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 Health Care 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.
Betsabeh Madani
Vice-President, Strategy and Business Development of Equicare Health
Betsabeh’s professional focus is centered on creating mutually beneficial partnerships leading to the next wave of innovation commercialization. In her current role as the VP of Strategy and Business Development at Equicare Health, she oversees the company’s strategic positioning, partnerships, and growth across new and existing verticals. Previously at Cerner Corporation, she navigated cross-functional collaborations within the healthcare delivery arena, with strategy ventures covering predictive analytics, revenue cycle, and population health programs. Her career spans operations at a start-up biotechnology company, scientific research in academia, medical devices, and innovation commercialization at Mitacs. Outside of work, she mentors graduate students and women in STEM, judges engineering design competitions and enjoys learning about the latest scientific discoveries. Betsabeh holds an Honors Bachelors in Physics and Biochemistry from the University of Victoria, a Masters in Bio-Mechanical Engineering from the University of British Columbia and an MBA from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business.
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About Equicare Health: Equicare Health is the industry’s leading provider of comprehensive care coordination software that improves clinical outcomes for patients.
Patrick L McGeer
Founder,President & CEO of Aurin Biotech
Dr. Patrick McGeer is a professor emeritus in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia (UBC). He received his PhD in chemistry at Princeton University and his MD at UBC. In between he worked for the DuPont Company in Wilmington, Delaware where he met his wife, Dr. Edith McGeer. Dr. McGeer is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Royal Society of Canada and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada and a member of the Order of British Columbia. He has repeatedly served on scientific review panels for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and on advisory boards for the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation and the Canadian societies for Parkinson’s disease, ALS and multiple sclerosis. For many years, he combined his scientific career with politics, serving in the British Columbia Legislature from 1962 to 1986, and in the British Columbia Cabinet from 1975 to 1986. In Government, he worked to promote the development of high technology industry in the province, and also served as President and Chairman of the Board of the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, and on the Board of the British Columbia Hydro and Power authority, The British Columbia Petroleum Corporation, and the British Columbia Systems Corporation. He is the Founder of two charitable foundations, the Pacific Alzheimer Research Foundation, and the Canadian Dementia Action Network. Dr. McGeer is the author of more than 680 scientific papers and 8 patents. With his wife Edith and Nobel Laureate Sir John Eccles, he is an author of two scientific textbooks and is the editor of 3 others. Dr. McGeer is the recipient of four honorary degrees and is recognized as one of the world’s most highly cited neuroscientists.
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About Aurin Biotech: Aurin Biotech Inc. is a private company established to advance the development of a remarkable collection of small molecules.
Edith G. McGeer
Foounder,Vice President & Director of Aurin Biotech
Dr. Edith McGeer is a professor emerita in the Faculty of Medicine at University of British Columbia (UBC). She is the former director of the Kinsmen Laboratory of Neurological Research at UBC. She received her BA from Swarthmore College and her PhD in chemistry from the University of Virginia at the age of 22. She worked for the DuPont Company in Wilmington, Delaware, winning three patents and a citation from the Delaware section of the American Chemical Society before moving with her husband to UBC’s medical school. She has served on the editorial boards of 15 international journals in the neuroscience field. She has recently been on numerous scientific review boards, particularly for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States, and was one of the initial members of the Executive Committee of the World Federation of Neurology Group on the Dementias. She is an Officer of the Order of Canada, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a member of the Order of British Columbia and the recipient of three honorary degrees. She is the author of 525 scientific articles, 10 patents, an author of the textbook Molecular Neurobiology of the Mammalian Brain with her husband Dr. Patrick McGeer and Sir John Eccles. The McGeers were both original members of the Highly Cited Researchers database of the ISI, being among the world’ top 100 most highly cited neuroscientists.
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About Aurin Biotech: Aurin Biotech Inc. is a private company established to advance the development of a remarkable collection of small molecules.
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.
Jeff Collins
Vice President & General Manager Retail of Nautilus
Jeff Collins was named Vice President, General Manager Retail in November 2015 and was named an officer in February 2014. In this role, he is responsible for the Retail Channel’s global strategy and direction, along with managing both the domestic and international Retail Sales teams. He joined Nautilus in August 2013. Jeff Collins’ prior experience includes more than 20 years of sales and marketing experience in the consumer goods business segment. Prior to joining Nautilus, he held various senior sales and marketing positions with Pepsico, Pepsi Bottling Group, Handleman Co., Dyson Ltd., Halo Technologies, Techtronic Industries and Oreck Corporation. Jeff Collins attended both Grand Valley State University and Western Michigan University. Leveraging his prior experience and success in both the U.S. and international markets will support our strategic initiative to further grow the Retail Channel.
