Joan Sheehan

Joan Sheehan

Vice President, Sales
STEMCELL Technologies

 

Joan Sheehan joined STEMCELL in 1993 and since then has built and managed a number of different functions across the company including Product and Scientific Support, Education, Customer Service, Distribution, Marketing and Sales. Joan has been instrumental in growing revenue from $1 million to $300 million over the past 26 years and has been responsible for setting up all of STEMCELL Technologies’ international offices. She currently manages a global team of over 300 highly trained scientific staff which includes the global Sales, Product & Scientific Support and Education teams.

Michael Nobrega

Michael-Nobrega-Chair[1]_edited.jpg

Chair, Board of Directors
Ontario Centres of Excellence, Canada

Michael Nobrega has been Chair of the Board of Directors of Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) since 2012, previously serving as a member since 2007. He is former President and CEO of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS), one of Canada’s largest pension plans with more than $95 billion in assets. In mid-2014, Mr. Nobrega was appointed to chair of the Expert Panel on the restructuring and refinancing of the 750,000 square feet of the MaRS West Tower in the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto. He was also appointed by the provincial government as chair of the Expert Panel on the refurbishment of the 1.2 Million square feet MacDonald block in downtown Toronto. A veteran financial and investment executive with more than 30 years’ experience, he previously served as President and CEO of OMERS’ wholly owned subsidiary, Borealis Infrastructure Management Inc., an investment entity that originated and structured infrastructure investments for the OMERS pension fund. Prior to Borealis, Mr. Nobrega was a tax partner at Arthur Andersen, a major international accounting firm.
Mr. Nobrega holds an Honours BA from the University of Toronto. He also holds a chartered accountancy designation from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants. In 2009 Mr. Nobrega was named a Fellow of the Institute by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario.

Donna Wall

Donna Wall

Section Head, Blood and Marrow Transplant/Cellular Therapy
The Hospital for Sick Children

Dr. Wall is currently leading the Blood and Marrow Transplant/Cellular Therapy Section at SickKids/University of Toronto. She is experienced in transplantation for treatment of cancer, immune and hematologic disorders – establishing programs in St. Louis and San Antonio. Her research is focused on improving the outcomes of children undergoing transplant through a better understanding of the intersection of the immune and hematologic systems. She leads or is involved in a range of clinical trials and translational research in hematopoietic stem cell transplant and cellular and gene therapy. Dr. Wall holds the Garron Family/Hats off to Kidz Chair in childhood leukemia research.

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Sven Kili

Sven Kili

Principal
Sven Kili Consulting Ltd.

Dr. Sven Kili is Principal at Sven Kili Consulting Ltd. where he provides specialist strategic consulting services to innovative cell and gene therapy companies. His clients include small and medium sized companies from formation through to clinical development and commercialisation. He was previously the Head of Development for the Cell and Gene Therapy division of GSK Rare Diseases where he led teams developing and commercialising exvivo gene therapies for a variety of rare genetic disorders including Strimvelis®, the first ex-vivo gene therapy to be approved for children with ADA-SCID; Wiskott – Aldrich syndrome (WAS); Metachromatic Leukodystrophy (MLD) and Beta-Thalassemia. Prior to this, he was Senior Director, Cell Therapy and Regenerative Medicine for Sanofi (Genzyme) Biosurgery where he led the clinical development, approval and commercialization activities of the first combined ATMP approval in the EU for MACI®. He and his team also prepared and submitted advanced therapy regulatory filings for Australia and the US, including health technology assessments, and he was responsible for late stage developments for Carticel® and Epicel® in the US.

Before joining Genzyme, Sven led the cell therapy activities and oversaw all UK and Irish regulatory functions and was the QPPV for pharmacovigilance for the Geistlich Pharma. Sven trained as an Orthopaedic surgeon in the UK and South Africa and since leaving full-time clinical practise has developed expertise in cell and gene therapy in clinical development, regulatory compliance, value creation, risk management and product safety, product launches and post-marketing activities. He is on the board of CCRM in Canada; Xintela, a Swedish Stem Cell company, the SAB for LGC Corporation and is the chair of the CGTAC as part of the UK BIA and a Board member of the Standards Co-ordinating Body for Regenerative Medicine. Most recently, Sven was appointed as Chair of the UCL course “Masters in Manufacture and Commercialisation of Stem Cell and Gene Therapies” steering committee. Additionally, he still maintains his clinical skills in the UK NHS and serves as an ATLS Instructor in his spare time.

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Dianne Carmichael

Diane Carmichael


President & CEO
Carmichael Worldwide Inc., Canada

Business Lecturer
DeGroote School of Business

With over 25 years of extensive executive management and start up experience, Dianne has had the opportunity to work in four distinct industries – Consumer Packaged Goods, Technology, Financial Services and Healthcare. She has been involved in multi-national, entrepreneurial and growth companies, rising to President and CEO in two of those industries.

