Judy Blumstock
Founder & CEO, Diamond Therapeutics Inc.
Ms. Blumstock has over 25 years of venture capital and private equity experience, spanning early to late-stage investments in life sciences and biotechnology. She is currently founder and CEO of Diamond Therapeutics Inc. which is developing therapies for the treatment of mental health. Her prior experience includes over a decade with Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners (TIAP), formerly known as MaRS Innovation, most recently in the role of Executive Director, Corporate Development. TIAP specializes in venture building for early-stage health science technologies and takes leading-edge research from discovery to market. She was previously Principal with Genesys Capital, one of the largest Canadian-based venture-capital firms focused exclusively on the life sciences industry, and was a partner with RBC Capital Partners life sciences fund. Early in her career, Ms. Blumstock was the Director of Biological and Pharmaceutical Research at Drug Royalty Corporation (now DRI Capital Inc.), which provides financial solutions in exchange for royalties to health-related organizations worldwide. She is an advisor to the preclinical biotechnology company Bright Angel Therapeutics, and to Bitnobi, a privacy protected data sharing platform. Ms. Blumstock has an MBA in finance from Columbia Business School in New York. Her BSc in biology is from the University of Toronto.
Jessica Bowes, MSc
Assistant Vice-President Research, Innovation & Knowledge Mobilization, University of Guelph
With an entrepreneurial outlook and a genuine passion for supporting ground-breaking ideas, Jessica has more than 14 years’ experience in commercialization and knowledge mobilization positions in the food and agri-technology sector. She is currently Assistant Vice-President Research, Innovation & Knowledge Mobilization at the University of Guelph, with responsibility for innovation broadly across campus. She works closely with the greater community to grow and maintain strategic research alliances with private- and public-sector partners looking to innovate, enhance knowledge translation, foster social impact, and convert ideas and research into commercial opportunities. Her prior experience includes over a decade with Bioenterprise Corporation, a national agri-tech accelerator and innovation network, most recently in the role of VP, Commercialization. As a key member of Bioenterprise’s executive leadership team, Jessica led client services and adapted operations to support the evolving ag-based ecosystem. She has more than 10 years of experience in commercialization advisory services, creation and maintenance of strategic and collaborative stakeholder relationships, and impact reporting. Previously, Jessica has held positions focused on development and delivery of knowledge mobilization strategies, communications, and training of Highly Qualified Personnel through positions at the Schlegel-University of Waterloo Research Institute for Aging (Agri-food for Healthy Aging consortium) and MaRS Landing.
Jessica currently sits on the Board of Directors for BioTalent Canada. Previously, she had a seat on the Industry Advisory Committee for the Canadian Food & Wine Institute Technology Access Centre at Niagara College and has several years of experience as a review panelist for the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance.
Jessica holds a MSc in Human Health and Nutritional Sciences and a BSc in Biological Sciences, both from the University of Guelph. She is certified in Knowledge Translation and Transfer through a research-oriented program delivered by the University of Toronto and SickKids.
Kevin Canning, PhD
President KJC Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Consulting
Kevin has over twenty years of leadership and people-management experience in roles of increasing responsibility in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology incubator ecosystem. He has worked in, and led teams in, basic research and genetics, research alliances/scouting, venture capital, clinical research, statistics, epidemiology, data management, medical development, commercial assessment, medical affairs, outsourcing and contracts, strategy and operations.
Kevin holds a Ph.D. and an H.B.Sc. in Physiology, both from Western University. He holds an M.B.A. from the Ivey Business School, Western University and was recognized as an Ivey Scholar in this program.
Shane Climie, PhD
Principal, Popper and Company
Shane Climie, Ph.D. is a Principal with Popper and Company, which is focused on building life science organizations by meeting the needs of entrepreneurial, life science startups and the investors that support these early stage organizations. Popper and Co provides expertise in the areas of business management, marketing strategy and technology or opportunity assessment. Dr. Climie also serves as VP of Corporate Development for Cyclica Inc., as VP of Business Development for MedBiome Inc., and as a strategic advisor to other early-stage biotech companies. Dr. Climie has more than 30 years of R&D and business development experience in the life sciences and pharmaceutical industry. He has led research teams involved in all aspects of drug discovery and technology development, and has designed, negotiated and managed many R&D collaborations. He has extensive experience in technology evaluation, technology development and strategic planning. Prior to his current roles Dr. Climie held several positions at Protana (formerly MDS Proteomics) including Senior Vice President of Science Strategy and Business Development, Senior Vice-President of Research Collaborations, and Vice-President of Proteomics and Business Development. Dr. Climie was also co-founder, Vice-President and Chief Technology Officer of MDS Ocata and a Visiting Research Scientist at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute and he held several managerial positions at Allelix Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. including Principal Scientist. Dr. Climie did postdoctoral work at the University of California at San Francisco and received a Ph.D. in medical biophysics from the University of Toronto and a B.Sc. in biology from the University of Waterloo.
