Alistair Duncan, B.Sc., CPA-CA
Co-Founder, President & CEO

Alistair Duncan is co-Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of viDA Therapeutics Inc. Prior to viDA, Alistair co-founded and served as President and CEO of Chromos Molecular Systems Inc., developing artificial chromosome technology for cellular protein production and cell/gene therapy applications.  Alistair also co-founded, and served as Director, Chief Financial Officer for Agrisoma Biosciences Inc., building high performance crop seeds for renewable fuels.  Alistair previously served as a Principal with E&Y’s Corporate Finance and International Life Sciences Group.

He is a 25-year industry veteran having held diverse positions across commercial operations, business development, strategy, and innovation.  Alistair is known for his passion for innovation and development of breakthrough technologies and business opportunities. He holds a Bachelor of Science in biochemistry from the University of British Columbia and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia. He served as Chairman and Board Member for the following organizations: the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, BC Technology Industry Association, BC Research Institute for Children’s and Women’s Health, and BC Biotech (now LifeSciences BC).

Harry Ledebur, Ph. D., COO

Specializing in R&D, operations, and corporate strategy within the pharmaceutical, biotech, and contract research industries, Harry has held a number of VP/C-Level executive positions. Harry’s diverse R&D experience encompasses small and large molecules, advanced therapies like cell and gene therapies, and engineered tissues. He has led cross-functional teams through all stages of product and platform development, from discovery to human proof of concept, commercial launch, and divestiture. Additionally, Harry has extensive experience in corporate strategic planning, execution, performance management, and building strong relationships with clients, contractors, and strategic partners. Harry has Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Molecular & Cell Biology from Penn State University and a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Biochemistry from The Ohio State University.

 Jeff Charpentier, CPA-CA., Finance

Mr. Charpentier is a veteran of the biopharmaceutical industry with over 25 years of experience. Jeff has held a series of senior financial roles at several public and private companies in the pharmaceutical and technology sectors where he led multiple equity financings, raising in excess of $150M and concluded a number of corporate partnering/product sale transactions. Jeff previously served as CFO for Lifebank Corp. (through to successful company sale in 2012), Inex Pharmaceuticals Corporation (now Arbutus Biopharma Corp.), and Chromos Molecular Systems Inc. Jeff has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of British Columbia and is a member of the Chartered Professional Accountants of BC.

Mary Jane Raffi, Ph. D., MBA, Corporate Development

With more than 20 years of biotech and pharmaceutical experience, Mary Jane brings expertise on buy and sell side, mergers & acquisitions, equity investment, business development, licensing and corporate strategy, at multinational pharma companies and US private and global small midcaps and value-creating transformative transactions. MaryJane has a PhD from Cardiff University, Wales, United Kingdom in NeuroOphthalmology and an Executive MBA from INSEAD in Paris France and a Master of Science in Immunology from Stanford University, Palo Alto. She obtained a Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology from University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA.

David Granville, Ph.D., F.A.H.A.
Co-Founder, CSO

Dr. Granville is a co-Founder and serves as the Company’s Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) Dr. David Granville is a Full Professor and Associate Dean, Research in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia (UBC). He also serves as the Executive Director of the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute (VCHRI), the largest hospital-based research institute in Western Canada. He is also a Principal Investigator and Director of the BC Professional Firefighters’ Burn and Wound Healing Research Laboratory, VCHRI. He completed his Ph.D. at UBC and his post-doctorate work at The Scripps Research Institute, San Diego, CA. Dr. Granville previously worked at QLT, Inc. (1994-2001) where his R&D studies supported the approval of Visudyne® to be used as the first treatment for macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in the elderly. In 1999 Visudyne® was approved by the FDA resulting in the largest ophthalmic product release in history. Dr. Granville’s research is referred to on the drug label for Visudyne®. In 2001, Dr. Granville moved to Scripps where he discovered a novel therapeutic approach for cardiac ischemia and reperfusion injury, which led to the formation of Radical Therapeutix (San Diego, CA). He was recruited back to UBC as an Assistant Professor, Canada Research Chair and Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar in 2003. In 2016 he was recruited to VCHRI where he currently resides. Dr. Granville has received numerous awards including a Canada Research Chair, Canada Top 40 Under 40 Award, Business in Vancouver Forty Under 40, Canadian Association of Pathology Scientist Award, 2006 UBC Outstanding Young Alumnus Award, the 2007 SFU Academic Alumnus Award, and was a runner-up for the 2007 American Heart Association Louis and Arnold Katz Basic Science Prize. He is also a Fellow of the American Heart Association and a Scholar of the Royal Society of Canada. More recently Dr. Granville was the recipient of the prestigious Canadian Institutes for Health Research Institute of Aging Excellence in Research Prize (2022).

 Dale Cameron, Ph.D., Medicinal Chemistry/CMC

Dr. Cameron serves as Associate Director, Medicinal Chemistry, and nominal Head of Drug Discovery.  His professional experience over the past 18 years includes a variety of roles in Computational Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry and Intellectual Property (IP) at small and large pharmaceutical companies and as a private consultant.  From 2009 to 2012 he operated as a consultant to two companies in a variety of roles including computational chemistry, intellectual property, and business development support.  Prior to that he served in several roles at local biotech company, MIGENIX (Micrologix Biotech), most recently as Director, Research (Anti-Infectives) and Manager, Intellectual Property (in a concurrent role) and was responsible for Drug Discovery Research activities in antibacterial, anti-viral, and anti-fungal programs. He also managed the IP portfolio and other roles including evaluation of potential licensing opportunities.  Prior to this Dr. Cameron spent almost 6 years at Boehringer Ingelheim (Canada) Ltd, in Laval, QC where he most recently served as the Head of Structural Research as a Sr. Research Scientist in Computational Chemistry.  In this he was awarded, as part of a team, the 2000 Boehringer Ingelheim R&D Award for his role in the identification of BILN2061, the first Hepatitis C Virus Protease inhibitor to proceed to human clinical trials. He is coauthor on over 30 scientific publications and is named as inventor on at least 12 patent families.  He has a Bachelor of Science (Hons., Subject of Specialization) in Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Chemistry both from Queen’s University.

