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Looking for a one-on-one opportunity to discuss tips on navigating your career in academia or industry? Join us for Speed Mentoring; an opportunity for UBC postdocs to interact with current faculty and industry members who will share their perspective and answer questions. Speed Mentoring will be followed by a wine and cheese networking event.
This event provides UBC PDFs with the opportunity to meet face-to-face with experienced faculty and industry members and in return for them to engage with UBC’s rising star scholars. Please note that it is not required to meet with Faculty members within your own discipline, in fact it is recommended that you meet with a variety of Faculty and Industry mentors who could provide the most beneficial and enriched perspective.
Speed Mentoring is a fun, fast-paced event in which PDFs will have the opportunity to interact with as many expert mentors as possible. Mentors from all areas of research and training will be participating, to offer brief one-on-one advice to postdocs, ten minutes at a time. With registration, the PDFO will organise the time into ten minute increments, ideally with a chance for each PDF to meet with their choice of mentors. These questions can be regarding academic or industry career topics such as:
- Job search strategies
- Grant writing
- Interview process
- Funding issues
- Knowing Where You Are Going
- Tenure
- Skill Development
- Collegiality and Independence
- Life Balance
- Gender Differences
- Peculiarities Unique to Arts, Science and Medicine
As part of the registration process each PDF must submit their choice of ten mentors from the list provided, of which you will meet with a minimum of four. Only those PDFs who have registered will be able to participate in this session. Please note attendance is mandatory for this session and by signing up you have committed to attend.
Registration:
Registration is required and early registration is encouraged. Please register online. Please note, for this event registration is expected to close by end of day Tuesday, May 28, 2013. Please ensure to request each mentor only once and please make sure to complete the entire survey, unless you have chosen 10 mentors to choose from we cannot accept the registration.
Those successfully registered will receive a confirmation email from the PDFO within one week of the session's date. If you are interested in this event, please ensure you register early as the mentor's timetables do fill up. Due to demand, if you have registered but are no longer able to attend, the PDFO will accept cancellations up to 72 hours before this session. Kindly let us know via email to postdoctoral.fellows@ubc.ca
Please ensure you come prepared with questions and please keep in mind it is a great academic and industry networking event where first impressions go a long way. While we will endeavor to provide each PDF with their choice of mentor, based on availability we cannot guarantee a meeting with each preferred mentor.
Faculty Mentors:
Applied Science: Dr. Sue Baldwin Bio coming Dr. Charles Haynes See Bio Arts: Dr. Mark Vessey See Bio Dentistry: Dr. Chris Overall See Bio Education: Dr. Donal O'Donoghue See Bio Forestry: Dr. John Innes See Bio Land and Food Systems: Dr. Brenton Skura See Bio Medicine: Dr. Jehannine Austin See Bio Dr. Ed Conway See Bio Dr. Ross MacGillivray See Bio Science Dr. Anne Condon See Bio Dr. Rachel Kuske See Bio
Industry Mentors:
Centre for Drug Research & Development Natalie Dakers See Bio Centre for Drug Research & Development Karimah Es Sabar See Bio BC Bioenergy Network Darren Frew See Bio BackStretch Consulting Group Matthew Heiydt See Bio MITACs Dr. Laurence Meadows See Bio Nano Tech Clint Landrock See Bio Response Biomedical Jeff Purvin See Bio Tait Laboratories Dr. Harish Vasudevan See Bio
Applied Science:
*** Please note all timeslots for this mentor are currently booked and registration is no longer available. Please feel free to meet with this mentor at the networking event immediately following the session ***
*** Please note all timeslots for this mentor are currently booked and registration is no longer available. Please feel free to meet with this mentor at the networking event immediately following the session ***
Dr. Charles Haynes is a Professor and Tier I Canada Research Chair in Interfacial Biotechnology within the Michael Smith Laboratories and the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering of the University of British Columbia. The central objective of Dr. Haynes’ research program is to improve our understanding of the interfacial behavior of biomolecules and cellular systems, and to use this fundamental knowledge to invent new technologies and instruments.
