Sign up for free THTR email newsletter
The Healthcare Technology Report is pleased to announce The Top 25 Healthcare Technology Leaders of Montreal for 2022. Montreal is one of the east coast’s leading life sciences regions and has seen a boom in the sector recently thanks in part to a large talent pool, driven by its eight universities and three engineering schools, and significant private and public funding for research and innovation. The leaders on this year’s list and their companies have made the most of this prime location, developing revolutionary solutions across a range of specialties from proteomics to immunology, cannabis, consumer medical devices, and imaging software, among many others.
Some of the distinguished leaders on this year’s list include CEO of Medicom Group Guillaume Laverdure, who led his company's transformation to masks and N95 respirators and oversaw the opening of six new personal protective equipment production facilities on three continents during the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, Co-Founder and CEO Eric Simoneau’s Motion Composites has developed innovative, award-winning high-performance manual wheelchairs that provide users with enhanced mobility and unparalleled quality. And Valeo Pharma’s CEO, Steve Saviuk, has transformed his company from its early years as an in-licensor of established brands to a fast-growing, full-service Canadian pharmaceutical company.
The leadership positions held by this year’s awardees run the gamut, from CEO and COO to CFO, CTO, and SVP. What they have in common is their demonstrated commitment to improving the lives of patients in the Montreal area and beyond through the innovation of unparalleled technologies in the healthcare space. Please join us in celebrating The Top 25 Healthcare Technology Leaders of Montreal for 2022.
1. Martin LeBlanc Company: CellCarta Title: Chief Executive Officer
Martin LeBlanc joined Great Point Partners’ CEO Advisory Board in 2012 and is currently on the board of Softbox Systems, a GPP II portfolio company. He was previously a board member of Cytovance Biologics, a GPP I portfolio company. LeBlanc is the current Chief Executive Officer of CellCarta, the company formed from the 2019 merger of Caprion Biosciences and HistoGeneX. GPP invested in Caprion in 2007 and sold it in 2012. During the GPP investment period and while LeBlanc was CEO, Caprion grew from around $100,000 of EBITDA in 2007 to nearly $9 million of EBITDA in 2012. Today, CellCarta is the leader in providing proteomics and immune monitoring services to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
Prior to Caprion, LeBlanc began his professional career as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company. He then initiated his career as a biotech entrepreneur at Advanced Bioconcept, initially as Vice-President of Sales & Marketing and then as General Manager following the company's acquisition by NEN Life Sciences (now part of Perkin-Elmer). LeBlanc earned his bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Moncton prior to completing his MA in economics and politics at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.
2. Guillaume Laverdure Company: Medicom Group Title: Chief Executive Officer
A native of France, Guillaume Laverdure is a graduate of HEC Paris and Harvard Business School. He joined Medicom in 2009 following an international career in Europe and the United States in finance, operations, and general management. He led the company's transformation to masks and N95 respirators and oversaw the opening of six new personal protective equipment production facilities on three continents during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Medicom’s previous founder, Guillaume embodies the competency and humanity one would expect in a leader. Medicom is at a pivotal point in its journey where Guillaume will take the company to the next level.
Medicom was founded in 1988 in response to the urgent need for medical gloves for healthcare professionals during the global HIV crisis. Since then, the company has evolved to become one of the world’s leading manufacturers and distributors of high-quality, single-use, infection prevention and control (IPC) products for the medical, dental, lab and research, industrial, animal health, retail, and health and wellness markets. Medicom has been a reliable supplier of IPC solutions during multiple epidemics, including avian flu, SARS, H1N1, and Ebola, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, and was named one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies in 2021 and 2022.
Today, the Medicom Group distributes infection control products under the Medicom, Ritmed, Kolmi, Hopen, Ocean Pacific, and Hedy brands. Medicom subsidiaries include Kolmi-Hopen in France, Medicom Asia in Hong Kong, United Medical Enterprise in the U.S., KHM Engineering in Singapore, and Medicom HealthPro Limited in the U.K.
