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The principals at AgeChem have operational experience having been involved in the launching of companies, their financing and in the management of their growth and liquidity event. They also have expertise in various fields of science (six members have a Ph.D.) covering biochemistry, chemistry, immunology, oncology, virology, bacteriology and human genetics. The principals have a wide breadth of experience in venture capital financing having invested at very early stage startup levels, where hands on management is required, and at later stage mezzanine rounds and private placements in public entities. In addition to AgeChem, some of the principals are also managing the GeneChem Technologies Venture Fund L.P. and the GeneChem Therapeutics Venture Fund L.P. . (www.genechem.com)
Mr. Lacasse joined GeneChem at its inception in 1997. Prior to that, he was Vice-President of Healthcare and Biotechnology at Sofinov, a wholly owned venture capital subsidiary of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. In total, he spent ten years with the Caisse where he was responsible for numerous investments in small and medium sized businesses in cutting-edge industries such as biotechnology, software and telecommunications. Mr. Lacasse has been involved in a number of very successful investments in companies such as BioChem Pharma inc., Axcan Pharma inc., and Neurocrine Biosciences inc. Mr. Lacasse is or has been a member of the board of directors of several companies including BioChem Pharma inc., Axcan Pharma inc. and Metrowerks inc. He has held positions with the Bank of Montreal and with the “Centre de développement technologique” of École Polytechnique de Montréal. Mr. Lacasse obtained a Bachelor’s degree in finance from the École des Hautes Études Commerciales (“HEC”) and a M.B.A. from McGill University.
Dr. Lacroix participated to the launching of the first GeneChem Venture Fund in 1997. Prior to this, Dr. Lacroix, a co-founder of BioChem Pharma Inc. (acquired by Shire Pharmaceuticals Group in 2001), acted as a Director for Technology Transfer at BioChem Pharma. From 1986 to 1995, he held a number of positions with BioChem ImmunoSystems, Inc., including Director, Research and Development and Director, Quality Control. Between 1981 and 1986, Dr. Lacroix was a Professor-scientist in the Department of Virology at Institut Armand-Frappier. Dr. Lacroix received a B.Sc. and a M.Sc. in Biochemistry from University of Montréal and a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. Dr. Lacroix has authored 33 scientific publications and holds eight issued patents.
Dr. Douville joined the GeneChem team in 1997. She is an active member of the boards of directors of Cytochroma Inc., Ambit Biosciences Inc., and Chronogen Inc. and was also a board member of Idun Pharmaceuticals Inc. before its sale to Pfizer in 2005. Elizabeth obtained her Ph.D. in biochemistry at the University of Ottawa, studying the role of protein kinases in oncogenesis. She then received postdoctoral training at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London (U.K.) where she studied oncogenes and their signal transduction pathways.
Dr. Holzbaur joined GeneChem in January 1999. Prior to this, she was a post-doctoral fellow with Dr. Ashraf Ismail at McGill University, developing a system for bacterial differentiation by infrared spectroscopy. She completed her undergraduate degree in chemistry at the Institute for Cooperative Education of Concordia University in 1994. She did her undergraduate thesis on protein structure determination by spectroscopy. In 1998, she obtained a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Cambridge, UK. There, she worked in the field of antibiotics biosynthesis under the supervision of Drs James Staunton and Peter Leadlay. Her studies deepened her understanding of microbiology, natural products and protein chemistry. Her work has been published in Chemistry and Biology, the Journal of the American Chemical Society and Biochemistry.
Dr. Hsiung has over 19 years experience in working with startup companies in the life science industry. She has been an independent consultant whose activities range from strategic planning, business development, technology assessments, market research and financing for venture companies. Prior to these activities, she was a consultant with A.M. Pappas & Associates where her primary responsibility was sourcing and evaluating venture capital investments for GeneChem. From 1990 - 1996, Dr. Hsiung was responsible for strategic planning and technology assessment for Toyobo Corporation's biopharmaceutical division. She received a B.A. degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. degree in chemistry from Columbia University; she did her post-doctoral studies in molecular biology at Yale University and Princeton University. She holds over fifteen patents and patent applications worldwide.
Dr. Urbani joined GeneChem in June 2001. After completing his Ph.D. at McGill University in the area of molecular genetics, he received a fellowship from PENCE (The Canadian Protein Engineering Network) to pursue research on cellular growth and motility in the Pharmaceutical division of the Biotechnology Research Institute (National Research Council) in Montreal. Dr. Urbani completed an M.B.A. program at Université du Québec à Montréal in 2002.
Dr. Lussier joined AgeChem in October 2006. He serves as well as part-time CEO of Strida Pharma Inc. and until August 2007 led all business development efforts of Emerillon Therapeutics Inc., two Montréal-based biopharmaceutical companies. Prior to this, he was Scientific Director of the Procure Prostate Cancer Biobank. From 2002 to 2005, Dr. Lussier served as Vice-President Operations at HemaX Genome Inc. and also as CEO of Estracure Inc. From 1998 to 2001, he was principal founder and COO of Mycota Biosciences Inc., a company whose mission was to develop new antifungal agents. Dr. Lussier holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology and trained as a post-doctoral fellow in the Biology Department of McGill University from 1990 to 1995 where he later became director of the Yeast Genome Laboratory. He has published 28 scientific papers and holds 2 patents.
M. Pesant joined the AgeChem team subsequently to the closing as Finance Director. Previously, he worked for GeneChem Management as a consultant and worked two years for CDP Capital Technologies – Biotechnologies as a Junior Analyst. He also filled positions as a Financial Analyst for various businesses. M. Pesant received a Bachelor in Business Administration from HEC Montreal in 2004 and is holding a CMA designation. He is also enrolled as candidate for the CFA designation.
Mr Patel has been with the GeneChem team since 2003. His experience as an Information Technology Consultant aids in security, network infrastructure and all other IT areas required in the office. He has been working in his field of expertise since 2000 when he had completed a Microsoft training program. He also services many other smaller clients on a regular basis.
Mrs. Perreau has been an Administrative Assistant with GeneChem since July 1997. She initially worked as a legal secretary in several well known law firms before joining the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec in 1987 as Administrative Assistant to the Vice President - Health and Biotechnology. She then earned the position of Administrative Assistant to the President of Sofinov, Société financière d'innovation Inc., the venture capital subsidiary of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (now CDP Capital). |