Dr. Haynes has pioneered and licensed a number of new technologies to efficiently purify biomolecules that have achieved widespread use in the biotechnology industry. These include the Fractogel™ line of chromatography media, controlled-shear affinity filtration technology for recombinant protein purification, the CBinD™ affinity chromatography system, and TEMPlex™ technology, a system that removes a former bottleneck in high-throughput DNA sequencing that was used by Celera Genomics Inc. in their landmark program to sequence the human genome. More recently, Dr. Haynes' research has focused on developing novel high-throughput technology for enzyme discovery and characterization, for absolute quantification of transcript abundance profiles on a per cell basis, and for accurately determining the locations, post-translational chemistries, and concentrations of important protein families and networks within either an individual cell or cellular communities. Dr. Haynes is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and recipient of numerous awards, including the Winnaker Technology Transfer Award, and the Overbeek Medal.
Arts:
Mark Vessey (MA English, Cambridge; DPhil, Ancient History, Oxford) came to UBC on a Killam Postdoctoral Fellowship in 1989 and has been a professor in the Department of English since 1990 (Full Professor since 2005). He was a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford University, in 1997, held a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Literature / Christianity and Culture between 2001 and 2011, won a Killam Research Prize (Senior Arts Category) in 2005, was Chair of the English Graduate Program and Associate Head of the Department of English from 2005-8, and has been Principal of Green College at UBC since 2008. His research focusses on processes of text-, canon- and discipline-formation between classical antiquity and the present day. He is the editor of A Companion to Augustine (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012) and is giving this year's Blackwell Lectures in Greece, Rome, and the Classical Tradition at the University of Bristol.
Dentistry:
Dr. Overall is a Professor and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Metalloproteinase Proteomics and Systems Biology at the University of British Columbia, Centre for Blood Research. He completed his undergraduate, Honors Science and Masters degrees at the University of Adelaide, South Australia; his Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the University of Toronto; and was a MRC Centennial Fellow in his post-doctoral work with Dr. Michael Smith, Nobel Laureate, Biotechnology Laboratory, University of British Columbia. On Sabbatical in 1997-1998 he was a Visiting Senior Scientist at British Biotech Pharmaceuticals, Oxford, UK and in 2004/2008 he was a Visiting Senior Scientist at the Expert Protease Platform, Novartis Pharma, Basel, Switzerland where he learned industrial scale concepts and the nature of drug development. He is currently an External Senior Fellow, Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies - FRIAS, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg. Dr. Overall won the Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis CIHR Award as 2002 CIHR Scientist of the Year, the University of British Columbia Killam Senior Researcher Award (Science) 2005, and was the Chair of the 2003 Matrix Metalloproteinase Gordon Research Conference and the 2010 Protease Gordon Research Conference. Recently he was a plenary speaker at 2010 HUPO and organized a featured symposium “Can proteomics fill the gap between genomics and phenotypes?” at the 2012 AAAS conference. With over 10,500 citations for his 195 papers (since 2000 his papers have been cited >6,500 times) and with an h factor of 58 he is a highly influential scientist in the field. Professor Overall is the pioneer of degradomics, indeed he coined this term. With 6 Nature Review papers on this and drug target validation and with numerous protease degradomics approaches published in Nature Journals he is a leader in the field that was recently recognized by the International Society of Proteolysis with a Lifetime Achievement Award in October 2011 and by Matrix Biology Society of Australia and New Zealand with the 2012 Barry Preston Award.
Education:
Dr. Dónal O Donoghue is Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy and a Faculty Member of Green College. His research interests include art and design education, art research methodologies, curriculum theory, and masculinities. He has published widely in these areas, and received the 2010 Manuel Barkan Memorial Award from the National Art Education Association, United States (NAEA) for his scholarly writing. He is a member of many national and international art, design and education associations and editorial boards including the NAEA Higher Education Division Research Steering Committee, of which he is Co-Chair. From 2009-2011, he served as a member of the SSHRC Standard Research Grants Selection Committee 12. Currently, he serves as Editor of the Canadian Review of Art Education.
Forestry:
Originally from Scotland, John Innes is Dean of Forestry and FRBC Chair of Forest Management at the University of British Columbia, Canada. He was educated at the University of Cambridge, England, following which he worked for the UK Forestry Commission. After a period in Switzerland at the Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, he moved to British Columbia in 1999. He is Coordinator of the Task Force "Resources for the Future" of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations and Chair of the Commonwealth Forestry Association. He holds honorary professorial positions at three Chinese forestry universities and at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He is a Registered Professional Forester (Australia), and co-chair of the Asia-Pacific Forestry Deans Mechanism.