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About Nautilus: Nautilus markets a complete line of innovative health and fitness products through direct and retail channels.
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.
Alistair Duncan
Co-Founder, President & CEO of viDA Therapeutics
Alistair Duncan, B.Sc., C.A. Co-founder of the Company in 2008 Alistair Duncan serves as President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Company. From 2009 to present, Alistair Duncan was co-founder, Director, and has served as interim Chief Financial Officer for Agrisoma Biosciences Inc., a company building a high performance crop seeds business for the development of new genetically modified crops for renewable fuels. From 1998 to 2008, Alistair Duncanwas President and CEO of Chromos Molecular Systems Inc., where he was also a co-founder and Director. Prior to that, he was a Principal with the Ernst & Young Corporate Finance and International Life Sciences Group where he provided high technology and life sciences companies with corporate advisory services in strategic planning, valuations, financing, divestitures, and mergers and acquisitions. Currently, Alistair Duncan also serves as a director on the board of Metro Vancouver Properties Corp. Alistair Duncan is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia and holds a B.Sc. in Biochemistry from the University of British Columbia.
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About viDA Therapeutics: viDA Therapeutics is a Canada-based biotech company that develops treatments for chronic inflammatory and age-related diseases.
Craig Goodwin
Founder, President and Director of Naturally Splendid Enterprises Ltd.
Craig Goodwin has over 30 years of sales and marketing experience including Senior Account Executive for one of the largest outdoor advertising companies in the world, The Jim Pattison Sign Group. While with The Jim Pattison Sign Group, Craig was one of the most successful sales executives in Western Canada and received numerous awards for outstanding achievements. Craig held the position of Western Regional Manager for a grass roots division of the Jim Pattison Group, Kimberlite, focusing on electronic outdoor advertising. The groundwork and forward thinking vision established in part by Mr. Goodwin can now be seen in the way of large electronic advertising boards at major thoroughfares around Greater Vancouver. In addition to sales and marketing Craig has consulted for a number of public companies providing services from Investor Relations to raising Venture Capital.
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About Naturally Splendid Enterprises Ltd.: A multifaceted biotech company spanning many industries surrounding hemp. People, Planet, & Profit!
R. Lee Buckler
President & CEO, Director of RepliCel Life Sciences
Lee is Managing Director of and a consultant the Cell Therapy Group.Lee is the founder and managing director of Cell Therapy Group – a leading, boutique consultancy focused on the cell therapy and regenerative medicine industry.Through CTG Lee works with companies of all sizes to help position them in the cell therapy regenerative medicine space by focusing on business development including strategy development, competitive intelligence, market research and analysis, deal-making, marketing and communications, profile-building, sale-lead generation, etc. The core value Lee brings to CTG and its clients is a rare breadth of understanding of the entire spectrum of the cell therapy and regenmed industries primarily around who is doing what with whom. This knowledge of the industry players, what they have, and with whom they are working is both driven by and drives his proprietary industry database. Additionally, Lee leverages for his clients the relationships he has with executives in many of those companies. Since early 2000, Lee has been an executive in the cell therapy regenerative medicine industry. He has significant experience in both for-profit companies and non-profit organizations including Progenitor Cell Therapy, Malachite Management, Stem Cell Technologies, and the International Society for Cellular Therapy. Before transitioning to biotech, Lee earned a law degree (cum laude) and was a practicing commercial attorney for several years.Lee founded Cell Therapy News, created Cell Therapy Blog where he continues to blog, and serves on the Editorial Board of the journals BioProcess International and Regenerative Medicine. Lee founded and served as Chair of ISCT’s Cell Therapy Commercialization Committee (2006-9), founded and administers the LinkedIn Cell Therapy Industry Group, and has served as an advisor to dozens of groups and projects in the regenerative medicine space. He is a frequently invited speaker and moderator at conferences in the industry. Recent publications include a book chapter entitled, “State of the Regenerative Medicine Industry” in The Delivery of Regenerative Medicines and Their Impact on Healthcare (CRC Press) and “Opportunities in Regenerative Medicine: The Global Industry and Market Trends” in BioProcess International, March 2011 Supplement.
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About RepliCel Life Sciences, Restructur Advisors: RepliCel Life Sciences is a regenerative medicine company using cell therapy products for healing tendinosis, aging, and pattern baldness.
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.
Paul Landry
Senior Vice President – Redevelopment of Providence Healthcare
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About Providence Healthcare: Providence Healthcare is a leader in providing rehabilitation, palliative care, long-term care and community programs.
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,
Frederick Sancilio
Chairman, President and CEO of Sancilio and Company
Frederick D. Sancilio is the Principle and Co-Founder of Sancilio and Company.
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About Sancilio and Company: Sancilio and Company develops biopharmaceutical supplements and products.
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.
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