Dr. Ann Marie Vaughan is the Chair of the Board of Directors of Ontario Genomics.

Dr. Ann Marie Vaughan is President and CEO of Humber College Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning. She is the first woman to hold the position and is the fifth President and CEO in Humber’s history. Dr. Vaughan is a highly distinguished senior executive with nearly 30 years of success in the postsecondary sector. She joins Humber from Loyalist College in Belleville, Ontario where she served as President and CEO since 2016, and successfully drove an ambitious growth plan that strengthened Loyalist’s financial positioning, and saw the College take on a new strategic direction Prior to that she was the president and CEO of the College of the North Atlantic, in Newfoundland and Labrador, from 2011-2016. In 2015, she was recognized as a Top 50 CEO in Atlantic Canada.

Driven by her passion to advance social and economic development through expanding access to education, Dr. Vaughan is helping to pioneer the sector’s micro-credential movement as co-Chair of eCampusOntario’s Board of Directors. In addition, she serves on the Board of Directors for Ontario Genomics, a non-profit organization that is focused on nurturing genomics innovation in Ontario, and applying these technologies across key sectors, such as health, agriculture, bioproducts, and environment, to advance the province’s knowledge-based economy. Dr. Vaughan’s forward-thinking approach and significant contributions to the evolution of online learning have earned numerous accolades nationally and internationally, including being selected as a participant in the 2004 Governor General Canadian Leadership Conference.

In 2018, Dr. Vaughan was appointed to serve as an Honorary Colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force, affiliated with the 426 Training Squadron, 8 Wing, CFB Trenton. Dr. Vaughan is actively engaged in the college sector and currently also serves as Chair of the Management Board for College Employers Council.

Dr. Vaughan is proud of her early roots in student leadership which sparked her interest and career in higher education. She holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Education from Memorial University; certificates in Public Administration and Business from Memorial University; a Master of Arts in Higher Education from the University of British Columbia, and a Masters Certificate in Project Management from York University/Memorial University. Continuing her lifelong learning journey, in 2015 Dr. Vaughan received her doctorate in higher education leadership from the University of Calgary.

Nancy Carter is a member of the Board of Directors of Ontario Genomics and is Chair of the Audit Committee.

Nancy is the Vice President, Legal and Corporate Governance of CANARIE Inc., a key partner in Canada’s National Research and Education Network. Nancy is responsible for legal matters, governance, risk management, compliance, and global projects, as well as aligning CANARIE’s equity, diversity, and inclusion goals with business outcomes. Nancy has been with the organization since 1997, and most recently served as CANARIE’s Chief Financial Officer for 15 years.

Nancy serves on the Board of Trustees of the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), chairing the Finance Committee, and is the former Treasurer of the Board of Directors for the Internet Society, Canada Chapter. Nancy has served on the CIRA NomCom, since 2018, acting as Chair since 2020. In addition, she has chaired the Steering Committee for the Canadian Internet Governance Forum since 2018.

Tom was previously the President and CEO of Ontario Centres of Excellence for 10 years. His background includes over 40 years of experience in the venture capital, start-up, technology transfer, entrepreneurship, and academic sectors. Tom is a leader in bridging together the worlds of entrepreneurship, academia, financing, and industry.

Prior to joining OCE in 2010, Tom was CEO of the Accelerator Centre and AVP – Commercialization at the University of Waterloo. Prior to joining the University of Waterloo, he served as Director of Technology Transfer at the University of Toronto – Innovations Foundation. Before joining the University of Toronto, he spent 25 years in the private sector as an entrepreneur and as an executive with several major international technology corporations.

He holds a Doctor of Business Administration degree from Henley Management College/Brunel University in England, an MBA from the University of Toronto, the ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors and an Advanced Post-Graduate Diploma in Management Consultancy from Henley Management College.

Tom currently also serves on the boards of C-FER Technologies (Alberta Innovates), Ontario Centre of Innovation, Tyromer Inc, Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Laboratory (SNOLAB) and AI Partnerships Corp.

Colin Kelleher is the Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of Ontario Genomics and is also Chair of the Private Sector Advisory Committee (PSAC).

Colin is a serial entrepreneur specializing in angel investing in early-stage technology start-ups. His current investments are in digital agriculture, e-retailing, energy informatics and analytics, medical devices and municipal water analytics, efficiency and compliance software.

His earlier deals included investments in energy optimization technology, sustainable water technology and asset management modelling sustainability software for municipalities and utilities.

Colin was a partner and Chief Financial Officer of the Helyar Group, a leader in development cost management consulting. In 2005, he co-led the merger of the Helyar Group, the Altus Group and one other company to create one of the largest most comprehensive real estate consulting firms in North America. Subsequently, as co-lead, Colin took the new entity public on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Colin holds a Bachelor of Science in Surveying from Trinity College and a Diploma in Construction Economics from Bolton Street College of Technology, both in Dublin, Ireland.

He is also a LEED-certified professional (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and a member of the global Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

Colin also graduated from the executive program at Singularity University, where he received the Singularity Prototype Challenge Award for his presentation on “Buildings of the Future”.

