spoken in Toronto and New York on Private Equity financing, valuation and International Financial Reporting Standards. TOP

Charmaine Dean, PhD Vice-President, Research and International at the University of Waterloo

Charmaine is Vice-President, Research and International at the University of Waterloo. In this role, she is focused on building upon foundational strengths to heighten the emphasis on collaborations, and link related external portfolios in a systematic approach to industrial partners and entrepreneurship. From 2011 to 2017, Dr. Dean served as Dean of Science at Western University. Prior to her service at Western, she played a major role in establishing the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University in her capacity of Associate Dean of that Faculty. Previously, she was the founding Chair of the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science at Simon Fraser University.
An engaged member of several relevant boards including, Compute Ontario, the Southern Ontario Smart Computing Innovation Platform, the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence and the Institute for Cybersecurity and Privacy, Dr. Dean has also served as a board member for the US National Institute of Statistical Sciences (NISS) Corporation, the National Institute for Complex Data Structures and the Canadian Statistical Sciences Institute. She is dedicated to developing outstanding computing capabilities for researchers and for building capacity in Canada and is interested in bringing together diverse communities to drive forward a unified direction for data management activities and priorities. TOP

Colin Kelleher CEO, Kelleher Group

Colin is a serial entrepreneur specializing in angel investing in early-stage technology start-ups. His current investments are in digital agriculture, e-retailing, energy informatics and analytics, medical devices and municipal water analytics, efficiency and compliance software.
His earlier deals included investments in energy optimization technology, sustainable water technology and asset management modelling sustainability software for municipalities and utilities.
Colin was a partner and Chief Financial Officer of the Helyar Group, a leader in development cost management consulting. In 2005, he co-led the merger of the Helyar Group, the Altus Group and one other company to create one of the largest most comprehensive real estate consulting firms in North America. Subsequently, as co-lead, Colin took the new entity public on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Colin holds a Bachelor of Science in Surveying from Trinity College and a Diploma in Construction Economics from Bolton Street College of Technology, both in Dublin, Ireland.
He is also a LEED-certified professional (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and a member of the global Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
Colin also graduated from the executive program at Singularity University, where he received the Singularity Prototype Challenge Award for his presentation on “Buildings of the Future”. TOP

Mark Lundie, PhD Vice President & Global Medical Lead, Rare Endocrinology and Neurology, Pfizer Inc

Dr. Mark Lundie is currently the Director of Medical Affairs, Rare Diseases, with Pfizer Canada Inc. He received a Bachelor’s of Science from the University of Waterloo ((1986) followed by a MSc from Queen’s University (1989) and a doctorate degree from Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology at Queen’s University in 1995. He joined the pharmaceutical industry with Pfizer Canada in 1997 and over the past 22 years has held a number of positions of within the Pfizer Canada Medical Division. He currently serves on the Board of Directors at Clinical Trials Ontario, the Center for Probe Development & Commercialization and Ontario Genomics. Mark has supported the development of public-private partnerships with a number of research based institutes such as the Ontario Institute of Cancer Research, the Structural Genomics Consortium, MaRS Innovation and the Center for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine. TOP

Alex MacKenzie, M.D., PhD Senior Scientist, CHEO Research Institute Professor of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa

Dr. Alex MacKenzie, an attending pediatrician at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) has served as the CEO and Science Director of the CHEO Research Institute as well as Vice President of Research for both CHEO and Genome Canada in addition to being founding scientist of the AeGera biotech company. Dr. MacKenzie’s laboratory has conducted translational research on the rare pediatric disorder spinal muscular atrophy over the past 25 years; in recent years has broadened its focus with its involvement in the enhance Care for Rare project to search for therapies for a larger number of rare diseases. TOP

