Mr. Klompas, CPA, CA, has been involved in healthcare and biotechnology for over 30 years in various senior leadership roles spanning operational, financial and research and development responsibilities. Most recently, he served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Zymeworks (NASDAQ: ZYME), where he had previously held the role of Chief Financial Officer. Prior to that, Mr. Klompas’ experience included roles with KPMG, a global financial services firm, in both the United States and Canada where he advised on transactions and financial engagements across the pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and medical devices sectors. Mr. Klompas serves as a director on the board of NervGen Pharma (TSXV; NGEN) and has served as a director and advisor to various biotechnology companies, including previously serving as Board Chair for Ovensa Inc., and on the Board of Liminal Biotherapeutics. Mr. Klompas holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of British Columbia, and is a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Professional Accountant.

Norma Biln is a leading figure in the Biotechnology sector recognized as one of Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Award Winner in 2017, and BC’s Most Influential Women 2018: STEM Stars. Throughout her 30 years in the life sciences industry she has worked along, built and led teams that have consistently exceeded corporate goals. Norma began her career in clinical research with Pfizer Pharmaceuticals after completing her Bachelor of Science in Physiology at McGill University. She continued her career in several commercial capacities with Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Amgen and Abbott Laboratories and has served as a director on the board of several biotechnology organizations. Norma holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Phoenix, and a PhD from UBC’s School of Population and Public Health. She is currently on the Board of Directors of BIOTECanada, the national industry association, and New Ventures BC, the province’s premiere tech competition and early-stage accelerator.

Simran Chahal is dynamic executive with over 15+ years of experience in the In Vitro Diagnostics (IVD) industry. She excels in establishing and nurturing key collaborations and alliances that drive the company’s growth and market presence. She possesses a proven track record in successfully launching innovative products and maximizing their market reach. As a strategic and results-oriented leader, Simran spearheads Augurex’s commercial operations, overseeing all aspects from supply chain strategy to commercialization, and delivering impactful autoimmune solutions for patients worldwide. Before joining Augurex, Simran held key positions with significant contributions. At LifeLabs, she launched BRCA1/2 Breast Cancer screening in Canada and pioneered the company’s Social Media Strategy, enhancing brand presence. At Alere Inc., she successfully implemented multi-million-dollar provincial Colon Cancer Screening programs, demonstrating her strategic approach and industry expertise. Simran holds an MSc in Advanced Biomedical Engineering from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom, and a BSc in Medical Microbiology and Virology with honors.

Doug is an expert board director and business leader with extensive experience in business strategy, operations and biotechnology, gained from his time as a consulting Partner at Price Waterhouse and the CEO of BC Biomedical Laboratories Ltd. During his tenure at BC Biomedical Laboratories, Doug oversaw several significant acquisitions, developed a leading-edge laboratory and substantially strengthened the organization’s customer-culture, which resulted in consistently high rankings as one of the ’50 Best Employers in Canada’ including placing first for three years consecutively. Doug has also held leadership positions as the global leader of Sandwell Engineering’s consulting practice and Head of Marketing at The WATCOM Group, a spinoff company of the University of Waterloo. Currently he chairs the Board of Directors at two biotechnology enterprises and mentors in the Entrepreneurship Program at the University of British Columbia. Doug holds a Bachelor and Masters of Science, as well as an MBA, all with honors, from the University of British Columbia. Doug is an accomplished board director and business leader with a wealth of experience in various industries.

Tim Chan began his investment career in 1985 after graduating from the University of British Columbia (UBC) with a Bachelor of Commerce degree. During his most recent position, Tim provided discretionary investment counseling services to high net worth clients, from 1996 until his retirement in 2011, at Phillips, Hager & North Investment Management Ltd. (PH&N) (subsequently purchased by the Royal Bank of Canada, Foundation and Trusts). Tim excelled at maintaining client relationships by determining investment goals and objectives aligned with individual client risk profiles. This included the design, implementation, monitoring and communication of strategic investment policies and guidelines. Prior to PH&N, Tim was a Portfolio Manager at Royal Trust Corporation (1990-1995) and was responsible for providing portfolio management to Estate, Trust and Investment Management accounts. Tim obtained his Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation in 1992 and maintains an interest in the economic and capital markets.