3. Lloyd Segal Company: Repare Therapeutics Title: President and Chief Executive Officer
Lloyd M. Segal has served as Repare Therapeutics’ President and Chief Executive Officer and as a member of its board of directors since its incorporation in 2016. From 2010 to 2016, he was a Managing Partner with Persistence Capital Partners, a Canadian-based healthcare private equity investor. Previously, Segal was a consultant with McKinsey & Company and served as CEO of several emerging biotechnology companies including Advanced Bioconcept Inc., Caprion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (now CellCarta), which he co-founded, and Thallion Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Segal serves as a member of the board of directors of GBC American Fund, a U.S.-based, growth-focused mutual fund, and of Aktis Oncology, a private developer of oncology radiopharmaceuticals. He also previously served as Chairman of LMC Diabetes & Endocrinology, Canada’s leading national endocrinology practice. From 2016 to 2020, Segal served as Entrepreneur-in-Residence with Versant Ventures. He was honored in 2013 by the Financial Times as Outstanding Director of the Year for public companies and also previously served on the boards of directors of several public and private U.S. and Canadian companies. Segal received an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in politics from Brandeis University.
4. Michel Dulong Company: Dulong Medtech Title: President and Chief Executive Officer
Michel Dulong has been in the service of healthcare professionals since 1993. Serving the public and private sectors of the Canadian health care system with medical equipment and specialized products since the 1990s, Dulong and his team have been working to gain and maintain the trust of their clients through a range of innovative and high quality products. Based on his convictions, Dulong aspires to continue to stand out as a business model, combined with a rigorous follow-up on the service offered, benefiting from an enviable reputation and the confidence of healthcare professionals.
With innovation at the heart of its actions, Dulong Medtech makes sure to follow the evolution of market trends by ensuring that it goes above all the needs and requirements of the market. This is why, since the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Michel Dulong has been looking for the best solutions to take part in the fight against the coronavirus. In addition to the company’s specialized products in ENT, urology, general surgery, and more, it is now a distributor of Industrie ORKAN’s Épurair products with HEPA filters and of Pura Air's portable and centralized medical grade air purification systems. Knowing that COVID-19 is spread by air, Dulong’s ventilation products and air purifiers are among the most effective in limiting its spread, as well as that of other viruses that are transmitted in this way.
5. Idriss Saiah Company: Immuni T Title: President and Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Idriss Saiah is the President and Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of Immuni T, a leading provider of immunology services including innate and adaptive immune responses. Prior to Immuni T, Dr. Saiah worked in the gastroenterology division of Sainte-Justine Hospital for almost 20 years and the microbiology/immunology department of the University of Montreal. He managed and collaborated with teams of researchers and administrators through project planning, funding, research, and development. Dr. Saiah’s research interests included basic and clinical aspects of immuno-oncology, autoimmune, and inflammatory diseases. He also has experience in the analysis of clinical data in correlation with genetic profiles (HLA genes) and in experimental autoimmunity including human autoantibodies, autoreactive T cells, and the production of transgenic mouse models for understanding the pathogenic mechanisms of immune tolerance and autoimmunity.
Over the course of his career, Dr. Saiah has published several articles and book chapters in prestigious journals, and he has been on numerous scientific review panels. He has consistently been active in the field and is now working at using his knowledge about drugs, medical devices, and biotherapeutics to aid in the development of therapeutic programs for immune conditions including via vaccines and oncology. Dr. Saiah earned his PhD in immunology from Paris – XI University and INSERM U25 (Necker Hospital, Paris) and his works on the immune system were at the forefront for the development of new strategies in immune therapies including DNA vaccines.
6. Nicholas Sosiak Company: Cannara Biotech Title: Chief Financial Officer
Nicholas Sosiak is a Canadian entrepreneur and chartered professional accountant. In 2021, he became the Chief Financial Officer of Cannara Biotech. Sosiak (birth name Nikola Dank Sosiak), also known as Niko Dank, has been an instrumental contributor to Cannara and its brands Tribal, Nugz, and Orchid CBD through his passion for cannabis and both its recreational and therapeutic benefits. He is responsible for overseeing the company's finances and treasury and is a key creator for all other facets of the company from genetic selection, marketing and branding, product formulation, sales, and investor and public relations.