Benjamin Rovinski, PhD Managing Director, Lumira Ventures

Dr. Benjamin Rovinski has 28 years of investment, operational, managerial and research experience in the healthcare sector. Beni joined Lumira Ventures in 2001, where he is a Managing Director, with an investment focus on early-to late-stage private and public life sciences companies. With a proven track record of delivering results both as a senior scientist and a business executive, Beni has held several senior management positions in the biotechnology sector, including 13 years at Sanofi Pasteur (formerly Aventis Pasteur) where he was a senior scientist and director of molecular virology, with a particular focus in the areas of virology, vaccine development, recombinant protein production, and functional genomics. While at Aventis, Beni led global research and development programs in the areas of HIV/AIDS and therapeutic cancer vaccines, bringing several of them through to clinical stage.
Beni received a PhD in biochemistry from McGill University in Montréal and did post-doctoral studies in molecular oncology and retrovirology at the Ontario Cancer Institute in Toronto. He obtained his undergraduate degree from Rice University in Houston. Beni’s current and past board roles and investment responsibilities include several private and public companies, including G1 Therapeutics (NASDAQ: GTHX); Aurinia Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AUPH); Vascular Pharmaceuticals; KAI Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Amgen); Morphotek (acquired by Eisai); Cervelo Pharmaceuticals; Health Hero Network (acquired by Bosch); Avalon Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AVRX; acquired by Clinical Data, Inc.); Inovise Medical, Inc.; Protana; Signature Biosciences; and SGX Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SGXP; acquired by Eli Lilly). He also serves on the board of directors of Life Sciences Ontario and the advisory board of the TO Health! industry-led initiative to promote the profile of the Toronto region’s Human Health & Sciences cluster. Beni has published over 25 scientific articles and reviews and is the recipient of 32 issued patents. TOP

Alison Sunstrum Founder/CEO of CNSRV-X Inc.

Alison Sunstrum is Founder/CEO of CNSRV-X Inc. (Conserve X), a Canadian company researching and applying emerging technology in agriculture.
Alison is a Venture Partner at Builders VC, a San Francisco/Calgary based venture capital fund investing in founders re-imagining large underinvested, antiquated industries. She is an investment committee member of The51. The51 is creating a critical mass of female-powered capital investing in women-led companies.
Formerly as Co-CEO/Founder of GrowSafe Systems Ltd., she grew their research and development skunkworks from an Alberta garage to global operations receiving International recognition for science-based innovation. GrowSafe developed a technology platform that continuously acquired data from individual animals and their environment, improving profitability and reducing livestock production’s carbon footprint. Previously, Alison led the development of one of Canada’s first electronic data interchange projects with a Canadian railroad.
Alison holds patents for innovative technology and has presented widely on Big Data, the Internet of Livestock Things, and commercializing early-stage technology ventures. She is a member of the Agri-Food Innovation Council, the Canadian Council of Innovators, the Canadian Institute of Corporate Directors, and a former member of Canada’s economic strategy table. In 2021, she was named one of the “Top 50 In Canadian Agriculture”. TOP

Ann Marie Vaughan, Ed. D. President and CEO, Loyalist College

Ann Marie Vaughan was appointed President and CEO of Loyalist College in 2016.
Dr. Vaughan has 29 years of professional experience in higher education. She was the President and Chief Executive Officer of the College of the North Atlantic, located in Newfoundland and Labrador, from 2011-2016. The College consists of 17 campuses, an annual budget of $140 million, 9,000 full and part-time students, 17,000 continuing education students and 1,200 employees. Dr. Vaughan was also responsible for College of the North Atlantic Qatar (CNAQ) operations, the second largest post-secondary institution in Qatar and the largest post-secondary international contract for any Canadian post-secondary institution. CNAQ is home to approximately 3,000 students, 500 Canadian hire faculty/staff and an annual budget of $150M CDN. Throughout her professional career she has been engaged in international development projects.
Dr. Vaughan has held positions at Memorial University; the Marine Institute of Memorial University; the National Research Council; the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency; and the Human Resources Development Canada (now Service Canada).
Ann Marie has been honoured internationally for her contributions to distance education and educational technology and was chosen as a participant in the 2004 Governor General Canadian Leadership Conference. She was recognized as a Top 50 CEO in Atlantic Canada in 2015.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Education from Memorial University; certificates in Public Administration and Business from Memorial University; a Master of Arts in Higher Education from the University of British Columbia, and a Masters certificate in Project Management from York University/Memorial University. Continuing on her lifelong learning journey, in 2015 Ann Marie received her doctorate in higher education leadership from the University of Calgary.
Since coming to Belleville, Ann Marie continues to be active in her field as Chair of the Management Board for College Employers Council and International Chair of Entrepreneurship with World Federation of Colleges and Institutes. Closer to home, she serves as a Rotarian and as Secretary of Rotary Music Festival, on the Board of the Belleville Chamber of Commerce and President of Quinte Figure Skating Club. She is a certified Skate Canada judge.
On April 11, 2018, Dr. Vaughan was appointed to serve as an Honorary Colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force and is affiliated with 426Training Squadron, 8 Wing, CFB Trenton. TOP