Dr. Mark Lundie is currently the Vice President & Global Medical Lead of Rare Endocrinology and Neurology with Pfizer Inc. He received a Bachelor’s of Science from the University of Waterloo ((1986) followed by a MSc from Queen’s University (1989) and a doctorate degree from Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology at Queen’s University in 1995. He joined the pharmaceutical industry with Pfizer Canada in 1997 and over the past 22 years has held a number of positions of within the Pfizer Canada Medical Division. He currently serves on the Board of Directors at Clinical Trials Ontario, the Center for Probe Development & Commercialization and Ontario Genomics. Mark has supported the development of public-private partnerships with a number of research based institutes such as the Ontario Institute of Cancer Research, the Structural Genomics Consortium, MaRS Innovation and the Center for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine.

Dr. Alex MacKenzie, an attending pediatrician at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) has served as the CEO and Science Director of the CHEO Research Institute as well as Vice President of Research for both CHEO and Genome Canada in addition to being founding scientist of the AeGera biotech company. Dr. MacKenzie’s laboratory has conducted translational research on the rare pediatric disorder spinal muscular atrophy over the past 25 years; in recent years has broadened its focus with its involvement in the enhance Care for Rare project to search for therapies for a larger number of rare diseases.

Derek is the Assistant Vice-President, Innovation, Partnerships, and Entrepreneurship at The University of Toronto (U of T).  He supports the university’s bold innovation agenda towards fostering the next generation of Canadian entrepreneurs, developing successful corporate research partnerships, and managing the IP portfolio of the university.

U of T is a global leader in turning research into products, services, companies and jobs. In the past several years, companies emerging from U of T have secured more than $1.5 billion in investment and capital and the university is ranked among the top 10 university-managed start-up incubators in the world.

Derek held previous senior roles at Western University, he worked at a large biotechnology funding organization and also at a management consultancy firm specializing in biotechnology. He holds a PhD from U of T in biomedical research.

Dr. Benjamin Rovinski has 28 years of investment, operational, managerial and research experience in the healthcare sector. Beni joined Lumira Ventures in 2001, where he is a Managing Director, with an investment focus on early-to late-stage private and public life sciences companies. With a proven track record of delivering results both as a senior scientist and a business executive, Beni has held several senior management positions in the biotechnology sector, including 13 years at Sanofi Pasteur (formerly Aventis Pasteur) where he was a senior scientist and director of molecular virology, with a particular focus in the areas of virology, vaccine development, recombinant protein production, and functional genomics. While at Aventis, Beni led global research and development programs in the areas of HIV/AIDS and therapeutic cancer vaccines, bringing several of them through to clinical stage.

Beni received a PhD in biochemistry from McGill University in Montréal and did post-doctoral studies in molecular oncology and retrovirology at the Ontario Cancer Institute in Toronto. He obtained his undergraduate degree from Rice University in Houston. Beni’s current and past board roles and investment responsibilities include several private and public companies, including G1 Therapeutics (NASDAQ: GTHX); Aurinia Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AUPH); Vascular Pharmaceuticals; KAI Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Amgen); Morphotek (acquired by Eisai); Cervelo Pharmaceuticals; Health Hero Network (acquired by Bosch); Avalon Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AVRX; acquired by Clinical Data, Inc.); Inovise Medical, Inc.; Protana; Signature Biosciences; and SGX Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SGXP; acquired by Eli Lilly). He also serves on the board of directors of Life Sciences Ontario and the advisory board of the TO Health! industry-led initiative to promote the profile of the Toronto region’s Human Health & Sciences cluster. Beni has published over 25 scientific articles and reviews and is the recipient of 32 issued patents.

Jehoshua Sharma is a PhD student from Trinidad and Tobago, currently at the University of Guelph in Ontario. He is studying the fungal pathogen Candida albicans in the lab of Dr. Rebecca Shapiro. His current research focus is on the discovery of compounds that can either enhance the activity of known drugs or that can disarm the pathogen of the virulence mechanisms that make them harmful to the human host. He is also developing novel CRISPR-Cas variants to expand the current genetic manipulation toolbox for fungal pathogens to study the functional genomics of drug resistant isolates. For his work in the Shapiro lab he has won the ‘CBS, Best Paper’ award for his CRISPRi system, the International Doctoral Scholarship and multiple grants.

Jehoshua has established iGEM Guelph in 2016, an undergraduate-led synthetic biology research group. As Director of Research, he led the team to win a Gold Medal at the 2019 iGEM Jamboree in Boston for creating a cost-effective antibiotic biosensor for small-scale farmers. He also co-founded cGEM, a Canadian-wide initiative that brings together research groups across Canada tasked with using synthetic biology to solve real-world problems. His aims with these groups are to give students access to the tools that they need to conduct research independently and communicate their research on a wider scale to the public. Partnered with Synbio Canada and CSBERG, he works to transform the synthetic biology landscape in Canada through focusing investment into trainee knowledge.

Through talks, panels and outreach events, Jehoshua has made it clear that a significant aspect of his work is scientific communication. Recently he also holds a position at his University’s Molecular and Cellular Biology department as the graduate representative on the equity, diversity and inclusion committee. Here, he advocates for changes that promote the presence of BIPOC researchers through changing recruitment, hiring and funding policies.

Dr. Deb Stark is the former Deputy Minister of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA). During her public service career, Deb held various senior leadership roles within OMAFRA and the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) including serving as Ontario’s first chief veterinary officer.

Deb has been a Trustee and Chair of the OPSEU Pension Trust (OPT), Chair of Hospice Wellington, and on the boards of the Veterinary Infectious Diseases Organization (VIDO), and the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA). Deb is currently on the boards of the Canadian Agriculture Policy Institute and the Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame Association.