John’s research has evolved over time. His PhD was on slope stability and environmental change but later broadened into the effects of environmental change on forests. Prior to coming to Canada, he specialized on air pollution impacts on forests. However, following repeated failed attempts to get support funding from NSERC, he had to completely change his research direction, and has been working on how forest-dependent communities are adapting to climate change, which SSHRC seems happy to fund.
Land and Food Systems:
Brent has been a faculty member in the Food Science program at the University of British Columbia since 1975 where he is currently an Associate Professor in the Food, Nutrition and Health Program and Program Director of the Global Resource Systems Program in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems. His teaching and research focus on microorganisms in food and factors affecting food quality and safety. His fish related research has focused on flesh quality of farmed and wild salmon, rockfish and sable fish. Courses taught include food microbiology at the undergraduate and postgraduate level, seafood process science, an introductory course in Food Science and more recently as a member of the teaching team for LFS 250 (Land, Food and Community I) and Global Resource Systems 290/390/490 in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems.
Medicine:
*** Please note all timeslots for this mentor are currently booked and registration is no longer available. Please feel free to meet with this mentor at the networking event immediately following the session ***
Jehannine Austin is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Medical Genetics. She holds the Canada Research Chair in Translational Psychiatric Genomics. After completing a molecular genetics PhD, Jehannine trained clinically as a genetic counselor, and her work combines both of these aspects of her training. Her research work involves using a clinical genetics perspective to inform the development of interventions to improve outcomes for people with psychiatric disorders and their family members. As a direct result of some of her research, she has also led the development of a new specialist service - it is the first and only one of its kind in the world - providing genetic counseling for people with psychiatric disorders (that are unrelated to genetic syndromes) and their families. Jehannine is a board certified genetic counselor, and is Graduate Advisor to the Genetic Counseling Program at UBC.
*** Please note all timeslots for this mentor are currently booked and registration is no longer available. Please feel free to meet with this mentor at the networking event immediately following the session ***
Dr. Ed Conway was born and educated in Toronto, receiving degrees in Electrical Engineering and Medicine at the University of Toronto. He completed his clinical and research fellowships in Hematology-Oncology at Harvard University and at MIT and returned to Toronto as a physician-scientist and hematologist, establishing a successful research group in vascular biology, funded by the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
In 1995, Dr. Conway was recruited to the University of Leuven in Belgium, where he joined the faculty of the Vesalius Research Center. There, he completed a PhD in Biomedical Sciences, and an MBA at Heriot Watt University. In addition to leading a research group focused on delineating mechanisms underlying vascular diseases, he coordinated collaborations with industry, and organized graduate educational programs.
Dr. Conway was recruited to Vancouver in 2009 as the Director of the Centre for Blood Research where his goal is to catalyze translational research between the basic scientists at UBC and clinical scientists at the affiliated hospitals. He is a Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine and holds a Canada Research Chair in Endothelial Cell Biology. His research is supported by grants from the CIHR and NSERC.
*** Please note all timeslots for this mentor are currently booked and registration is no longer available. Please feel free to meet with this mentor at the networking event immediately following the session ***
Dr. Ross T.A. MacGillivray, Ph.D. is currently a Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UBC. He was Vice Dean, Academic Affairs in the Faculty of Medicine from 2009 -2012. Ross is a member of the Scientific and Research Staff in the Division of Hematological Pathology at the Vancouver General Hospital and a Consultant in Genetics and Health at the Child and Family Research Institute of the BC Children’s Hospital. Dr. MacGillivray was also the founding Director of the UBC Centre for Blood Research until he stepped down in 2008.
He has been the recipient of several awards including the Ayerst Award of the Canadian Biochemistry Society and a UBC Killam Research Prize, a Killam Teaching Prize and a Killam Senior Fellowship. He received the 2006 Genome BC Award for Scientific Excellence presented by BC Biotech.