Previously, Sosiak worked in auditing at KPMG LLP and Ernst & Young. Later, he accepted a position as Vice President of Finance and Accounting for Dundee 360 Real Estate Corporation, a subsidiary of Dundee Corporation and a publicly traded company listed on the TSX. While at Dundee 360, Sosiak played a key role in many large-scale real estate developments worldwide including the Parq Vancouver, BC; the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto, Ontario; the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth in Montreal, Quebec; as well as other major real estate deals. He received his bachelor’s degree from Concordia University with a major in accounting and a minor in marketing and then went on to earn a graduate diploma in public accountancy from McGill University.
7. Eric Simoneau Company: Motion Composites Title: Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
When Chief Executive Officer Eric Simoneau and his co-founder of Motion Composites, David Gingras, began the process of designing a better manual wheelchair, they recognized that the “lightweight” manual wheelchairs at the time were heavy and inefficient. They knew that these wheelchairs restricted the quality of life and lifestyle of most people who used them. Aiming to create a clean-sheet design for the “perfect wheelchair,” the founders assembled a diverse team of aerospace engineers, clinicians, and industrial designers to produce a highly responsive and efficient, truly lightweight manual wheelchair. The team used high-end materials, advanced technology, and leading-edge engineering to launch Motion Composites’ first Helio wheelchair in 2008.
According to the company, the Helio “revolutionized how people think about wheelchairs.” Since then, Motion Composites has continued to develop innovative, high-performance manual wheelchairs that provide users with enhanced mobility. The company recently won a Red Dot Design Award, an international product design prize awarded by the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen (Essen, Germany), for its Veloce wheelchair (a lightweight, foldable wheelchair). Motion Composites, which also won a Red Dot award in 2017 for its Apex wheelchair, said in a press release that the latest award is “further testament” to the company’s “focus on designing wheelchairs with unparalleled quality and aesthetics.”
Many wheelchair users fear adjustability, especially with foldables, because it can often lead to looseness in their chair over time, the company said. The Veloce, however, addresses this issue by using high-quality components that are reported to provide the user with precise adjustability and sustained stability. Most of the company’s wheelchair models are made of carbon fiber, a material that provides an exceptional strength-to-weight ratio and is often used in the aerospace and automotive markets.
8. Steve Saviuk Company: Valeo Pharma Title: Chief Executive Officer
Steve Saviuk started his career in accounting at KPMG. He quickly moved to venture capital investing through Manitex Capital Inc., a TSXV-listed company he co-founded over 30 years ago, and which still actively invests in emerging companies with a focus on the life sciences, renewable energy, and sustainable resource sectors. Saviuk is President and CEO of Manitex Capital inc.
Saviuk co-founded Valeo Pharma in 2003 and has since served as its President and CEO. He transformed Valeo Pharma from its early years as an in-licensor of established brands to a fast growing full service Canadian pharmaceutical company and was also instrumental in the sale of certain assets to Valeant Canada. In addition to Saviuk’s executive management experience, he is well acquainted with key corporate governance issues, having served on numerous boards of both public and private companies. Saviuk holds a Bachelor of Communications in business from Concordia University.
9. Bruno Mader Company: JAMP Pharma Group Title: President and Chief Operating Officer
Bruno Mäder is the President and Chief Operating Officer of JAMP Pharma Group. The JAMP Pharma Group is a privately owned Québec company headquartered in the Montréal area. Having enjoyed remarkable growth over the past 10 years, JAMP is present in all segments of the pharmaceutical market. The group has a portfolio of close to 270 generic molecules and leads the Canadian pharmaceutical industry in terms of new generic product launches based on Health Canada approvals from January to December 2019. It also ranks among the country’s top companies in terms of annual prescription volume according to IQVIA. Mäder initially joined the JAMP Pharma Group in 2019 as Managing Director of the Orimed Pharma subsidiary, which specializes in commercializing branded products in Canada. In his role as President and COO, he retains full responsibility for Orimed Pharma in addition to overseeing the JAMP Pharma Group operations as well as its biosimilar portfolio.
