Dr. Wilfred A. Jefferies

Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Wilfred Jefferies, an author of over 100 manuscripts and more than 80 patents worldwide, is acclaimed for his pioneering discoveries and inventions that enable cancer immunotherapies and vaccines. His innovative strategies and outstanding inventions have been recognized through his election as a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Election as a Fellow of the NAI is the highest professional distinction accorded solely to eminent academic inventors.

Born in North Vancouver, Jefferies is a graduate of the University of Victoria, the University of Oxford where he received his PhD focused on Molecular Immunology and completed his post-doctoral research at the Institut Suisse de Recherche Expérimentale sur le Cancer in the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland and later conducted research at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.

In 1989, the late Nobel Laureate, Dr. Michael Smith, recruited Jefferies to the University of British Columbia.

Harbir Toor, CPA, CA

Chief Financial Officer

Ms. Toor is a senior financial executive with 25 years of experience focusing on strategy execution, shareholder value creation, and risk management in private and public companies (NASDAQ and TMX-listed), including high-growth and startup stage organizations. Most recently, she was the CFO of a product manufacturing company. Prior to that, she was the VP, Finance of a private, clinical stage biopharmaceutical company where she played a key role in multiple equity and debt financings, including a US$25 million equity investment. Ms. Toor is currently on the Board of Praxis Spinal Cord institute where she is the Audit Finance Committee Chair and a member of the Fund Development committee. She began her career with KPMG performing audit and tax work. Ms. Toor is a Chartered Professional Accountant, Chartered Accountant (CPA, CA) and holds a Bachelor in Business Administration degree from Simon Fraser University in Canada.

Dr. Pamela Housh

Dr. Pamela Housh is a life sciences professional with a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology and an EMBA specialized in Executive Leadership. Her passion lies in purposeful project involvement, fostering collaboration, and nurturing impactful partnerships. With a collaborative, curious, and analytical mindset, Dr. Housh has contributed to the biotech and biomedical sciences sectors for over 15 years.Her work as a research scientist and her training as a science communicator has contributed to many publications and cross-disciplinary projects in the biotechnology and biomedical sciences sectors in Canada.Dr. Housh is also a post-secondary educator who has taught and mentored students in life sciences courses at various academic institutions across North America. Dr. Housh founded a non-profit organization Whole Human Foundation, she leads the ongoing annual conference series Whole Human Summit, and she is an active member of the Coralus (formerly SheEO) charitable network, where she contributes to a global community of radically generous women building a $1B perpetual fund to support women working on the World’s To-Do List.

Dr. Paolo Ribeca

Director of Bioinformatics

Dr. Paolo Ribeca joins Eyam’s team as the Director of Bioinformatics.

Dr. Ribeca operates at the intersection of biology and data-rich technologies, being particularly interested in the development of algorithms and workflows for the analysis of high-throughput sequencing data.

With 15 years of experience in Bioinformatics, Dr. Ribeca has lead many innovative projects including as the Area Lead for Bioinformatics at Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland (BioSS), Head of Bioinformatics and Sequencing at The Pirbright Institute, and Leader of the Algorithm Development team at CNAG, the Spanish national sequencing center. Dr. Ribeca received his PhD in theoretical physics from the University of South Paris and has expertise in quantitative disciplines, high-performance computing, bioinformatics, and genomics.

Dr. Ribeca also collaborates with Public Health England where he holds the position of Head of Genomics Services

Ryan M. Thomas

Director

Ryan M. Thomas brings a wealth of international business experience, having spent several years living and working across Latin America, Europe, and North America. His dynamic career spans diverse sectors, including finance, news and media, philanthropy, and  consulting early stage companies.

Ryan pursued degrees in Economics and Finance at Regis University and attended Georgetown University’s Fund for American Studies. He furthered his education by graduating from the Advanced Management Program (AMP) at the IESE Business School. 