Roger Foxall, PhD
Life Science Strategies Inc., Surrey, BC
Roger obtained his B.Sc.(Eng.) at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London. He obtained his Ph.D. in Physics at the Cavendish Laboratory of the University of Cambridge, followed by postdoctoral studies at the University of Oxford. He moved to Ottawa in 1968 to take up a Research Officer position at the National Research Council. Following a series of assignments that prepared him for a career in research management, Roger became Director of the NRC Laboratory in Halifax in 1984 and was its Director General from 1990 until April 1998. Roger moved to British Columbia in July 1998, and established a consulting company focused on the life sciences. From August 2000 through January 2002 he served as the founding President and CEO of Genome British Columbia. Roger then served as Executive Vice President Research until December 2003 and Executive Vice President Corporate Development until August 2005. Roger is now CEO of Life Science Strategies Inc specializing in strategic analysis and advice regarding programs and projects in the genome sciences. Recent clients include Genome Canada and the genome centres in Alberta, Atlantic Canada, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario and the PROOF Centre for Excellence in Commercialization and Research.
Darlene Homonko, PhD
Director of the Office of Technology Transfer and Industry Liaison at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at the Sinai Health System
Dr. Homonko has over 20 years experience in life sciences commercialization. She is the Director of the Office of Technology Transfer and Industry Liaison at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at the Sinai Health System in Toronto, Ontario where she is actively engaged in supporting the translation and business development of new medical research technologies.
A natural at engaging people and developing partnerships, she spearheaded the formation of a vibrant bioscience cluster in Hamilton, Halton and Niagara as the Executive Director of the Golden Horseshoe Bioscience Network (GHBN) for five years.
Dr. Homonko began her career with Milestone Medica Corporation’s (MMC) an early stage Canadian Biomedical Venture Fund. She held the post of Director of Operations and Business Development for one of MMC’s companies – Molecular Templates Inc. (MTI), that was developing anti-cancer therapeutics from bacterial proteins. She has also been a Senior Industry Liaison Officer at the University of Toronto Innovations Foundation and Director of Business Development at Vineland Research an Innovation Centre.
In possession of a strong background in intellectual property management, technology evaluation and analyzing corporate research and development in commercial alliances for sound business practice, Dr. Homonko holds a Ph.D., Neuroscience from the University of Toronto, Institute of Medical Sciences; a M.Sc., Kinesiology from Dalhousie University; and a B.Sc., Physical Education, Health, General Science from the University of Rhode Island.
Mark Lundie
Director, Medical Affairs, Rare Diseases, Pfizer Canada Inc.
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.
Amie Phinney, PhD, MBA
Sr. Director, Program Development and Partnership, adMare BioInnovations
As the Sr. Director for the Program Development and Partnership team at adMare BioInnovations, Amie Phinney uses her biomedical research and business background to create and guide scientific collaborations toward scientific and investment readiness.
Prior to adMare, Amie was at Northwestern University in Chicago, where she led an academic-VC partnership. She executed the strategic vision for this research alliance, delivering funding objectives to launch the joint venture company, Lakeside Discovery. Amie went on to serve as the inaugural Chief Scientific Officer for Lakeside Discovery.
Prior to this, Amie gained extensive experience managing academic-industry alliances at Abbott and AbbVie Labs in Chicago. Most notably, holding key roles in the Cystic Fibrosis partnership that advanced multiple drugs from discovery through Phase 2, and the Abbive-Calico (Google) alliance, advancing multiple drug candidates through preclinical studies.