Mäder has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for almost 30 years. Before joining JAMP, he was Vice-President of Market Access and Head of the Biosimilar and Diversified Brands Business Unit at Merck Canada. Prior to this role, he held several positions at Schering-Plough and at Merck when the two companies merged. While serving as Vice-President of the Immunology Division for Schering-Plough, he launched Remicade® in Canada, a product that, still today, ranks among the top on the Canadian market. In addition, Mäder served as Executive Chairman of Consumer Health Products (CHP) Canada from 2012 to 2014. He earned his MBA in marketing from Université du Québec à Montréal and his BS in marketing from Rutgers Business School.
10. Paul Fenton Company: Montrium Title: Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Paul Fenton has over 20 years experience in the development, deployment, and validation of computerized systems for use in regulated clinical trials. He has worked on major clinical technology projects both in the EU and North America and has a strong background in standards and systems and process integration. As Chief Executive Officer of Montrium, he leads the overall vision for the connect platform, which focuses on the organization and analysis of clinical trial information.
Fenton is a long-standing member of the TMF Reference Model Steering Committee and Co-Chair of the eTMF Exchange Mechanism Standard working group. He is also a regular speaker at industry events and is actively involved in several projects for the development of clinical research standards and platforms. Prior to founding Montrium, Fenton founded and served as Senior Clinical IT Consultant for eClinica Inc. Before that, he was the Director of Product Strategy for GEREQ and Director of Product Development for IDDI. Fenton holds a degree in management from London Metropolitan University as well as an MBA in Technology Management from the Université du Québec à Montréal.
11. Sylvie Pelletier Company: Bio-K+ International Title: Chief Operations Officer
Sylvie Pelletier is the Chief Operations Officer of Bio-K+ International. Over its 20-year history, Bio-K+ has grown from 10 employees to over a hundred, and expanded its business from Québec-based natural food stores to an international network of natural food outlets, pharmacies, grocery stores, and hospitals. By continuously pursuing research, the company successfully optimized its products’ quality and effectiveness, making a genuine difference in people’s lives. It owes its success to a product with amazing results in the fight against intestinal and infectious diseases. Despite the company’s considerable growth, its core values remain the same, as does its mission: offer a quality product with unique properties that improves health and whose benefits have been clinically proven.
Pelletier first joined Bio-K+ in 2017. Previously, she was the Chief Financial Officer at Essilor – Canada, and before that, a vice president and corporate controller at Pharmascience. Earlier in her career, she worked with PwC as an auditor. Pelletier earned an undergraduate degree in accounting from HEC Montréal.
12. Rene Rebeaud Company: Hermes Medical Solutions Title: Chief Business Officer, NA & LATAM
Rene Rebeaud is the Chief Business Officer, NA & LATAM at Hermes Medical Solutions. Through empowering physicians with standardized molecular imaging software solutions, Hermes Medical Solutions delivers increased efficiency, accuracy for diagnosis, and personalized treatment of patients. The result is improved quality and outcomes for healthcare providers who are pursuing refined clinical pathways in precision medicine. Hermes Medical Solutions solves the global challenges in molecular imaging by addressing interrupted clinical workflows, lack of standardization, and access to absolute quantification. Through its solutions, customers address economic pressure in healthcare without sacrificing quality of care. For more than 40 years, the company has been delivering the best in workflows, connectivity, and clinical software solutions.
Rebeaud joined Hermes Medical Solutions as a Managing Director, working his way up to Vice President of Operations for North America and then SVP for North America. Previously, he was a senior development QA engineer at Philips Medical Systems, and before that, a biomedical engineering technical advisor at CHUM. Rebeaud graduated from the Engineer School of Geneva with an undergraduate degree in nuclear physics.