Alan E. Winter, PhD Former BC Innovation Commissioner

Dr. Alan Winter was appointed as BC’s Innovation Commissioner from 2018 to 2020.
Alan has wide experience at senior levels in the technology sector and in government, including such roles as the President and CEO of Genome BC from 2001 to 2016, the founding President and CEO of the New Media Innovation Centre in Vancouver, the President of the ComDev Space Group in Ontario, and the President and CEO of MPR Teltech Ltd. in Vancouver. During his tenure as CEO, six companies were spun out of MPR, including PMC-Sierra and Sierra Wireless.
Prior to MPR, Alan worked for Telesat Canada, and the federal Communications Research Centre in Ottawa where he was responsible for the satellite search and rescue project (SARSAT). The international COSPAS/SARSAT system operates today and has been instrumental in saving over 35,000 lives.
Alan is currently a member of UBC’s Research and Innovation Council. He is a director of the Centre for Innovation and Clean Energy, Oceans Network Canada, and the Victoria Hospitals Foundation. In 2007, he received a Leadership Award from LifeSciences BC, and in 2017 he received the Don Rix Award for Lifetime Achievement. He has been a director of over 30 organizations. In 2017, he also received the Bill Thompson Lifetime Achievement Award from the BC Technologies Industries Association (BC TIA).
On the federal side, he was Chair of the board of the Communications Research Centre (CRC), Deputy Chair of the Council of Science and Technology Advisors (CSTA), and a member of the Expert Panel on Research Performance and Science Funding, Council of Canadian Academies.
Alan is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (FCAE) and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (FAAAS). He is a Fellow of the Canadian Astronautics and Space Institute (FCASI) and received their inaugural Alouette team Award. Dr. Winter received his Ph.D. from Queen’s University at Kingston, Ontario and was recognized by the Queen’s alumni Legacy of Achievement. TOP

Jehoshua Sharma BSc., PhD Co-founder and Director of Operations, cGEM

Jehoshua Sharma is a PhD student from Trinidad and Tobago, currently at the University of Guelph in Ontario. He is studying the fungal pathogen Candida albicans in the lab of Dr. Rebecca Shapiro. His current research focus is on the discovery of compounds that can either enhance the activity of known drugs or that can disarm the pathogen of the virulence mechanisms that make them harmful to the human host. He is also developing novel CRISPR-Cas variants to expand the current genetic manipulation toolbox for fungal pathogens to study the functional genomics of drug resistant isolates. For his work in the Shapiro lab he has won the ‘CBS, Best Paper’ award for his CRISPRi system, the International Doctoral Scholarship and multiple grants.
Jehoshua has established iGEM Guelph in 2016, an undergraduate-led synthetic biology research group. As Director of Research, he led the team to win a Gold Medal at the 2019 iGEM Jamboree in Boston for creating a cost-effective antibiotic biosensor for small-scale farmers. He also co-founded cGEM, a Canadian-wide initiative that brings together research groups across Canada tasked with using synthetic biology to solve real-world problems. His aims with these groups are to give students access to the tools that they need to conduct research independently and communicate their research on a wider scale to the public. Partnered with Synbio Canada and CSBERG, he works to transform the synthetic biology landscape in Canada through focusing investment into trainee knowledge.
Through talks, panels and outreach events, Jehoshua has made it clear that a significant aspect of his work is scientific communication. Recently he also holds a position at his University’s Molecular and Cellular Biology department as the graduate representative on the equity, diversity and inclusion committee. Here, he advocates for changes that promote the presence of BIPOC researchers through changing recruitment, hiring and funding policies. TOP