With mixed emotions, we share news of an important change at Ontario Genomics. Effective March 29, 2024, Dr. Bettina Hamelin, our esteemed President and CEO since August 2017, will be leaving the organization to pursue an exciting new opportunity at Innovative Medicines Canada (IMC). IMC is the national association representing the voice of 48 innovative pharmaceutical companies in Canada. Here, Bettina will continue to take important strides to advance our innovation ecosystem and advocate for policies that enable the discovery, development, and delivery of innovative medicines and vaccines to improve the lives of all Canadians.
Under Bettina’s leadership, Ontario Genomics has flourished, achieving milestones that have marked historic moments in our 24-year history. Her visionary leadership has not only put Ontario Genomics on the map locally, nationally, and internationally but also delivered extraordinary outcomes that have advanced our broader ecosystem.
We extend our deepest appreciation to Bettina, and highlight some of her profound successes over the last 6 years:
- Leading unprecedented success for our research community, attracting more federal Genome Canada funding and Ontario government project co-funding than ever before;
- Advancing cutting-edge commercialization of Ontario’s world-leading research with the creation of the Landing Pad and programs;
- Creating the first-in-class Canadian waste upcycling consortium, , to provide solutions for our global waste crisis;
- Steering transformational national thought-leadership and engineering biology community building through five consecutive years of ;
- Championing three insightful publications in the areas of engineering biology, cellular agriculture and clean DNA, evolving Ontario Genomics’ scope into market-relevant and ground-breaking spaces.
Most importantly, we commend Bettina’s transformative strategic vision to advance Ontario Genomics’ commitment to realizing homegrown, bio-based solutions to humanity’s greatest challenges: climate change, food insecurity and acute and chronic disease. With Bettina’s commitment to collaboration and entrepreneurial culture, the Ontario Genomics team is set up for success and ready to support Ontario’s thriving genomics community.
Please join us in wishing Bettina all the very best in her new role and stay tuned for more information on Ontario Genomics’ interim leadership plan.