13. Tevin Pathareddy Company: Montrium Title: Chief Technology Officer
Tevin Pathareddy is the Chief Technology Officer of Montrium, a global leader in cloud-based records, submissions, and quality management solutions and GxP consulting services for the life sciences. Montrium helps organizations implement and maintain technology to improve their business processes and increase compliance. Delivering its powerful content management solutions across the globe, Montrium serves thousands of users in over 20 countries. It believes in providing the best possible products and services, and its ability to understand the unique needs of each customer is the reason why its customers continue to return every time. Its transparent approach towards any new opportunity has allowed the company to create bonds of trust with some of the largest players in the life sciences industry.
Pathareddy has over 20 years of experience in the design, implementation, and validation of systems within regulated industries such as aerospace, pharmaceuticals, and local government. Throughout these years, he has developed a strong background in industry systems and standards and frequently applies this knowledge to integrate processes, technology, and people. He has worked with end-user groups from diverse regulated industries and regulatory agencies with strong emphasis on the synthesis and transformation of business user requirements into technological solutions. Pathareddy joined the Montrium team in 2007 and, in addition to managing implementation teams, has leveraged his technical expertise and experience in regulated applications to lead the development and implementation of Montrium’s solutions for the life sciences. He first got his start in 1996 as a computer technician at PwC. From there, he served as a computer systems consultant at McGill University and an aircraft systems engineer at CAE, before eventually taking the position of project manager at MS Govern, his most recent position prior to joining Montrium. Pathareddy graduated from Concordia University with a master’s in aerospace engineering and from McGill University with a bachelor’s in computer engineering.
14. Horst Zerbe Company: IntelGenx Title: Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Horst G. Zerbe, PhD, serves as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of IntelGenx, a leading drug delivery company focused on the development and manufacturing of pharmaceutical films. Dr. Zerbe has more than 35 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and started his career at Schwarz Pharma before transitioning to 3M Pharmaceuticals in Germany. From 1998 to 2005, he served as the President of Smartrix Technologies Inc. in Montreal; prior to that, from 1994 to 1998, he served as Vice President of R&D and Technology Transfer at LTS Lohmann Therapy Systems in West Caldwell, NJ. During his assignments at 3M and LTS, he gained considerable experience in the technology transfer and commercial manufacturing of transdermal as well as oral film products.
Dr. Zerbe has extensive executive level experience and has been responsible for many strategic and business initiatives. He has been involved in new drug development and the acquisition and disposition of new drug candidates and other technology, licensing, and distribution matters that are likely to affect the company's own business efforts. He has published numerous scientific papers in recognized journals and holds more than 30 patents. Dr. Zerbe has also served as the CEO and Director of the company’s Canadian subsidiary since 2005.
15. Jean-Francois Roy Company: Hexoskin Title: Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer
Jean-Francois Roy co-founded Hexoskin Wearable and Body Metrics (Carré Technologies) in 2006 and has served as the company’s Chief Technology Officer ever since. Carré is an R&D company which develops wearable biosensors, mobile applications, cloud computing, and data science services. Hexoskin, the company’s wearable body metrics device, includes garment textile sensors, an embedded electronic device, mobile applications, and cloud computing capacities in an integrated solution for high end athletes and team management. Roy has a strong background in R&D project analysis, risk evaluation, and development. He is a specialist in embedded systems and currently focuses on the development of medical devices. Roy is an experienced ASIC, FPGA, and board designer and has also developed signal processing algorithms in many programming languages. He has worked on different platforms developing fast integration of many kinds of devices including IP cores and dedicated electronics.
Roy is interested in challenging opportunities mostly in signal processing and intelligent systems. He is particularly interested in R&D projects with a preference for biomedical applications. Prior to Hexoskin, Roy served as CEO of Tinnitus Laboratory Inc. and was a complex electronic hardware designer for CMC Electronics. Before that, he was an ASIC designer for Victhom Human Bionics and a hardware designer for Octasic. Roy graduated from Polytechnique Montréal with a master’s degree in biomedical & microelectronic engineering and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering.