In 2004, Dianne’s father was diagnosed with cancer, affecting her profoundly. This led to a major shift in her career and personal focus. Dianne chose to make a difference in the lives of Canadians stricken with profound illness by advocating and championing for patients, contributing to the highest quality of care in Canada and working to transform the health care system through disruptive innovation.

As the former President of Best Doctors Canada, she is credited with growing a strong consumer movement and market for remote second opinion and healthcare navigation services, resulting in Best Doctors becoming one of the most sought after employee benefits. With Dianne’s leadership, Best Doctors Canada now makes a difference in the lives of over 5 million Canadians and 40 million globally – changing diagnosis 22% of the time and modifying treatment 61% based on tens of thousands of second opinions. In addition to her role as President, Dianne helped drive the global branding and go-to-market effort of the Best Doctors organization, which operates in 30+ countries worldwide.

In 2012, Dianne was appointed Founder & President of UHN Solutions at UHN (Toronto General Hospital, Toronto Western Hospital, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre & Toronto Rehab Hospitals).  Her role at UHN Solutions combined her passion for patient advocacy and empowerment with her belief that unique funding models can be created to help feed Canada’s universal healthcare eco-system – ultimately enhancing the quality of care for all Canadians. She was a member of the Executive Team and International Business Committee Member.

In 2014 Dianne was acting CEO of a digital health technology startup, taking it from ideation to MVP and contracts in the US and Canada within 6 months.

Prior to her leadership roles in the healthcare industry, Dianne created and spearheaded Worldsource Wealth Management (a subsidiary of publicly-traded Guardian Capital Group Ltd.) where she was Chairman and CEO. While overseeing four operations nationally – with three reporting Presidents and 1,200 employees and Advisors – Dianne, grew Worldsource Wealth Management to more than $8 billion in AUA.

Before taking the helm at Worldsource, Dianne was with TD Waterhouse where she was promoted to Vice-President. She built, and later sold, one of the largest individual investment advisory practices, focused exclusively on sophisticated investors.

Earlier in her career, Dianne held progressively more senior sales and marketing management roles at leading consumer packaged goods organizations including Procter & Gamble, Gillette, RJReynolds-Nabisco and in technology organizations such as Memorex-Telex.

Dianne is currently a Board Member at Holland-Bloorview Kid’s Rehabilitation Hospital and The Patient Canada and is Co-Chair of Operation Smile Canada Gala.  Dianne also sits on the Advisory Boards of CAPCH (Canadian Association of People-Centred Health), ARC (academic e-health research collaborative), York University’s Faculty Heath. Dianne is a Business Lecturer at McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business.

As an international keynote speaker and expert panelist, Dianne has spoken at podiums such as The Economic Club. She writes for the Huffington Post, PolicyMatters, and Health & Lifestyle Magazine. Dianne has been interviewed extensively about healthcare, innovation, leadership and branding in the media and on television, including the Globe and Mail, BNN, SunMedia TV, The Charles Adler Show and CBC.  She has been profiled twice on the cover of Women’s Post Magazine and interviewed for FIND YOUR GREAT WORK, a series highlighting major international leaders who have made significant contributions to society and business.

Dianne is a member of two CEO groups – TEC (The Executive Committee) and IWF (International Women’s Forum), which represents 6,500 female CEOs globally.

Dianne holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Waterloo.  She also holds a 3-year Business Diploma in Marketing, and various investment industry designations including CIM1, PFP, CSC Honours, CPH, and Officers and Directors.

In 2009, Dianne was recognized as one of the Top 20 Business Women in Canada, she has been nominated for Entrepreneur of the Year and was profiled as one of the Top Women to Watch in 2012. Schulich School of Business profiled her amongst the Top 100 Business Leaders in Canada.  She was recognized one of Canada’s Top Women Transforming Health Care 2015.

Dianne’s dream is to drive disruptive innovation that will positively impact healthcare, leading to sustainable, consumer-centred transformation.

Guided by this dream, Dianne founded Carmichael Worldwide Inc. in 2011 to provide executive leadership, innovation, commercialization while bringing digital health and consumer health & wellness solutions. The focus is on helping dynamic healthcare and wellness organizations whose mandates include enhancing the quality of patient care, enhancing the patient experience or impacting system sustainability through disruptive innovation, technology, delivery systems or unique funding models.

In 2015 Dianne was appointed Managing Director, Health Innovation & Ventures at MaRS Discovery District, North America’s largest Urban Innovation Hub. In this role, she hopes to exponentially impact health care globally by helping to scale Canada’s most innovative health ventures – driving innovation and economic advantage – with those digital technologies poised for global impact.

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Lalit Aggarwal

Lait Aggarwal


President 

Manor Park Holdings, Canada

Lalit Aggarwal is President of Manor Park Holdings.  Previously, Lalit invested for H.I.G. European Capital Partners, Soros Fund Management, and Goldman Sachs.  He is a past fellow of the C.D. Howe Institute and a former Director of Bridgepoint Health.  Lalit holds degrees from the University of Oxford and the University of Pennsylvania and is also a current Director of the Hospital for Sick Children Foundation.

