Board of Directors
Lloyd M. Segal
Chief Executive Officer, Thallion Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Mr. Segal served as President and CEO of Caprion Pharmaceuticals from 1998 until its merger with Ecopia BioSciences to form Thallion in 2007. He was previously a management consultant with McKinsey & Co. and President and CEO of Advanced Bioconcept Ltd, which was sold to NEN Life Sciences (now Perkin-Elmer) in 1998. Mr. Segal was a member of the Board of Directors of SciQuest, Inc. (NASDAQ: SQST) and of Hallmark Technologies Inc. (TSX: HTI). He is currently a member of the Board of Directors at GBC North American Growth Fund, Inc., one of Canada’s leading small-cap mutual funds; Resonant Medical Inc. (a privately-held medical imaging company) and BIOTECanada, the Canadian national association representing biotech constituents. He is also a member of the Board of Overseers of the School of Science, Brandeis University. He earned a B.A. in Politics from Brandeis University (Waltham, MA), and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School (Cambridge, MA).
François Legault, BBA, CA
President and Chief Operating Officer, ViroChem Pharma Inc.
Mr. Legault is an experienced leader who, for the last 25 years, has held various senior management positions including 17 years in the biotechnology and high tech sectors. He is currently President and Chief Operating Officer of ViroChem Pharma Inc. and was the Chairman of the Board of Ecopia BioSciences Inc. He is also a member of several other boards in the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical sectors. For the 15-year period from its inception to its merger with Shire Pharmaceuticals Inc. in 2001, Mr. Legault was part of the senior management team of Canada’s largest biopharmaceutical company, BioChem Pharma Inc., where he held the positions of Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President, Corporate Development and Investments. Mr. Legault holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the École des Hautes Études Commerciales and a Chartered Accountant designation.
Michael Kurman , MD
Independent Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Consultant
Michael Kurman, MD is an independent consultant to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and health care industries specializing in oncology and oncology drug development, with 24 years of experience. He received his M.D. degree from Cornell University Medical College and started his career in the practice of oncology, during which he was an investigator on several oncology clinical trials. Since joining the industry, he has served as Director of Clinical Research, Oncology and Allergy for Janssen Research Foundation, and as Vice President, Clinical Research for U.S. Biosciences Inc, and was involved in the successful development or launch of four oncology products. Before starting his consultancy, Dr. Kurman was Vice President of Clinical and Scientific Operations for Quintiles' Oncology Division. In addition, he serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of several companies and is on the Board of Directors of Avalon Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Kurman is board certified in Internal Medicine and Oncology, and did his oncology training at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Health Promotion in the Master of Clinical Trials Program at New York University and an Adjunct Professor for Pharmaceutical Technology Management at the Wesley J. Howe School of Technology Management of Stevens Institute of Technology.
Halvor Jaeger, MD, F.C.P
CEO, Akela Pharma Inc.
After receiving an M.D. degree from the University of Ulm in Germany in 1976, Dr. Jaeger started a scientific career at this University. In 1979, he founded LAB in Germany and, as CEO, developed the company as of one of the principal contract research institutes in Germany. In addition, he lectured pharmacology for several years. After selling LAB Germany in 1995 to a worldwide provider of pharmaceutical services, he relocated to Canada and took over LAB International Canada. After substantial increase in value, the Phase I / Bioanalytical business of the company was sold in 1998 to a Toronto-based public company, and the pharmaceutical arm to a French company. At that time, LAB Pre-clinical was founded as a new company and taken public in 2002 as a product development company, its goal being product development, with substantial funds being generated through its service business. LAB recently changed its name to AKELA Pharma Inc. following the acquisition of PharmaForm in Austin, Texas. AKELA currently employs more than 120 employees operating in facilities located in St-Laurent, Québec, Austin, Texas and Turku, Finland. Dr. Jaeger has written and/or collaborated on over one hundred scientific publications. He acted as Expert Agréé for the French Health Authorities in pharmacokinetics. In 1996, he was appointed Fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacology.
Gervais Dionne, PhD
Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer, ViroChem Pharma Inc.
Dr. Dionne is an internationally recognized drug discovery leader with 27 years of professional experience in the biopharmaceutical sector. He recently co-founded his second biotechnology company, ViroChem Pharma Inc. Prior to this initiative, Dr. Dionne was the co-founder of BioChem Pharma Inc., Canada’s largest biopharmaceutical company, and held the positions of Vice-President, Research and Development and, Chief Scientific Officer where he was responsible for managing and coordinating the successful development of 3TC®, a leading AIDS drug. Dr. Dionne holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Université Laval (Quebec City) and was the first recipient of the Chemistry Award sponsored by the Corporation of Professional Chemists of Quebec. He began his career at Ayerst Laboratories (now Wyeth) in 1976, as the recipient of a NRC postdoctoral fellowship. He is the author of numerous patents and articles in the fields of organic chemistry and medicinal chemistry. In 1996, he was one of the recipients of the Prix Galien Canada for Excellence in Pharmaceutical Research, Canada’s highest honour in the pharmaceutical industry.
Claude C. Bismuth, MBA, FCA
Independent Consultant
Claude C. Bismuth recently retired as Senior Partner of the Montreal office of Ernst & Young. In more than 35 years of public practice, he served as partner in the field of insurance services and worked as a consultant, providing strategic guidance in life sciences, aerospace and defence in addition to information technology and telecommunications. For 13 years, he managed the technology sector and served as the National Director of various technology-oriented services. Mr. Bismuth also provided professional accounting and auditing services to several public companies in Canada, the United States and Europe. Since his retirement in 2008, he has been working as a management consultant and has been very active in litigation, commercial disputes and professional liability claims. Mr Bismuth graduated from McGill University (B.Comm) and the University of Michigan (MBA) and holds a Fellow Chartered Accountant designation from the Ordre des CA du Québec.
Franklin Berger
Independent Biotechnology Research Analyst
Mr. Berger is a biotechnology industry analyst with over 25 years of experience in capital markets and financial analysis. He served most recently as Managing Director, Equity Research and Senior Biotechnology Analyst at J.P. Morgan Securities from May 1998 to March 2003. In this position, he initiated team coverage of 26 biotechnology companies and was responsible for technical, scientific and clinical due diligence as well as company selection. Previously, Mr. Berger served in similar capacities at Salomon Smith Barney from August 1997 to May 1998 and Josephthal & Co. from November 1991 to August 1997. Prior to his work as a biotechnology analyst, he managed Pantagruel Partners, a firm that developed early-stage pharmaceutical compounds for sale to drug companies and venture capital firms. He holds an M.B.A. from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration and an M.A. in International Economics and a B.A. in International Relations both from Johns Hopkins University. In addition to Thallion, Mr. Berger serves as a director of VaxGen, Inc., Isotechnika Inc. and Seattle Genetics, all publicly-traded biotechnology companies, and HealthShares, Inc., an investment company.
Roberto Bellini
Executive Vice-President, Picchio Pharma Inc.
Mr. Bellini is currently responsible for the investment and operational activities of Picchio Pharma Inc., a joint venture healthcare investment firm owned by FMRC Family Trust and Power Technology Investment Corporation, a subsidiary of Power Corporation of Canada. He previously worked as an assistant to the CEO at Adaltis Inc. Roberto holds a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from McGill University.