Natalie Dakers is a leading figure in the Canadian health sciences sector. Natalie has been the founding CEO of several high impact and first-of-its kind national organizations including Accel-Rx Health Sciences Accelerator, the Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) now Admare BioInnovations, and the commercial arm of CDRD, CDRD Ventures. She co-founded Neuromed Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company in the neurological space developing drugs for chronic pain and epilepsy. Early in her career she enabled the technology transfer for over a dozen start-ups while at the University of British Columbia (UBC)’s Industry Liaison Office. Natalie is an Adjunct Professor at UBC’s Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Ms. Dakers has served on many public and private boards including BIOTECanada, Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), Genome Canada, Genome BC, LifeSciences BC and others. She currently serves on Augurex, BioTalent Canada, Pender Private Investments Inc., Sonic Incytes, and Stemcell Technologies.
Natalie has continued to support the health sciences ecosystem as a mentor to early stage innovation companies through programs provided by the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), eUBC, LifeSciences BC, SFU Venture Labs, WXN and LifeLabs.

Among her many awards are BIV BC500 (2021), LifeSciences BC Milton Wong Award for Leadership 2019, Startup Canada’s Entrepreneur of the Year 2015, WXN’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women and Business in Vancouver’s Most Influential Woman 2016, 2018 and Industry Leadership BIOTECanada 2009.

David Demers is Chair of Crocus Advisors, a private investment company focused on carbon reduction and mitigation solutions. Mr. Demers was one of the founding leaders of Westport Innovations (NASDAQ:WPRT), and acted as founding CEO and Director as Westport grew from a startup spun out of the University of British Columbia into the world leader in environmental engine technology, enabling a global transition for heavy-duty commercial vehicles from diesel fuel to cleaner, cheaper natural gas. Westport was listed on the TSX in 1999 and on NASDAQ in 2008. Mr. Demers retired from Westport in July 2016 upon the successful conclusion of the merger with Fuel Systems Solutions to form Westport Fuel Systems. Mr. Demers has also been a member of the leadership team with many other new ventures including corporate joint ventures, technology spinoffs, and corporate venture initiatives. These include EnWave (TSX:ENW) as it was spun out of the University of British Columbia until it completed its initial public offering; BrightSide as it worked through technology validation until the company was sold to Dolby; and the Westport – BC Gas joint venture that evolved into Clean Energy Fuels (NASDAQ: CLNE).  Mr. Demers is a Director with Timia Capital Corporation (TSX: TCA.V), a specialty finance company that provides revenue financing to early stage technology companies and has been a Director of Primero Mining Corp. (NYSE: PPP, TSX: P), an intermediate precious metals producer with mines in Mexico and Canada, since its formation in 2008.  He has served on all of the major Board committees and is currently Chair of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee and has in the past acted as Lead Director, Chair of Special Committee, and Chair of the Compensation Committee. In the latter role, he led C-Suite recruiting and management transition assignments. Mr. Demers obtained a Bachelor of Science (Physics) in 1976 and a Juris Doctor in 1978, both from the University of Saskatchewan. He started his career as a midnight shift computer systems operator at IBM’s state of the art (at the time) System 360/65 data centre in Calgary and joined IBM Canada Ltd. (“IBM”) in 1979 as a Systems Engineer. While at IBM he worked with the first time sharing and email systems, with the first relational database products, the IBM PC, laser printing technology and the first voice/data networking systems.

Dr. Paul Terry leads the team at Photonic. He is a seasoned entrepreneur, engineer, and angel investor specializing in disruptive technologies. Paul advises VCs and governments on economic, technical, health, and national defense strategies.

During his career, Paul has founded or been a founding employee at six successful Canadian companies with a cumulative valuation of more than $10B. Past roles include CEO of PHEMI, CTO Canada of Cray Supercomputing (OctigaBay), CTO of Abatis (Ericsson), and Director of Strategy at Newbridge Networks (Alcatel). Paul holds a 1st Class Honors Degree in Physics/Engineering, and a PhD in Engineering from Liverpool University. He holds an MBA from Cranfield University.