Science:
*** Please note all timeslots for this mentor are currently booked and registration is no longer available. Please feel free to meet with this mentor at the networking event immediately following the session ***
Anne Condon is Professor and Head of the Department of Computer Science at U. British Columbia. Her research is in the areas of computational complexity and algorithms, with a current focus on ways to computationally predict nucleic acid structure and on molecular programming - the art and science of writing programs that are realized and executed by DNA or other molecules. Anne is a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She held the NSERC/General Motors Canada Chair for Women in Science and Engineering (2004-2009), and received the Computing Research Association's Habermann Award for outstanding contributions aimed at increasing the numbers and successes of women in computing research (2010). She received her Bachelor's degree (1982) from University College Cork, Ireland, and her Ph.D. (1987) at the University of Washington, and has received Distinguished Alumna Awards from University College Cork and U. Washington's department of Computer Science and Engineering and the College of Engineering.
*** Please note all timeslots for this mentor are currently booked and registration is no longer available. Please feel free to meet with this mentor at the networking event immediately following the session ***
Rachel Kuske received her PhD in 1992 from Northwestern University, and has research interests in applied stochastic dynamics and nonlinear modeling with applications in biology, engineering, and climate systems. Before moving to Vancouver, she was a postdoc at Stanford and University of Utrecht and held faculty appointments at Tufts University and the University of Minnesota. In 2002 Kuske joined the faculty in UBC Mathematics, holding a Canada Research Chair in Applied Mathematics (2002-2012) and was the Department Head from 2007-2011. She was recently appointed as the Senior Advisor to the Provost on Women Faculty. Kuske has worked with a variety of mathematical institutes and professional organizations in applied mathematics. She is on a number of mathematics editorial and advisory boards, and has been an expert and mentor for events covering topics from industrial mathematics to women in science and mathematics.
Industry Mentors Bios:
*** Please note all timeslots for this mentor are currently booked and registration is no longer available. Please feel free to meet with this mentor at the networking event immediately following the session ***
Ms. Dakers is a leading figure in the Canadian biotechnology industry and currently serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of CDRD Ventures Inc. after having spent the last seven years as the founding CEO of The Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD), an innovative national organization with a mandate to address the commercialization gap between early-stage technologies arising out of university-based research and private sector investment opportunities. Under Ms. Dakers’ leadership, CDRD signed affiliation agreements with more than 20 major research institutions in Canada and around the world, and forged important strategic relationships with public and private sector partners including Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson, Roche, GlaxoSmithKline, Genome British Columbia and the Governments of British Columbia and Alberta. With over 20,000 square feet in specialized lab space and more than $15 million invested in state-of-the-art equipment, under Ms. Dakers leadership, CDRD built a team of over 85 employees, engaged close to 500 individual investigators, raised and secured approximately $130 million in funding, and was named a Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR) by the Federal Government.
Ms. Dakers brings to the organization many valuable years of experience in the commercialization of technology, licensing, and intellectual property protection. Prior to leading the establishment of CDRD, Ms. Dakers was President and CEO of Neuromed Pharmaceuticals (Technologies) Inc., a private biopharmaceutical company developing drugs for chronic pain, anxiety, epilepsy and cardiovascular diseases. As co-founder and CEO, Ms. Dakers built the company from inception and raised three rounds of venture financing totaling approximately $70 million. Prior to this, Ms. Dakers managed technology transfer for the Life Sciences sector at the University Industry Liaison Office (UILO) at the University of British Columbia, where she was involved in the creation and spin-off of more than a dozen start-up high-tech and biotech companies.
Ms. Dakers is active in a number of business and scientific organizations, including Past Chair and Director of BC Biotech (now LifeSciences BC), the association supporting and representing British Columbia’s biotech, medical device and life sciences community. Currently, Ms. Dakers is a board member of BIOTECanada, the Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD), CDRD Ventures Inc. and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Life Sciences Advisory Board. Previously, Ms. Dakers also served on the Boards of the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), Genome Canada, the International Science and Technology Partnership Canada (ISTP Canada), Genome BC, and the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research. Ms. Dakers is an Adjunct Professor in UBC’s Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and a member of the Council of Canadian Academies’ Expert Panel on Business Innovation. Ms. Dakers received a Peak Award for Performance and Excellence in 2004. In 2009, Ms. Dakers was the recipient of BIOTECanada’s Gold Leaf Award for Industry Leadership.
