Dennis J. Purcell
Dennis is Founder and Senior Advisor at Aisling Capital LLC. During his tenure, Dennis has been directly involved with over two hundred completed transactions and supervised over $15 billion of financing and advisory assignments in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical products industries.
Dennis is a frequent commentator on the industry and has been honoured in various publications as a top contributor to the Life Sciences industry. He sits on numerous private and public healthcare company boards, such as Real Endpoints and Summus Global. He is actively involved with many of the industry’s professional organizations, such as BIO, the Life Sciences Foundation, the NYC Investment Fund and NYU’s office of Therapeutics Alliance. He is a member of the University of Delaware Investment Committee and Harvard Kennedy School – M-R CBG Advisory Council. He is Executive Chairman of Poliwogg Holdings, a company devising new financed products for the healthcare industry.
Dennis received his M.B.A. from Harvard University and his B.S. in Accounting from the University of Delaware.
Dr William (Bill) Hunter MD
Dr. Hunter has been the President and CEO of Cardiome Pharma Corp in Vancouver, BC since 2012. Cardiome (NASDAQ: CRME) is an integrated, commercial, specialty pharmaceutical company that markets and sells acute care parenteral drugs in Europe, Canada and over 50 other countries around the world.
Previously, Dr. Hunter co-founded and served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Angiotech Pharmaceuticals (1992-2011). After founding the Angiotech while still in medical school in 1992, he grew the Company to become a profitable, diversified, device company with over 1,400 employees, several thousand commercially available products, and 12 facilities in 5 countries.
Dr. Hunter’s career has revolved around examining ways to make implantable medical devices “bioactive” and “smarter” through the use of technologies borrowed from other industries such as pharmaceutical coatings, surface modification and sensor technologies. As an inventor with over 200 patents and patent applications to his name, he has been involved in the invention and development of the TAXUS® Drug-Eluting Coronary Stent, the Zilver PTX Peripheral Drug-Eluting Stent, and the Quill barbed wound closure device; combined these products have been used in over 40 million patients and recorded revenues exceeding $25 billion. His latest venture, Canary Medical, utilizes implanted sensor, battery and transmission technology to create “smart” implanted medical devices that can “self-report” on function, activity, wear, complications and patient outcomes for up to 20 years.
Selected awards he has received include the 2006 Principal Award from the Manning Foundation (one of Canada’s highest awards for innovation); BC Innovation Council’s Cecil Green Award for Science and Technology Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneur of the Year from the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association; and Canada’s 40 Under 40. Current and previous company board seats include Cardiome (NASDAQ/TSE), Adherium (ASX), REX Bionics (AIM), Zalicus Inc (NASDAQ), Aspreva Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ/TSE), Anormed Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ/TSE), Active Pass Pharmaceuticals, Neuromed Pharmaceuticals (Chairman) and Angiotech Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ/TSE). Dr. Hunter served as a practicing physician in British Columbia for 5 years. He received his Doctor of Medicine and Masters of Science degrees from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and his Bachelor of Science degree from McGill University in Montreal.
Dr Nora Frey MSc, PhD
Nora brings more than 20 years of professional experience in the healthcare research and investment field.
She is currently a Managing Partner at Cederberg GmbH, Switzerland.
She studied modern biology (microbiology, biochemistry) and economics in Basel and holds a master’s degree in Microbiology and a PhD in Biochemistry in the field of drug-induced autoimmune diseases from the University of Basel. She was partner at Bellevue Group, Zug, Switzerland and part of the BB Biotech management team managing up to CHF 4 bn in public and private biotech investments. In 2000, she conceived of, and founded Adamant Biomedical Investments AG in Basel, Switzerland, a successful healthcare asset management boutique, which manages different healthcare funds. As CIO, Nora headed research and portfolio management, and led the innovation and expansion of the range of funds under management. During this time, the funds under management grew from CHF 50 m to approximately CHF 1 bn. In addition, to research and fund management experience, Nora’s roles included advising numerous companies, and collaboration with SWX and ZKB’s Corporate Finance group regarding listings of foreign companies in Switzerland.
Among several other awards, Nora was voted finalist in the Ernst &Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in Switzerland. During Nora’s time at Adamant, Nora managed the inception of the company and the collaboration with SwissLife, co-managed the Management Buy-Out and later the sale of the company to Zürich Kantonal Bank, ZKB. She was also responsible for the establishment of a subsidiary of Adamant, Adamant Ventures Ltd., in Edinburgh, UK, that focused on venture capital investing. Towards the end of 2008, Nora left Adamant to found Cederberg GmbH.
Nora is a citizen of Germany and Switzerland.
Professor Hugh Perry BSc, MA, PhD, F.Med.Sci.
Professor Hugh Perry is Professor of Experimental Neuropathology at the University of Southampton.
He trained as a neuroscientist at the University of Oxford, 1991-1977, where he obtained his B.Sc. and D.Phil. He remained at the University of Oxford as a Locke fellow of the Royal Society, 1982-1986, Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow (1986-1995) and Professor of Experimental Neuropathology, 1996-1998. His research interests are in the field of interactions between the immune system and nervous system, and how inflammation contributes to the outcome of neurological and psychiatric disease.