Dr. Lyle Oberg

Director

Dr. Lyle Oberg is the Executive Chair of Alberta Health Services, overseeing a $15 Billion budget, and the Executive Chair of Mynd Life Sciences. A physician by profession, Dr. Oberg possesses extensive senior leadership, finance and corporate governance experience. He was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta as a Progressive Conservative in 1993. He was first appointed to the Alberta Cabinet in 1997 and served numerous posts. He launched a western Canadian initiative to address Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and implemented an interprovincial strategy to share resources and develop new and better approaches for addressing FAS. In May 1999, Dr. Oberg was appointed Minister of Learning. He began the second language initiative in Alberta schools to give students an edge in the world marketplace and initiated the development of the daily physical activity program to improve the health of Alberta students. In 2006, Dr. Oberg was named Minister of Finance. He left politics in 2008 with one of the largest surpluses in Alberta history. Dr. Oberg later opened and became CEO of C2DNA, the first private DNA testing facility in Canada. Next, Dr. Oberg joined the Flowr Corporation as CEO. Additionally, Dr. Oberg was a member of the Ernst and Young Expert Panel reviewing Alberta Health Services and their $21.9 billion annual budget and was recently appointed by Order in Council to the Physician Compensation Advisory Committee. Dr. Oberg is a director of Yorkville Asset Management which was founded in 2010 and has approximately $3 billion under management. He also currently sits on the board of CareRx and Flowr Corporation. 

Dr. James LaBelle

Director

Dr. LaBelle is the Chief Medical Officer of Ripplenami Inc. He has a broad interest and expertise in using technology to enable affordable healthcare with consistent high quality outcomes.

Formerly, Dr James LaBelle was Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for Scripps Health in LaJolla, California. As part of his role at ScrippsHealth, he oversaw 2600 physicians and three billion dollars in annual revenue. Dr LaBelle has held prior positions as the Corporate Vice President of Quality, Medical Management, and Physician Co-Management for ScrippsHealth, and Director of Clinical Quality and Medical Director of Emergency Services at Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas in San Diego, California.

In 1999, Dr. LaBelle earned his Healthcare Executive Masters of Business Administration from the University of California at Irvine. In 2010 he received his Board Certification in Medical Management from the American College of Physician Executives.

Dr. LaBelle attended medical school at the University Of Washington and completed his Residency in Internal Medicine at the University of California at San Diego. Dr. LaBelle also holds a Bachelors of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering. He has practiced Emergency Medicine for 24 years and has served as chair of many committees that dealt with running hospitals. He is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine.

Dr. Terry Pearson

Director

Dr. Pearson is a scientist, entrepreneur and emeritus professor from the Biochemistry and Microbiology Department at the University of Victoria.
Having obtained his Ph.D. in immunology from the University of British Columbia, Dr. Pearson later joined the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England.

Dr. Pearson worked with Nobel Prize Laureates Georges Kohler and Cesar Milstein, during the development of monoclonal antibody technology, leading to the first commercial monoclonal antibody. Terry took the technology to Africa and subsequently to Canada and helped to establish the base for many scientific and therapeutic applications involving the exploitation of these reagents. Today, the monoclonal antibody market exceeds 150 billion USD, a figure projected to reach more than 451 billion USD by 2028.

As co-founder and CSO of SISCAPA Assay Technologies Inc., Dr. Pearson helped lead the development of immuno-mass spectrometric technology for measurement of biomarkers in health and disease. He has received several awards for his contribution to science, including the Inaugural Award for Excellence in Science Teaching, the Craigdarroch Gold Medal for Career Achievement and the Legacy Award for Research from the University of Victoria.

Elizabeth Jobes

Director

Ms. Elizabeth Jobes is a strategic innovator, and ethical compliance leader with more than 29 years of combined legal and compliance experience. Practicing as an attorney and building and overseeing compliance and legal programs for small and medium sized biopharmaceutical corporations, Ms. Jobes excels in leading teams, directing complex projects, developing strategies and creating and facilitating in-house legal and compliance departments. Currently, Ms. Jobes is the Senior Vice President for Amryt Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Prior to her current position, Ms. Jobes was Senior Vice President at EMD Serono Inc. in Rockland, Massachusetts. There, she implemented the Global Compliance Program including creating policies, training, monitoring, auditing and investigative processes to align with critical business objectives. Other previous positions held by Ms. Jobes include; Senior Vice President at Serono Inc, Global Chief Compliance Officer and Legal Counsel at Spark Therapeutics, Inc, and Senior Vice President at Auxilium Pharmaceutical Inc.

Ms. Jobes has made a career out of cultivating strategic partnerships and meeting strategic objectives across all business lines, internally and externally. Additionally, she is a lecturer and or planning committee member for over two dozen conferences related to Compliance within the Pharmaceutical Industry.

Ms. Jobes attended Rutgers University School of Law, after completing her Bachelors of Arts in International Politics and Foreign Service at Pennsylvania State University. She is a licensed practitioner of law in the states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Roslyn Ritchie Derrien

Director

Ritchie is an equine loving, impact investor, entrepreneur and philanthropist. Vancouver, Canada is home for Ritchie where she engages on boards dedicated to making people’s lives better, through the creation of novel healthcare products.