Don Campbell — Chair

Mr. Campbell is the senior strategy advisor at Davis LLP providing non-legal advisory services to the firm's clients in connection with their business strategies, with a particular emphasis on strategies dealing with governments and governmental agencies in Canada and internationally. Prior to joining Davis, Mr. Campbell was Executive Vice-President of CAE Inc. He joined CAE in September 2000 and served as Group President of the Military Simulation and Training Division until June, 2006. Prior to his time at CAE, Mr. Campbell had a distinguished career with Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. As Assistant Deputy Minister, Mr. Campbell was deeply involved in the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement and as Deputy Minister of International Trade he supervised the negotiation of the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Mr. Campbell was formerly Deputy Foreign Minister (1997-2000), the Prime Minister's Personal Representative for G-8 Summits (1997-2000), Canada's Ambassador to Japan (1993-1997), Deputy Minister for International Trade (1989-1993), the Assistant Deputy Minister (United States) (1985-1989) and Canada's Ambassador to Korea (1984-1985). Mr. Campbell currently serves as a Director for Toyota Canada Inc., Canfor Pulp Holding Inc., Davie Yards Inc. and the Perimeter Institute.

Julia Levy, Ph.D.

Dr. Levy served as Chair of the Board and Founder of QLT.  Dr. Levy served in several key senior posts at QLT including Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President as well as President and CEO from 1995 to February 2002. Following her doctorate degree in immunology from the University of London, Dr. Levy was awarded an Industrial Professorship in the Department of Microbiology from the University of British Columbia and is the recipient of several honorary degrees. A fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and former President of the Canadian Federation of Biological Sciences, Dr. Levy has earned numerous awards and honors including an appointment as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2001, the Female Entrepreneur of the Year for International Business in 1998, Pacific Canada Entrepreneur of the Year in 2000 and the Future of Vision Award from the Foundation Fighting Blindness in 2001. In 2002 she received the Friesen-Rygiel prize for medical research and the Prix Galien Canada research award. Along with Dr. Gustav Huber of Novartis, she was presented with the 2003 Helen Keller Prize for Innovation in Eye Care.

Marlene Haffner, MD, MPH.

Founder of Haffner Associates, LLC in 2009, . Dr. Marlene Haffner was the Director of the Office of Orphan Products Development at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for 20+ years.  During her tenure in that program, it became THE orphan products program in the world. In addition to assisting in the development of more than 300 products in the US, she is credited with assisting in the development of programs in Japan, the European Union, Australia, and beyond.  Trained as an internist and hematologist, Dr. Haffner graduated from the George Washington University School of Medicine and did further training at the Columbia University School of Medicine and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in New York City. She received her Masters of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. Following her tenure at FDA and prior to forming Haffner Associates, Dr. Haffner served as Executive Director, Global Regulatory Intelligence and Policy for two years at Amgen, the largest biotech company in the world.

Alistair Duncan, B.Sc., C.A.

See Management.

Dominque Bélanger, B.Eng., M.B.A.

Dominique Bélanger is Managing Partner, Fund Investments with BDC Capital.
Before joining BDC in 2010, Dominique was co-founder and President of Gamerizon Studio, Inc. He was previously Chief Financial Officer of the venture-backed Quazal Technologies, Inc. (acquired by Ubisoft). He also advised various technology companies and private investors on investments, financing, start-ups and restarts. Dominique began his professional career as a communications officer for the Canadian Armed Forces in 1994. He went on to carry out several IT strategy operationalization mandates across multiple industries for Deloitte Consulting in Houston, Texas. In 2003, he joined the VC firm Innovatech Montreal as Investment Manager, IT and Telecom. Following the privatization of Innovatech’s portfolio by the Quebec government, he joined the Multiple Capital team to manage the portfolio on behalf of Coller Capital. Dominique holds an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from the Royal Military College of Canada as well as an MBA from the Université de Montréal business school, HEC Montréal, as well as a certificate in entrepreneurship from MIT.

Gosse Bruinsma, MD.

Dr. Gosse B. Bruinsma has over 25 years of experience in the medical, pharmaceutical and biotechnology fields and has held numerous senior executive and Director positions in private and public companies in Europe and USA. Previously President of Axonyx Europe BV in the Netherlands, in February 2001 Dr. Bruinsma became a Director and COO of Axonyx Inc., based in NYC, President of Axonyx Inc. in Sept. 2003 and CEO in February 2005. In Oct 2006, Dr. Bruinsma successfully merged the company with a private USA based company. In January 2007, Dr. Bruinsma established Ciurem Pharma Inc. whose core focus is to maximize asset value and minimize the risk profile for investors in and shareholders of biotech and pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Bruinsma is currently acting-CEO of Vivendy Therapeutics Ltd., in Basel, Switzerland, CEO of IDEA AG in Munich, Germany as well as non-Executive Director of ProteoNic BV based in Leiden, Netherlands. Dr. Bruinsma received his undergraduate degree from McGill University, Montreal and his medical degree from the University of Leiden, The Netherlands.