Amie first transitioned into pharma following post-docs at the University of Toronto and Free University of Amsterdam, as a Sr. Scientist at Solvay Pharmaceuticals in the Netherlands. After five years leading pre-clinical research teams she transitioned to specialize in managing partnered scientific teams.
Amie received her BSc at University of Guelph, her PhD in Biomedical Research at the University of Basel in Switzerland, and her MBA at Lake Forest Graduate School of Management in Chicago.
Suman Rao, PhD
Associate, Lumira Ventures
Suman Rao is an Associate at Lumira Ventures, a life-sciences focused venture capital firm headquartered in Toronto, ON. Suman joined the firm in 2021 and focuses on conducting scientific and technical diligence of investment opportunities primarily in the oncology, neuroscience and rare disease space. She remains extremely passionate about understanding drivers of complex diseases and through her work at Lumira Ventures, hopes to bring novel therapies to patients by supporting cutting-edge technologies and medicines.
Prior to joining Lumira Ventures, Suman worked in healthcare consulting at L.E.K. Consulting in Boston as a Senior Life Sciences Specialist. During her time at L.E.K., she worked with companies to provide strategic advice on growth opportunities, pipeline expansion, potential M&A partnerships and financial modeling. Her clients included start-ups, biotech and pharma companies developing cell & gene therapies, protein degraders, small molecules and RNA-based therapies within oncology, neurology, rare diseases and ophthalmology.
Before joining L.E.K., Suman spent 4 years doing a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Harvard Medical School and Dana Farber Cancer Institute. During this time, she worked with a multidisciplinary team to develop therapies to treat advanced cancers. She used small molecule inhibitors as chemical probes to interrogate signaling pathways and identified key targets to inhibit to achieve anti-tumor effects.
Suman has a PhD from the Division of Experimental Medicine and a BSc in Biochemistry from McGill University.
Jamie Stiff
Managing Director, Genesys Capital
Mr. Stiff joined Genesys Capital in 2002 and became Partner at the firm in 2007 and Managing Director in 2016. During his tenure with Genesys, he has been responsible for investments in twelve early stage portfolio companies that cross a multitude of clinical disciplines and technology areas. Current board affiliations include EBT Medical, Fairhaven Pharmaceuticals and Inversago Pharma. Past board affiliations include Allostera Pharma, gIcare Pharma, Interface Biologics, Matregen, Naurex (acquired by Allergan NYSE:AGN), NeurAxon, StemPath, Therapeutic Monitoring Systems and Zelos Therapeutics. Jamie also volunteers as a board member for BioteCanada, and an advisor to both the Ontario Genomics Institute (OGI) and the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM) and as an associate with Creative Destruction Lab (CDL).
Prior to joining Genesys, Mr. Stiff worked at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital in the genetic diagnostics field. This experience, combined with an academic background in biology, has provided significant technical knowledge of many areas of life sciences. Mr. Stiff completed a Bachelor of Science (Honours) from Queen’s University and an MBA from the Rotman School of Management.
Brian Underdown, PhD
Dr. Underdown has held senior positions as a scientist and executive at Toronto and McMaster Universities and organizations such as Sanofi-Pasteur and Lumira Capital. Throughout his career he has served as a consultant and board member of both private, public and non-profit organizations. In each of these roles, he has fostered collaboration among entrepreneurs and academics. He has stressed the importance of all members of the research community including students, scientists and individuals involved in the translation of science; cognisant of science as both a cultural and practical activity.
Joe Yun, Ph.D.
Joe has been passionate about collaborative innovation between academia and industry. While working for several global food companies, he led technical groups in product development, technology implementation, quality improvement, and cost optimization. He volunteered in industry associations and had opportunities to serve in leadership teams for Institute of Food Technologists, Ontario Food Protection Association, and Canadian Institute of Food Science & Technology.
He received BSc. in Food Science from U. of Guelph, MSc. in Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry from U. of Toronto, and Ph.D. in Food Science from Cornell U. He published 20 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals and shared research findings at international conferences.
He is grateful for previous appointments as visiting professor at U. of Buffalo, adjunct professor and lecturer at U. of Toronto, Dairy Centre industry advisor at Cornell U., and special graduate faculty at U. of Guelph. During that time, he fostered closer interactions between universities and companies, provided technical training for students and employees, and assisted in setting research priorities.