16. Alexandre Fuentes Company: Emovi Title: Chief Scientific and Technology Officer
Alexandre Fuentes is responsible for clinical affairs, research and development activities, and training and education programs at EMOVI. Fuentes led the technology transfer from bench to bedside of knee marker technology resulting in the first rapid, valid, and medically meaningful 3D functional assessment in the clinical setting. He continues to oversee technological improvements facilitating clinical integration of biomechanics to improve patient care. Fuentes also has significant clinical experience, having worked in the field of athletic therapy for numerous years and having managed and overseen a knee specialized clinic for 7 years.
Fuentes’ postdoc fellowship in data mining at the École Technologie Supérieure gave him the expertise to push the boundaries in utilizing biomechanical data as a diagnostic aid and to help personalize treatments. As an associate member of the Laboratoire de recherche en imagerie et orthopédie (LIO), he continues to be actively involved in clinical research and act as a mentor for graduate students. He has authored or coauthored more than 50 publications (papers, abstracts, book chapters) and holds 2 patents. He is highly respected by sports medicine physicians and orthopedic surgeons, and has to his credit several awards for his contribution of new knowledge in clinical orthopedic biomechanics. Fuentes completed his PhD and Master of Science in biomedical sciences (biomechanics) at the University of Montreal and holds a Bachelor of Science in exercise science and athletic therapy from Concordia University.
17. Yvan Cote Company: Neopharm Labs Title: President and General Manager
Yvan Cote is an accomplished senior executive with a track record of building transformational business success in the diagnostic and pharmaceutical industry since 1992. Cote joined Neopharm Labs in July 2021 following his most recent role as Director General of Dynacare Genetics and Specialty Service. During that time, he was awarded the LabCorp Chairman Award in 2015 for his work in the areas of scientific leadership and customer focus, and for being the primary driver in building a leading national laboratory testing business. Most recently, he was also selected for the Hero Award to recognize his extraordinary performance in support of the COVID-19 response.
Previous to Dynacare, Cote was Vice President, Research & Development and General Manager of Warnex for eight years and also led the R&D department at Biochem for seven years before. He also currently leads Averica Discovery Services, which Neopharm acquired in late 2016. Cote holds a PhD in biotechnology from the University of Sherbrooke and has extensive industry knowledge around topics of life sciences, clinical development, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and infectious diseases as well as microbiology and immunology.
18. Michael Laranjo Company: Otsuka Canada Pharmaceutical Inc. Title: President and General Manager
Mike Laranjo is a 20-year veteran in the pharmaceutical industry and a distinguished leader who currently serves as President and General Manager of Otsuka Canada Pharmaceutical Inc. He has been integral to Otsuka’s growing presence in both the mental health and nephrology space and exemplifies Otsuka’s purpose to defy limitations, so that others can too. Laranjo works to shape the OCPI organization by managing all functional areas and building business priorities, establishing key metrics, and ensuring infrastructure and company expansion to bring therapeutic solutions to patients in need.
Laranjo joined Otsuka in September 2010 as Country Executive Director for market access, commercial operations, and finance & administration, where he developed and executed strategies to address complex and challenging issues within the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to Otsuka, he served as the Director of Business Planning & Analysis at Novartis. Laranjo earned his Bachelor of Commerce in accounting with a minor in business law at Concordia University. He later received a graduate diploma in accounting and went on to become an Adjunct Professor at Concordia’s John Molson School of Business.
19. George Ambartsoumian Company: GA International Inc. Title: President
George Ambartsoumian is the President of GA International Inc., a full-scale R&D company and manufacturer of specialty materials, labels, and adhesive products for biomedical and biopharmaceutical laboratories and for clinical trials. The company is a worldwide leader in the manufacturing and supplying of cryogenic and chemical-resistant labels and produces an array of cryogenic, autoclave-resistant, solvent-resistant, and other specialty labels in any color or size.
