At Best Startup Canada we track over 100,000 Canadian startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top British Columbia based President operating in the Medical space. If you think a President is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.ca.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Surjit Dixit
Vice President Technology of Zymeworks
Dr. Dixit is Zymeworks’ Chief Technology Officer, responsible for the implementation of novel algorithms and advancement of the ZymeCAD™ platform. Prior to joining Zymeworks, Dr. Dixit was the coordinator of Computational Molecular Biophysics at Weselyan University, Connecticut, USA, where he was instrumental in the development of novel methods for management and mining of high throughput molecular dynamics simulation data.
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About Zymeworks: Zymeworks is a computational biotechnology company focused on optimizing therapeutic antibodies and other protein-based therapeutics.
Ali Tehrani
President & CEO of Zymeworks
Ali Tehrani is one of Zymeworks’ co-founders and currently serves as President and CEO of the company. He has been an integral part of many of the Company’s corporate achievements including raising seed and angel financing and overseeing the Company’s technical operations and patent filings. Dr. Tehrani has served on the MITACS Industrial Advisory Board, and BIOTECanada’s Industrial and Environmental Committee. Currently, he is a member of the Board of Directors of LifeSciences British Columbia and the Student Biotechnology Network.
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About Zymeworks: Zymeworks is a computational biotechnology company focused on optimizing therapeutic antibodies and other protein-based therapeutics.
Jeffrey Bacha
President & CEO/cofounder of Kintara Therapeutics
Jeffrey Bacha, BSc, MBA co-founded DelMar Pharmaceuticals in 2010 and has served as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Company’s board of directors since inception. Mr. Bacha is a seasoned executive leader with nearly twenty years of life sciences experience in the areas of operations, strategy and finance. His background includes successful public and private company building from both a start-up and turn around perspective; establishing and leading thriving management and technical teams; and raising capital in both the public and private markets. From July 2006 to August 2009, Mr. Bacha was Executive Vice President Corporate Affairs and Chief Operating Officer at Clera, Inc. From March 2005 to July 2006 Mr. Bacha was Consultant and held various positions at Clera Inc., Urigen Holdings Inc. and XBiotech, Inc. From 1999 through 2004, Mr. Bacha served as President & CEO of Inimex Pharmaceuticals, a venture-capital funded drug discovery and development company and is a former Senior Manager and Director of KPMG Health Ventures. Mr. Bacha holds an MBA from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University and a degree in BioPhysics from the University of California, San Diego.
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About Kintara Therapeutics: Kintara Therapeutics is engaged in developing and commercializing therapies for the treatment of cancer patients.
Fahar Merchant
President and CEO of Medicenna Therapeutics
Fahar Merchant is a 25-year biotech veteran, a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Medicenna. Previously he was President and CEO of Protox Therapeutics (TSX.V and TSX; now Sophiris Bio, Nasdaq) where he established a late clinical stage urology company. At Protox he raised more than $70M through multiple PIPEs, including a $35M investment by Warburg Pincus. In 1992 he co-founded IntelliGene Expressions, Inc., a biologics CDMO, and built it to one of the fastest growing companies in Canada. In 2000, by strategic in-licensing, he co-founded Avicenna Medica, Inc., a clinical stage oncology company that was sold a year later to KS Biomedix (LSE) for $90M. Fahar was CTO and Director of KS Biomedix until its acquisition by Xenova (Nasdaq and LSE; now Celtic Pharma). Fahar has closed several transactions valued at more than $300M. He has a PhD in Biochemical Engineering from Western University.
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About Medicenna Therapeutics: Medicenna is a clinical stage, privately held, immuno-oncology company.
Wade Attwood
President, Founder & Director of Green Mountain
Mr. Wade Attwood is President, co-founder and Director of GMHA. He is also a founder and director of General Harmonics, a private technology company. Prior to joining General Harmonics, Mr. Attwood worked as a Senior Advisor and Broker in the finance industry for 24 years at Canaccord Capital Corp. and Merrill Lynch Canada and its predecessors. Mr. Attwood has over 30 years of business experience and a history of successful ventures in public equity markets, private and public venture capital funding, initial public offerings, and corporate guidance and restructuring.
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About Green Mountain: Green Mountain is an innovator in the field of cannabis pharmaceutical and wellness products.
Barry Allen
Founder,CEO & President of Calgary Scientific
CEO of PureWeb Inc. (Formerly Calgary Scientific Inc.), Co-Founder and Chairman of Zolo. Prior to founding Zolo, Barry was active in the VC and Start-up community as Entrepreneur In Residence for Ventures West, Creative Destruction Labs Vancouver and Calgary, Founder of BC Excels Program and Accredited Lead Mentor for BC Innovation Council. The majority of his career was spent building high tech public companies including building VSM MedTech from 2 employees to 200 and $360mm market cap on the TSX.
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About Calgary Scientific, Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), Zolo Realty: Calgary Scientific develops web and mobile diagnostic medical imaging solutions and collaboration enablement technologies.
Mohammad Qadir
President and Chief Scientific Officer of Fusion Genomics Corporation
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About Fusion Genomics Corporation: Fusion Genomics develops highly sensitive and massively multiplex DNA/RNA sequencing based diagnostics for infectious diseases.
Nicole Ranger
Vice President of Engineering & Product Development of Pyng Medical
A Professional Engineer, Nicole brings over 17 years of experience in managing and developing product lines from concept to market, with over 9 years in the medical device industry. Since joining Pyng Medical, Nicole has led product development and enhancement projects, contributing significantly to Pyng Medical’s first reaching profitability. Prior to joining Pyng Medical, Nicole held R&D, engineering, project and product management roles in the medical device, sports equipment and bioengineer industries. She is responsible for developing over a dozen products now in the marketplace and is named in four patents. Nicole holds a Bachelor of Applied Science (Mechanical Engineering) from the University of Toronto as well as a Bachelor of Science (Honours Kinesiology) from the University of Waterloo.