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Peter Lewis

Peter Lewis

Associate Vice-President, Research and Innovation
Global Research Partnerships

Professor Peter Lewis was appointed Associate Vice-President, Research of the University of Toronto in October, 2009. A highly respected and accomplished biochemist, Professor Lewis has been an academic leader, faculty member and researcher at U of T since 1974. Prior to joining the Office of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation, Professor Lewis served as Vice-Dean, Research and International Relations in the Faculty of Medicine for seven years. In that role, he distinguished himself through his leadership of the Faculty’s research enterprise, encompassing 27 departments, more than 4,000 faculty and approximately $600 million in direct research funding annually. He also had direct oversight of several Faculty research centres, such as the Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, the Structural Genomics Consortium and the Banting and Best Diabetes Centre. He served as Chair of the U of T Department of Biochemistry from 1991-2001. Professor Lewis serves on the boards of Bloorview Kids Rehab and the St. Michael’s Hospital Research Institute. His research interests include the structure and function of chromosomes with specific reference to gene regulation. Professor Lewis received his undergraduate education at the University of Calgary and his doctorate at Cornell University.

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Vivek Goel

Vice President, Research and Innovation
University of Toronto, Canada

Professor Vivek Goel is Vice-President, Research and Innovation, and Strategic Initiatives at the University of Toronto and a Professor in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Professor Goel is a distinguished scholar with an extensive background in teaching, research and university administration. He obtained his medical degree from McGill University and completed post-graduate medical training in Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Goel obtained an MSc in Community Health from U of T and an MS in Biostatistics from Harvard University School of Public Health. His research has focused on health services evaluation and the promotion of the use of research evidence in health decision-making.

Professor Goel joined the University of Toronto in 1991 as Assistant Professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics. He was chair of the Department of Health Administration in the Faculty of Medicine from 1999 until 2001, then served as Vice-Provost, Faculty and subsequently was the University’s Vice President and Provost from 2004 until 2008. He was a founding scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES), where he continues as an Adjunct Senior Scientist. He served as founding President and CEO of Public Health Ontario from 2008 until 2014, where he was highly successful in building an academic public health services agency that provided scientific and technical advice to front-line practitioners. Prior to rejoining U of T he served as Chief Academic Strategist with Coursera, a global platform that connects universities and learners with online courses.

He has extensive experience in governance and in his University role serves on the boards of MaRS Innovation, the Vector Institute, the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine, the Centre for Commercialization of Antibodies and Biologics, Compute Ontario, TRIUMF, and is co-chair of the Southern Ontario Smart Computing Innovation Platform (SOSCIP). He is also the Vice-Chair of the Board of the Canadian Institute for Health Information. He is also the Vice-Chair of the Board of the Canadian Institute for Health Information and a member of the Board of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research.

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Philip Vanek

Phil Vanek

General Manager
Partner, Gamma Biosciences

Phil is a Partner at Gamma Biosciences, a life sciences tools platform created by KKR to build a leading player in next-generation bioprocessing for advanced therapies by acquiring or investing in high-potential businesses with outstanding technology and accelerating their growth. Prior to joining Gamma, Phil was General Manager of GE Healthcare’s cell therapy business, an initiative funded in part by GE Healthymagination, a $6 billion strategy to revolutionize the world’s health by improving the quality, access and affordability of care.  Prior to joining GE, Phil was Head of Innovation for Lonza’s Pharmaceutical division, leading a group of research scientists, process development engineers, and commercial strategists to drive new technology initiatives focused on cell, protein, and viral therapeutic manufacturing.

Phil’s career has included a number of senior innovation, business and market development roles at Becton Dickinson, Invitrogen, and Life Technologies, as well as two start-up biotechnology companies in the Washington, DC area.

Phil received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Georgetown University Medical Center and subsequently held an IRTA fellowship at the National Cancer Institute in the Laboratory of Molecular Oncology.

Phil is an active member of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine, where he currently serves as an Officer of the Executive Committee.  Phil also serves on the Editorial Board of Cell and Gene Therapy Insights.

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Gail Naughton

CSO and Chief Business Development Officer
Histogen Inc., USA

Gail K. Naughton, Ph.D., has spent over 30 years extensively researching the tissue engineering process, holds over 105 U.S. and foreign patents, and has founded two regenerative medicine companies. She served as the Dean of the College of Business at San Diego State University from 2002-2011. Her current venture, Histogen, is focused on the development of novel solutions based on the products of cells grown under simulated embryonic conditions. She currently serves as the Company’s CSO and CBDO and is the inventor of its core technology.

Dr. Naughton has brought several tissue engineered products to market including a product for severe burns (TransCyte), a dermal replacement for diabetic ulcers (Dermagraft), an aesthetic dermal filler (Cosmederm/Cosmeplast) and SkinMedica’s TNS product for skin care. Dr. Naughton has been extensively published and a frequent speaker in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. In 2000, Dr. Naughton received the 27th Annual National Inventor of the Year award by the Intellectual Property Owners Association in honor of her pioneering work in the field of tissue engineering.

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