His recent work has demonstrated how systemic infection, disease and inflammation play a role in driving the progression of neurodegenerative diseases. He has wide expertise in preclinical models of diseases of the nervous system and the translation of these findings to the human condition. He has published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers.
Professor Hugh Perry currently holds grants from the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, the Multiple Sclerosis Society and Alzheimer’s Research UK focusing on the role of inflammation in chronic neurodegenerative disease. He has sat on research advisory and funding panels for a number of different charities and funding agencies and chaired the Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience panel of the Wellcome Trust, 2004-2007.
Professor Perry has acted as a consultant for biotechnology (British Biotech, Nurin Ltd, BioVex Ltd, Inflazyme) and pharmaceutical companies (Celltech, UCB, Novartis, Eisai) in the area of neuroinflammation and neurodegenerative disease. He is currently chair of the Medical Research Council (UK) Neurosciences and Mental Health Board, a member of MRC Strategy Board and chair of UK Dementia Platform Oversight Board. Professor Hugh Perry was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, 2005, Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, 2014, was a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, 2006-2012, and recipient of a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award, 2011.
Sir Mark Richmond
Mark Richmond is a molecular biologist whose research has centred on the genetics of bacterial infection. Mark identified the role of small units of DNA known as plasmids, which can replicate independently of chromosomes, in developing bacterial resistance to antibiotics.
Mark was responsible for the discovery of plasmids in Staphylococcus aureus that produce an enzyme conferring resistance to penicillin. Subsequently, he applied a unique combined molecular and epidemiological approach to the study of plasmids responsible for antibiotic resistance in gut bacteria such as E. coli. He then produced the first evidence that these resistance-producing plasmids could transfer between bacterial species, describing probable mechanisms of spread in the gut of humans and animals.
Mark was awarded the Robert Koch Prize in 1976 for his contributions to microbiology. In 1981, he became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester, a post followed by a string of public appointments, including Chair of the Science and Engineering Research Council. From there, he moved into industry, becoming Global Head of Research at Glaxo.
Meinhard F. Schmidt
Independent Healthcare Executive, plural Board Member and Chair, with more than 25 years applied global Healthcare, Diagnostics and MedTech experience, delivering transformational change within blue-chip healthcare corporations and entrepreneurial organizations (start-ups), complemented with broad-spectrum knowledge incorporating Clinical Diagnostics, Life Science, Medical Devices and Digital Health.
Strong business leadership, board-level experience and an extensive network of world-class industry experts and the financial community. Successful track record of M&A, fundraising and IPO processes. Held positions in Germany, Netherlands, USA, Canada, UK, France, Ireland, Sweden, Austria and Switzerland. Currently active as an Independent Healthcare Professional providing active board engagement as Chairman a/o NED in public and private MedTech and Life Science companies; consulting to top management teams to improve innovation, industrialization, commercialization and digitalization processes; consulting investors (Private Equity/Venture Capital) on the identification of new investment and acquisition candidates in the global Healthcare, Diagnostics and MedTech industries.
Dr Adam M Hill
Adam is a highly experienced leader in the life sciences with a career developed at the interface of Industry, Academia and Health systems. A dual-qualified Clinician and Mechanical Engineer, Adam is excited about the interface of healthcare and technology.
Adam is a leader in the Life Sciences industry with a career developed at the interface of Industry, Academia and Health systems. Most recently, Adam led a public listed diagnostics company (Oncimmune) through a tricky turnaround, and transition from the founding team. As CEO of Oncimmune plc, Adam led the redevelopment of the strategy and delivered a turnaround transformation. Concurrently, he is a visiting Professor at Imperial College London, an independent NED of Imperial College Health Partners, Vice-Chair of the Association of British HealthTech Industries. Previously, Adam was Chief Strategy Officer and an Executive Director of McLaren Applied Technologies focused on applying the company’s deep technical expertise to developing high growth businesses, including a Health Technology programme.Adam is a dual-qualified Clinician and Mechanical Engineer, graduating from Imperial College London as a Medical Doctor, whilst also earning a PhD in Engineering; following his academic education, Adam attended Imperial College Business School, and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He received his postgraduate clinical training in General and Orthopaedic Surgery from the Royal College of Surgeons of England; and, Chartered engineering qualification from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
Current board positions are CEO of Oncimmune; Association of British HealthTech Industries (ABHI – Vice-Chair and Non-Executive Director Board Member); Imperial College Health Partners (ICHP); MyRecovery.ai and Accelerated Clinical Trials (ACT).
Dr Mandeep Dhillon
Mandeep is passionate about the fusion between “digital” and healthcare, and how this can be leveraged to help patients and their loved ones live longer, healthier and happier lives.
Mandeep was previously Head of Digital Health for BSM based in London. He worked on various projects for BSM portfolio companies, focused on digital health investment opportunities, in particular in the UK, Europe and the US.
Following his PhD in Biochemistry, Mandeep stepped away from the lab bench into management consulting. In his last role as Principal at Arthur D. Little, he led the Strategy Phase 0 team within the Digital Problem Solving Practice. He advised companies on the use of digital technologies, translating ideas into Proof-of-Concepts and globally scalable solutions, commercialisation strategy, portfolio management and organisation / business model design.
Mandeep has a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Leeds, and a BSc 2.1 Hons in Biochemistry with Medical Biochemistry from the University of Leeds.