Like many of the people who work at GA International, Ambartsoumian also started his career as a scientist. He earned a PhD from the Kazan State Academy of Veterinary Medicine in Russia as well as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) from the Yerevan Veterinary Institute in Armenia. He followed up his degrees by performing post-doctoral research in Montreal, starting first in the biology department of Concordia University and moving on to the Cancer Research Institute at Notre-Dame Hospital. He spent another two years studying transcriptional regulation in bone development at the Shriners Hospital for Children from 1996 to 1998, and it was there that he first had the idea to start a company providing labeling and identification solutions to laboratories.
20. Iain Boomer Company: The PMCQ Title: President
Iain Boomer currently serves as the President of The PMCQ and also leads The Academy program globally for Brand and In-Field teams at AbbVie. Prior to this, he held the role of Head of Learning and Development for AbbVie Canada for four years, leading a team driving learning excellence for AbbVie’s 880+ professionals. The team was dedicated to ensuring that adult learning principles were applied with a measurable, engaging, value-add, and innovative approach. Boomer’s team ensured leadership development, commercial and medical strategies, employee and product onboarding journeys, compliance learning and in-field team skills and capabilities were executed and aligned with business goals and strategies.
Prior to joining The PMCQ, Boomer served as Senior Global Product Training Manager, Immunology for AbbVie and as an independent project management consultant for Bairick Solutions. He also spent nearly six years with IC Axon, serving as a project manager and associate director. He got his start as an analyst and project manager with Bell Mobility. Boomer holds a bachelor’s degree in animal biology and anatomy & cell biology from McGill University.
21. Frederic Fasano Company: Valeo Pharma Title: Special Advisor and Board Member
Before stepping down on November 21, 2022, Frederic Fasano served as the President and Chief Operating Officer of Valeo Pharma, a company dedicated to commercializing novel prescription pharmaceutical products in Canada by acquiring patent protected products to grow its portfolio, and which is therapeutically focused on respiratory diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, specialty products, and oncology. Fasano remains with Valeo as a special advisor and a member of the board. He is a seasoned pharmaceutical executive with over 25 years of extensive general management experience in country operations and entrepreneurial experience with small cap pharma companies within different geographies (Canada, Europe, and Latin America). Under his leadership, Valeo significantly grew its portfolio of innovative products and its dedicated team while maintaining impressive revenue growth.
Prior to joining Valeo, Fasano served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Servier Canada, a well-established, fully-integrated affiliate of Servier Group. He led the portfolio diversification strategy, including multiple in-licensing deals, while strengthening team capabilities in order to maximize the affiliate’s growth. Fasano also held various executive positions in Italy, France, and Latin America and sat on the Board of Directors of ILKOS Therapeutics and served as Chairman of the Board of Innovative Medicines Canada. He holds an MBA from ESSEC Business School and a PharmD from the University of Paris – XI.
22. Jeffrey Albert Company: X-Chem Title: Senior Vice President of Medical Chemistry
Jeffrey Albert serves as Senior Vice President of Medical Chemistry of X-Chem, which empowers its users to screen billions of compounds against targets with its groundbreaking DNA-encoded library (DEL) screening platform. Albert is an industry leading expert in medicinal chemistry who has spent over 20 years at AstraZeneca in various roles from project leader to section head of lead generation. He has experience ranging from discovering initial leads through to preclinical validation, including advancing multidisciplinary project teams from concept to preclinical toxicology.
In 2012, Albert founded the research and development organization IntelliSyn in order to identify novel leads and optimize them as successful clinical candidates for CNS and other diseases. Through his time as founder and director of IntelliSyn, he led research teams in design, synthesis, and optimization of these leads. He assembled and managed a team of highly talented researchers, with the promise they could provide innovation and delivery expertise to pharma and biotech clients. Albert’s teams have successfully delivered four drugs into clinical development, two of which are currently in Phase 3. He has authored or co-authored more than 50 publications and 45 patents, six book chapters, and two books. In recognition of the excellence and utility of his work, IntelliSyn was acquired and integrated into X-Chem, and Albert now oversees everything relating to medicinal chemistry at the major Montreal research location.
