Dr. Tony Brooks is a senior executive with over 25 years of experience in the life sciences, not for profit and public accounting environments. He leads our finance, HR, administration and Entrepreneurship and Commercialization areas. He is currently serving as Genome BC’s Interim Chief Executive Officer.

Throughout his career, Tony has worked with both large and small life sciences companies and brings the vast knowledge he has gained to lead our Industry Innovation Program funding early stage start-ups. He believes in applying best practices, integrity and risk management to deliver high quality outputs. Tony is a member of the Chartered Professional Accountants of BC and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland. He holds a PhD in developmental biology from the University of London, England and a BSc from the University of Reading.

Dr. Barb Kinnaird is a visionary MedTech leader with a PhD in Microbiology & Immunology and extensive postdoctoral work in genomics and proteomics at Michael Smith Laboratories. As CEO of Response Biomedical, she led global expansion in point-of-care diagnostics, bringing scientific precision and operational scale to high-stakes healthcare markets. A published researcher and patent-holder, Barb combines deep technical expertise with a strategic lens on commercialization, investment, and governance.

She currently serves as the president for QuantumEdge Advisors, serving technology companies globally, on the Advisory Council of the i² Fund and as Director and Past Chair of Acetech, where she champions innovation across BC’s life sciences and tech ecosystems.

Don Enns has been a leader in British Columbia’s life sciences industry for over 35 years; most currently as Chief Business Officer at Nanovation Therapeutics Inc., a next generation gene therapy platform company with a focus on nucleic acid based nanolipid particle delivery. Prior to that, he lead Evonik’s global drug delivery business unit for three years which offered development and manufacturing services to the pharmaceutical sector in over 50 countries. He has previously held executive positions at Transferra, Life Sciences BC, and Cantest Ltd., a former BC-headquartered global organization providing professional analytical and clinical services for the environmental, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and food safety industries.

Don has been a director of numerous local for-profit companies as well as several non-profit organizations involved with national standardization, venture capital, trade, education, community affairs, public health and national research. He has overseen expansion into European and Southeast Asian markets; been responsible for merger and acquisition activity; and consulted for international agencies such as the UN Development Programme. He is currently managing director of Molecular You, CEO of Nanovation Capital, past co-Chair/director of Canada’s National Research Council’s Advisory Committee, Nanomedicines Innovation Network (NMIN), Genome British Columbia, the World Wildlife Fund of Canada among other organizations.

Following a Ph.D. in chemistry at Pennsylvania State University and postdoctoral research in biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology, Michael worked at SYVA diagnostics followed by fifteen years at Applied Biosystems Inc. rising to the role of VP of Science and Technology, and then VP of Strategic Technologies of the parent company Applera Corp, an S&P 500 company.

As VP of Science and Technology at Applied Biosystems Inc. (now Life Technologies Inc.), Michael was responsible for R&D programs with a budget in excess of US$100 million and overseeing the development of the company’s product pipeline via internal development, investment and acquisition.

Michael currently focuses on Board seats or senior consulting roles to guide the growth of science-based companies.

Nancy Harrison has over 25 years financing and building companies in the biotech industry. Since 2020, Nancy has been a Venture Partner with Amplitude Ventures, a full-stack life sciences venture capital firm focused on creating, building, and growing world-class Canadian precision medicine companies. From 2008 until 2017, Nancy was the President and co-founder of MSI Methylation Sciences Inc., a company with a focus on CNS.

Prior to MSI, Ms. Harrison was a Partner of Ventures West Management Inc. building the company from $70 million under management to $850 million. As one of the most experienced life sciences investors in the Canadian venture capital industry, she was instrumental in Ventures West’s involvement in the sector and with companies such as Angiotech Pharmaceuticals Inc., AnorMed Inc., Xenon Pharmaceuticals, Sembiosys Genetics Inc., Caprion Pharmaceuticals Inc., Celator Technologies Inc., and Alder Biopharmaceuticals. Ms Harrison has an undergraduate degree in Engineering from Queen’s University and an MBA from McGill University.

Paul Hemsley is an entrepreneur as well as an environmental, social, and governance (ESG) specialist with expertise in permitting major infrastructure projects.

In 2022, Paul co-founded and became a Managing Director of Radiant Renewables, a developer of solar, battery storage and other renewable energy projects in North America. Prior to Radiant, Paul was co-founder and President of Hemmera Envirochem Inc., a leading Canadian environmental consultancy. At its sale in 2017, Hemmera had more than 250 professional staff working in the service areas of permitting and approvals, environmental management, project management, and contaminated site remediation, as well as Indigenous engagement, consultation and negotiations.

Paul is a Director of Northwest Hydraulic Consultants and a Director of Phyto Organix Foods. Paul has a Bachelor of Science from Queen’s University and an MBA from Dalhousie University.

Scott is the CEO and founder of StarFish Medical, the leading medical device development services firm in Canada with 200 employees in Victoria and Toronto and clients around the world, and also heads up the StarFish Group of companies. Earlier in his career he worked in diverse technology startups in lithium batteries, audio speakers, natural gas instruments, and dental equipment. He sits on various startup and not-for-profit boards including Life Sciences BC and Viatec. He is based in Victoria and holds a degree in Engineering Physics from UBC.

Tom began his professional career in investment banking with Goldman, Sachs & Co. in 1988. He subsequently spent 14 years in the agricultural seeds business with Pioneer Hi-Bred and E.I. DuPont de Nemours primarily in Eastern and Western Europe. In 2004, Tom left DuPont to join the early-stage forestry genetics company, CellFor, Inc. and served as CellFor’s CEO until 2012 when the Company was sold to ArborGen, the market leader in forestry genetics. Tom founded Agribusiness Advisors in 2013 to invest in and advise early-stage Ag-tech companies. Agribusiness Advisors has made over 30 investments to date including companies in precision farming, bio-pesticides, alternative proteins, Ag-robotics and irrigation. Tom also serves on multiple early-stage company Boards and is an Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of British Columbia. Tom received his undergraduate degree from Middlebury College and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.