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*** Please note all timeslots for this mentor are currently booked and registration is no longer available. Please feel free to meet with this mentor at the networking event immediately following the session ***
A highly-recognized Canadian life sciences leader, Karimah Es Sabar brings 30 years of dynamic global business experience to her role as President and CEO of The Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She previously held the position of Senior Vice-President, Business and Strategic Affairs at CDRD, responsible for ensuring the organization’s long-term sustainability, while leading its business functions and successfully building the many national and international alliances and strategic partnerships which are now contributing significantly to advancing the goals of CDRD. In 2013, Ms. Es Sabar was appointed Founding Chair of the Global Alliance of Leading Drug Discovery and Development Centres, an association of international peer organizations dedicated to translating health research into new medicines.
Prior to joining CDRD, Ms. Es Sabar took on the role of leading BC Biotech in 2005, re-engineering and rebranding the organization to LifeSciences BC. As President, she led the organization to its greatest levels of success as a strong business development organization for the life science industry and the scientific research community. Ms. Es Sabar has also held senior management positions with international multinational companies, most notably as Director International Division, and later Director Marketing and Business Development at Connaught Laboratories Limited [Sanofi Pasteur] based in Toronto. Ms. Es Sabar also served as Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for a Vancouver medical devices company, Medsurge Medical Inc., and was the founder and Managing Director of SAL Healthcare Limited, a leading healthcare organization in Kenya specializing in pharmaceutical marketing, distribution and healthcare consulting services. The company set new standards in the marketing and distribution of biopharmaceutical products in the region.
Ms. Es Sabar currently serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Providence Healthcare Research Institute, and also sits on the Boards of a number of organizations including the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR); the Prostate Centre Advisory Board, Vancouver General Hospital; the Prostate Centre’s Translational Research Initiative for Accelerated Discovery and Development (PC-TRIADD); NRC – IRAP Advisory Board; and also Chairs MOSAIC, a multilingual non-profit organization dedicated to addressing issues that affect immigrants and refugees in the course of their settlement and integration into Canadian society. She has also lent her leadership expertise by participating in a number of advisory committees for organizations such as the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC); MITACS; the British Columbia Institute of Technology / University of British Columbia Biotechnology Degree Program; The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE); India Market Advisory Committee, and the British Columbia Asia-Pacific Trade Council. She is also a former board member of LifeSciences British Columbia, the Aga Khan National Economic Planning Board of Canada and Aga Khan National Health Boards in Canada and Kenya.
In 2007, Ms. Es Sabar received Canada’s Gold Award for Business Excellence (CABE) while at Sanofi Pasteur, was the recipient of the YWCA Women of Distinction Award in 2010 for Industry, Science and Technology, was included amongst “The Vancouver Power 50” listing of the most influential people in BC by Vancouver Magazine, and in “BC’s Top 100 Women of Influence” by the Vancouver Sun.
Ms. Es Sabar holds a BSc. Joint Honours degree in Biochemistry/Chemistry from the University of Salford, England, and a MSc. degree in Neurochemistry from the Institute of Psychiatry, University of London, England.
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Darren has been active in business development, mentorship and communications in BC’s technology sector for over 20 years. He has worked with the former Science Council of British Columbia, the National Research Council’s Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP), the BC Nanotechnology Alliance and the Canadian Institute for Photonic Innovations. He presently serves as the Director of Planning and Communication for BC Bioenergy Network. Darren holds a B.Sc. in Geology (Calgary, 1982).
Darren is also a committed mentor for both graduate and undergraduate students. He is in his fourth consecutive year as a Mentor with the MBA program at UBC’s Sauder School of Business. Darren is also a mentor with the Student Biotechnology Network.
Darren has been active with Toastmasters International in British Columbia since 2007. He is presently serving as Lieutenant-Governor of Education and Training for District 21 (British Columbia). He has previously served in a number of Executive roles at the District and Club level. Darren was named Outstanding Toastmaster of the Year in District 21 (British Columbia) for 2010/2011.
When he’s not talking, Darren enjoys cooking, gardening, golf and travelling throughout British Columbia.
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*** Please note all timeslots for this mentor are currently booked and registration is no longer available. Please feel free to meet with this mentor at the networking event immediately following the session ***
Over the past 8 years, Matthew Heiydt has been dedicated to helping companies hire and retain quality and qualified people. From a numbers perspective - Matthew has managed 1,000 + permanent recruits, interviewed 2,000 + candidates, and worked with over 300 + companies in recruitment and on-boarding initiatives.