23. Philippe Dubuc Company: Theratechnologies Title: Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
In February 2016, Philippe Dubuc was hired as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Theratechnologies, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative therapies addressing unmet medical needs. Theratechnologies currently markets prescription products in the United States and Canada, and its research pipeline focuses on specialized therapies addressing unmet medical needs in HIV, oncology, and NASH.
Dubuc brings more than 25 years of experience in investment banking in the healthcare sector and in management to his current dual role. Dubuc started his career as a management consultant at Groupe Secor, a well-known Quebec-based consulting firm which is now part of KPMG. He then served as Managing Director, Investment Banking at National Bank Financial. In this role, he headed the healthcare group and was involved in numerous financing and M&A transactions. He later founded a manufacturing company which he sold after seven years of successful operations. Dubuc also currently serves as a board member and treasurer of Compagnie Virginie Brunelle. He holds an MBA from McGill University and an undergraduate degree from Concordia University.
24. Michel Sirgent Company: Bio-K+ International Title: Senior Vice President
Michel Sirgent is the Senior Vice President of Bio-K+ International. Over its 20-year history, the company grew from 10 employees to over a hundred, and expanded its business from Québec-based natural food stores to an international network of natural food outlets, pharmacies, grocery stores, and hospitals. By continuously pursuing research, the company successfully optimized its products’ quality and effectiveness, making a genuine difference in people’s lives. It owes its success to a product which leads to amazing results in the fight against intestinal and infectious diseases. Despite the company’s considerable growth, its core values remain the same, as does its mission: offer a quality product with unique properties that improves health and whose benefits have been clinically proven.
Sirgent joined Bio-K+ International/Kerry Group in 1997. Prior to that, he was Director/Chair of the Canadian Health Food Association. Earlier in his career, he worked with Boehringer Ingelheim Canada as a self-medication regional territory manager. Sirgent earned his MBA from McGill University and is a master’s candidate in business administration and risk management at the University of Cumbria.
25. Dominic Begin Company: Organon Canada Title: Executive Director and Business Unit Lead
Dominic Begin is an active and passionate professional who serves as Executive Director and oversees the Biosimilars business unit for Organon Canada. Organon is a global health company with a singular vision: to make a better and healthier every day for every woman. As the only company of its size focused on women’s health, Organon puts women at the center of everything it does, launching with a commitment to listen to women to hear — and understand — her unmet health needs and help identify solutions that are urgently needed. Organon Canada focuses on medicines that support women’s health, including contraception, fertility, and hormone therapy, and as well as medicines to treat diseases that disproportionately affect women, such as rheumatoid arthritis. Its portfolio includes more than 40 medicines and products across three lines of business: Women’s Health, Biosimilars, and Established Brands.
Begin started in the retail industry before joining Merck Canada in 2000, where he had a rich career and held various positions of increasing responsibilities in sales, training, marketing, access, and corporate strategy, including several directorships. His leadership along with his strategic vision, his entrepreneurial mindset, and his collaborative approach have allowed him to earn multiple awards throughout his career and be recognized by his peers. Begin strongly believes in the importance of saving and improving lives and finding ways to bring more medicines to more people. Throughout his career he contributed to the launch of several products and initiatives, bringing new treatment options to the Canadian market and increasing patient access to needed medicines, namely in Hepatitis C, respiratory, cardiovascular, immunology, rheumatology, migraine, and soon Oncology.
As a founding member of Organon and being named to the first ever Canadian Executive Leadership Team, Begin aims to continue his journey and leverage the agility, renewed energy, and passion of the new organization to help Organon Canada prosper and set a strong foundation in Canada. He is excited about bringing new solutions to address significant unmet needs in Women’s health, as well as bringing biosimilars to the Canadian market to help support the sustainability of the healthcare system and its capacity to invest in innovation.