Board of Directors
Lloyd M. Segal
Executive Chairman
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).
Allan Mandelzys, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Mandelzys served as Vice President, Business Development for Labopharm Inc. from October 2000 to December 2006. He has extensive experience in the areas of pharmaceutical licensing, contract negotiations, strategic alliance management, intellectual property management and scientific operations. Prior to joining Labopharm, Dr. Mandelzys held several positions at Allelix Biopharmaceuticals Inc. (now NPS Pharmaceuticals) beginning with scientific roles of increasing responsibility and culminating as Director, Business Development. Dr. Mandelzys holds both a Ph.D. in physiology and an M.B.A. from McGill University and a B.Sc. from the University of Toronto. He received his post-doctoral training at the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology.
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
President and Chief Executive Officer, BELLUS Health 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.
Philippe Couillard, P.C., MD
Partner, Persistence Capital Partners LP
Dr. Couillard currently serves as a partner at persistence Capital partners LP, Canada’s first first private equity fund in Healthcare. He is a member of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada, serves on its Security and Intelligence Review Committee and is also a Senior Fellow in Health Law at McGill University. Dr. Couillard was elected as a member of the National Assembly in 2003 and was re-elected in 2007. He was appointed Minister of Health and Social Services, Chair of the Ministerial Committee on Social, Educational and Cultural Development, Minster responsible for the Quebec City region and Chair of the Priorities Committee before leaving politics in 2008. Prior to being elected to the National Assembly, he held numerous professional positions as training program director, associate professor, surgeon-in-chief and department head the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Sherbrooke. He was a consulting neurosurgeon and was appointed to be the department head at Hôpital St-Luc in Montréal in 1989. Dr. Couillard is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Amorfix Life Sciences, a publicly traded (T.AMF) biotechnology corporation on the Toronto Stock Exchange and also sits on the international advisory board of the Minister of Health of Saudi Arabia. Dr. Couillard earned a M.D from the Faculty of Medicine at the Universit?de Montréal and is a licensed specialist in neurosurgery. He is a recipient of the Medicine, Culture and Society Prize from the Faculty of Medicine at the Université de Montréal in 2006, and the Jacques Cartier Medial at the 2007 Entretiens Jacques-Cartier conference in Lyons.
Dan Chiche MD, MBA
Independent Consultant
Dr. Chiche has a successful 20 year career history in the top tier pharmaceutical companies (Glaxo and Bristol-Myers Squibb) as an executive in Clinical Research and Medical Affairs. He is a Medical Doctor with additional training in biostatistics (Master) and business administration. He has been involved in key clinical development of compounds in various therapeutic areas, including infectious diseases, HIV, hepatitis, influenza, rheumatoid arthritis, hypertension, diabetes, COPD, asthma and is fully familiarized with clinical research standards: ICH, FDA and EMEA. During his 20 years with major pharmaceuticals, he has worked with business colleagues in order to maximize product properties, using medical communication tools, developing medical concepts and effective KOL networks. As an executive manager, he has been directly involved in the optimization of human resources and processes to deliver, on schedule, high quality outputs in clinical research and medical affairs. In 2007, Dan founded Kompas Medical Services Inc., a company providing services to Biotechs, Pharmas, and other institutions