When the discussion revolves around Hiring, On-boarding, and general People Planning, Matthew is someone you should be talking to.
He has worked in private industry, held multiple management positions, and has acted as a career advisor within education. He has been a public speaker in topics such as "Recruitment Best Practices", "How to work with a Recruiter", and his favourite topic "Generations in the Work Place". Matthew is currently President of BackStretch Consulting Group (www.backstretch.biz). BackStretch is a new recruitment alternative that delivers quality and time savings at a justifiable price point for the long term growth of Canadian companies.
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Laurence Meadows received his B.A. in Biochemistry from Oxford University and his Ph.D. from McGill University (Department of Neurology & Neurosurgery), during which he examined the properties of abnormal voltage-gated sodium channels and their effects on epilepsy. He subsequently spent 4 years as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan (Department of Pharmacology) where he continued his research on sodium channels before joining Mitacs in February, 2006 as a Business Development Director at their Vancouver office.
Laurence is currently the Team Lead of the Mitacs Western Canada business development group and his responsibilities include working closely with local industry and academic researchers, in the areas of the life-sciences and health-sciences, to further support applied research collaborations and graduate student and Post-Doctoral Fellow training.
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Mr. Landrock serves as the Executive Vice President of Products for NanoTech Security Corp. He is an expert in the study of nano-optics and currently holds several patents and over a dozen peer-reviewed publications in the field. Mr. Landrock completed his bachelor degree (BEng.) in aerospace engineering at Ryerson Polytechnic University in Toronto, and completed his Masters of Applied Sciences (MASc.) at Simon Fraser University where his research centered around nano-optics and its applications. His current research interests include nano-technology applications and smart materials.
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*** Please note all timeslots for this mentor are currently booked and registration is no longer available. Please feel free to meet with this mentor at the networking event immediately following the session ***
Mr. Purvin has over 30 years of experience marketing both consumer and medical products. Prior to joining Response Biomedical, he was the Chairman and CEO of Calibra Medical, Inc. At Calibra, he and his team developed and gained FDA clearance for a unique, small, wearable insulin delivery device. Johnson & Johnson acquired Calibra Medical in 2012.
Prior to Calibra, Mr. Purvin was Chairman and CEO of Metrika, Inc. There, he and his team developed a handheld, point-of-care, semi-disposable, finger stick-based, HbA1c test which the company sold directly to physicians, consumers and other companies, worldwide. Bayer acquired Metrika in 2006. Prior to Metrika, Mr. Purvin ran the Interventional Products Division of Datascope Corporation (Maquet – Getinge Group) as its President. Datascope was a public company which has since been acquired by Maquet. At Datascope, Mr. Purvin was responsible for marketing a large line of interventional cardiology and radiology devices to hospitals, worldwide. Prior to Datascope, Mr. Purvin served as Vice President, General Manager, in GlaxoSmithKline's $4B Consumer Healthcare division where he marketed scores of well-known, highly advertised consumer packaged goods. Mr. Purvin started his career at Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he marketed both branded and generic pharmaceuticals and consumer products to both physicians and consumers.
Mr. Purvin is a member of the Board of Directors at Cardica, Inc. Cardica markets a unique coronary bypass anastomosis connection device to cardiothoracic surgeons, worldwide, and is currently developing a unique, multi-staple-firing surgical stapler line. Mr. Purvin is Chair of Cardica's Compensation Committee and is a member of its Audit and Finance Committees. In addition, Mr. Purvin is the Executive Chairman of the University of Fashion, a web-based, fashion education video business founded by fashion designer, Francesca Sterlacci.
Mr. Purvin earned a B.A. from Brown University and an M.B.A from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
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Dr. Harish Vasudevan is the VP of Research and Commercialization at Tait Laboratories Inc.-a UBC-based start-up R&D and consulting firm in the area of natural health products and nutritional supplements. Harish completed his PhD at UBC and a postdoc at Center for Drug Research and Development. Harish's previous experiences were in drug discovery and development focusing on natural products. His PhD work is well published and has been peer-recognized by various scholarships and awards.
Outside of work, Harish is a foodie and hopes to explore cultures through their cuisines. He is also a member of The Vancouver Entrepreneur Toastmasters club.
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