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About Pyng Medical: Pyng Medical develops trauma and resuscitation products for the health care industry.
Iman Mansoor
Vice President of Engineering and Innovation of Microdermics
Iman has been involved in research and development of microneedles for more than 8 years. He received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering (mechatronics option) in 2007 and his master’s and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering in 2009 and 2014, respectively, from the University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, BC, Canada. He also received a sub-specialization certificate in Engineering Management and Technology Entrepreneurship in 2013 from UBC. Iman’s graduate research was in the field of Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) and mainly focused on process development and characterization of microneedle devices for intradermal drug delivery and biosensing applications. He currently holds a patent on the microneedle fabrication process developed during his graduate research. Since 2014, Iman has worked as Systems Consultant and Product Development Specialist in major engineering companies and has completed several successfully-commercialized projects. During this period, he has also been active in further development and commercialization of microneedle devices.
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About Microdermics: Unlocking continuous biochemical data for clinically relevant insights.
Sahan Ranamukhaarachchi
Co-founder, Vice President of Research & Development of Microdermics
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About Microdermics: Unlocking continuous biochemical data for clinically relevant insights.
Liren Tang
President & CEO of Welichem Biotech
Dr. Liren Tang has been the President and CEO of the Company since November 2009. From 2007-2009, as the Director of Clinical Development at the Company, Liren led a clinical research team to the successful completion of multiple clinical trials. With the compelling clinical data, the Company reached a successful partnering agreement for it’s lead immunology drug program (WBI-1001) with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) for a total price of up to $230 million dollars in the year 2012. Prior to joining Welichem, Liren was a principal or co-principal investigator at the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute for diverse scientific and clinical research projects addressing various aspects of inflammatory diseases and cancers. He is an author of over 30 peer-reviewed scientific publications. Liren received his PhD in Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of British Columbia.
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About Welichem Biotech: Welichem Biotech is a development stage biotechnology company, engages in the discovery and development of therapeutic drugs.
Michael Lyle
Vice President – Research and Development of Welichem Biotech
Dr. Lyle joined the company in 2006 as a medicinal chemist working on our early stage drug development programs in inflammatory diseases and cancer. From there he became the Head of Chemistry in 2008 and the VP of Research and Development in 2010. Dr. Lyle played an integral role in the development of WBI1001 and these efforts ultimately culminated in the $230M acquisition of WBI1001 by GSK in July 2012. Dr. Lyle holds a PhD in Chemistry from Simon Fraser University (SFU) and has authored numerous peer-reviewed scientific publications and patents.
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About Welichem Biotech: Welichem Biotech is a development stage biotechnology company, engages in the discovery and development of therapeutic drugs.
Ryan Anderson
Vice President of Sales & Marketing of OneTeamVisi
Ryan Anderson is a master of relationships with more than 10 years of experience in the direct sales industry. Ryan was exposed to the direct sales industry at a young age, having his mother as a major influence in his life. He has shared the dream and value of entrepreneurship in 22 international markets while serving in various sales, management, and executive roles with some of the biggest companies in the direct sales industry. He has a deep passion for helping others reach their potential and grow into the greatness they were born with. Ryan graduated from the University of Phoenix with a B.S. in Business Management and Marketing.
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About OneTeamVisi: Centered on the powerful benefits of Scandinavian nature including the Arctic Cloudberry.
Bruce Reese
Vice President of Finance of Apteryx Imaging
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About Apteryx Imaging: Apteryx Imaging develops tissue fluorescence visualization technologies.
Michael Checkley
President of QHR Corporation
Michael Checkley has been with QHR since April 2004. Mr. Checkley is an EMR subject matter expert and one of the co-founders and developers of QHR’s flagship Accuro EMR which has grown to be Canada’s leading EMR solution. Prior to his current position, he led the Product Management and Development areas and has been heavily engaged in all aspects of the EMR Division over his 10+ years at QHR. Mr. Checkley also has experience working with and mentoring technology start-ups.
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About QHR Corporation: QHR Corporation (QHR) is a publicly traded Canadian company (TSXV: QHR-V). QHR is proudly based in Kelowna,
Lisa Fraser
Founder, Designer & President of Snug Vest
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About Snug Vest: Snug Vest™is a safe & drug-free solution to ease anxiety, manage stress, and increase focus.
Kelly Crosby
President, Engineering of Cedar Biotech
Kelly Crosby – Founder – involvement in the air quality industry since the 1980’s, pioneering bio aerosols solutions for buildings. In 2007 with an approved Patent for diffuser and applications of “Cedar Oil Vapor”. J. Hudson Ph.D. – Headed Scientific Studies – Professor Emeritus Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine UBC, Vancouver is considered to be one of the foremost virologists in Canada. His experience includes researching viruses with humans, animals, fish and invertebrates; naturally occurring anti-viral and anti-microbial substances; molecular approaches to elucidating mechanisms of action of herbal medicines. His career in academia included assistant professor, UBC; department of microbiology & pathology. Publications include the Book of Antiviral Compounds from Plants as well as over 130 publications in peer-reviewed journals. Degrees he has earned include a BSc (chemistry/physiology), an MSc (biochemistry), a PhD (molecular biology) and post-doctoral fellow.
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About Cedar Biotech: The patented Cedar Biotech Deodorizer is engineered to retrofit to Commercial Buildings of Any Size, via the buildings HVAC or Air Handler.
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