Besides Ritchie’s involvement with Eyam Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics, she’s also on the Board of Directors of MYND Life Sciences and oversees her Lavender Farm, Lavender Eight.

When not tending to her corporate duties Ritchie, can be found in the stands at any number of sporting events both amateur and professional or traveling the world.

Wolfgang Koester

Director

Wolfgang Koester became a Partner at IndependentBOD Inc. after being appointed Chief Evangelist of Kyriba Corp who merged with the Company that he started in 2001 – FiREapps. He has more than 30 years of extensive experience in financial markets and technology also working with global Fortune 1000 companies and government entities.

Prior to co-founding FiREapps, he served as CEO of GFTA, a quantitative risk management Technology company. Koester has been named as one of the “100 Most Influential People in Finance” by Treasury & Risk magazine and is regularly included in Global Finance’s annual “Who’s Who in FX”. He is a frequent speaker at industry and academic events and his work has appeared in The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Treasury & Risk and AFP Exchange among other industry publications. He is a regular commentator on CNN, CNBC, Fox Business and Bloomberg. Koester earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Arizona State University and a Master’s degree in International Management from Thunderbird School of International Management. He is a board member of ACI International, The Financial Markets Association, and is a former member of the editorial board of the AFP Risk Newsletter. Additional Board Memberships below.

Dr. Chris Upton

A Professor at the University of Victoria who has worked for more than 30 years in Virology, specializing in the comparative genomics of large viruses and the development of databases and software tools for their analysis.

Building tools for use by virologists and immunologists has been a priority. He has also worked extensively on the characterization of multiple virulence factors in poxviruses that function through immunomodulatory processes and was part of the team that sequenced and annotated the first SARS-1 genome in 2003.

Dr. Nathan Lack

Dr. Nathan Lack is a Senior Research Scientist and the Co-Director of Pharmacology and Drug Design at the Vancouver Prostate Centre. He obtained a DPhil in Pharmacology from the University of Oxford in 2009 and then did a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Vancouver Prostate Centre with Dr. Emma Guns and Professor Paul Rennie. Nathan became an Assistant Professor at Koç University, Turkey in 2011 and was awarded Associate Professorship in 2015. Dr. Lack’s research focuses on non-coding regulatory elements in prostate cancer. The laboratory has obtained extensive funding from national, international and industrial sources. In addition to his academic research, Nathan previously worked for AnorMED Inc., where he was involved in the development of the FDA-approved therapeutic Plerixafor.

Dr. Marc Horwitz

Dr. Marc Horwitz is a professor of Microbiology and Immunology at University of British Columbia, co-leader in the Infection Inflammation Research Group within Life Sciences Institute as well as Academic Director working under VP Research to enhance biomedical research models. His research focuses on identifying, characterizing and determining mechanisms of viral-induced immune diseases in a variety of complex chronic disorders. Including autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS), type 1 diabetes (T1D) and rheumatoid arthritis induced by viruses such as Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), Coxsackie B virus (CBV), and HIV.

Dave Richardson

Dave Richardson, a distinguished leader with an unwavering passion for both business and philanthropy. As the President and CEO of Octaform Systems Inc., Mr. Richardson has successfully led the company to new heights and overseen its impressive growth. In addition to his role at Octaform, Mr. Richardson is also a Co-Founder of the Stigma-Free Zone initiative, a cause that he is deeply committed to.

Mr. Richardson’s commitment to giving back to the community extends to his work with various charities and philanthropic activities. He currently serves as a Director of Richardson International Limited and a Director Emeritus of Ducks Unlimited Canada, having served on the board for 20 years. Additionally, he holds several other directorship positions and remains dedicated to his charitable endeavors.

Mr. Richardson’s experience in international trade is equally impressive. He was a founding member and Director of The Asia Pacific Foundation and a leader on various government trade missions to Asia. He also served as a Director of the Canada China Trade Council and Chairman of the Agriculture Committee.

Nicholas Franco

Strategic Advisor

Nicholas Franco is a seasoned executive with over 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He has held significant leadership positions at Actelion, Janssen (a Johnson & Johnson company), and Novartis. Nicholas is known for his expertise in business development, commercialization, and strategic growth. His appointment to the Board of Advisors at Eyam Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics highlights his commitment to advancing innovative biotech solutions. Nicholas’s experience and vision are expected to play a crucial role in guiding Eyam’s strategic initiatives and development efforts.