adMare

Gordon C. McCauley

President & CEO, adMare BioInnovations

Gordon McCauley, BA, MBA, ICD.D was appointed President and CEO of adMare BioInnovations in 2016 after serving on the Board for four years. He is an accomplished life science investor and executive.

Gordon has served as President and CEO of Viable Healthworks Corp., a national healthcare service business; Allon Therapeutics Inc., a neuroscience biotechnology company that developed novel therapeutics from pre-clinical to global phase 3 studies before being sold; and as Co-Founder and Partner of NDI Capital, an institutionally backed life-science investment fund. He has also been a senior executive of several successful healthcare enterprises, and a senior advisor to several prominent Canadian political leaders.

Gordon has served as a Director of a number of private and publicly traded companies. Currently, he is a Director of adMare (and a number of its portfolio and subsidiary companies), BIOVECTRA a leading Canadian biotech and pharmaceutical CDMO, Chairs the Board of both BIOTECanada, Canada’s national biotechnology industry organization, and CGEn, Canada’s national genomics enterprise, and is a Director of Montréal InVivo. He has previously served as Chair of Life Sciences British Columbia, Acetech, The Toronto Rehab Foundation. Gordon was the first Canadian appointed to the Board of The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) in Washington D.C., where he served in leadership positions until 2013.

Gordon earned a BA in Political Science from McMaster University, an MBA (with Honours) from IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland, and holds the ICD.D certification from the Institute of Corporate Directors and the Rotman School of Business at the University of Toronto.

Youssef Bennani

Chief Scientific Officer

As Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Youssef Bennani holds overall responsibility for the scientific direction of adMare, and assisting the Research and Development and Program Development and Partnership teams focus their efforts around areas of interest.

Youssef has a wealth of experience from project inception to clinical work, technology transfer, in-and-out licensing transactions with academic and corporate partners’ R&D units. His work has led to over twenty preclinical and clinical-stage NMEs, out-licensed partnerships; as well as contributions to approved medicines. His governance leadership has contributed to corporate strategy alignment, leading to corporate growth and to nine single-asset and technology spinoff companies

In addition to his role at adMare, Youssef is currently Managing Partner, Fund III with CTI Life Sciences Fund, Chairman of the Board of Domain Therapeutics (France & Canada), and is an independent Board member of Bellus Health (TSX:BLU). He has over 25 years experience in pharmaceutical R&D leadership and management, serving most recently as Site Head and Vice President of R&D at Vertex Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc. Prior to this position, he spent several years as Vice President Drug Innovation at Vertex’s Headquarters (Boston – MA). Youssef has also held various positions of increasing responsibility in pharmaceutical R&D at Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Abbott Laboratories (now Abbvie) and Athersys. His experience spans multiple therapeutic areas including oncology, neurology, infection, inflammation and renal diseases.

Youssef has studied in chemistry (PhD, Université de Montréal), business (MBA, LFGSM – Chicago), and corporate governance (ICD.D, McGill-Rotman Schools of Business).

Matthew J. Carlyle

Chief Operating Officer & CFO

As Chief Operating Officer & CFO, Matthew Carlyle holds responsibility for the overall leadership of adMare’s business functions including finance and accounting, legal, scale-up functions, including the innovation centre, and capital, operations, IT, and project management.

Matthew brings extensive experience and relationships across global biotechnology and venture capital to adMare, having been a partner of a national venture capital firm, CFO of a publicly-traded biotech, and CFO of a number of private life sciences companies. Most recently, he was the Chief Financial Officer of Viable Healthworks Corp., and from 2004 to 2013, was Chief Financial Officer of Allon Therapeutics Inc. Previously, he served in Corporate Finance and Development roles for a number of public and private life science and technology companies and has been involved in raising approximately $200M. He is a founding Partner of NDI Capital, a private investment management company focused on investing in high potential life science and healthcare companies.

Matthew holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is a member of the Association for Investment Management and Research and the Vancouver Society of Financial Analysts.

Mounia Azzi

Vice President, Corporate Development

As Vice President, Corporate Development, Dr. Mounia Azzi leads a team responsible for advancing adMare’s mission of building companies by developing partnerships with technology innovators and entrepreneurs⁠—namely academic researchers and emerging Canadian life sciences companies. This includes overseeing adMare’s project identification and scientific and commercial evaluation processes, as well as its public affairs and external communications functions.

Most recently, Mounia was the Executive Global Vice President, Corporate Development (and previously Chief Business Officer) at Nexelis. Prior to Nexelis, she was Director, Scientific Affairs at the NEOMED Institute, responsible for the identification and evaluation of new opportunities to complement NEOMED’s prospecting activities. Previously, Mounia was Director of Programs at CQDM, where she was responsible for the evaluation and management of research projects and funding programs. She was also actively involved in business development activities with industry partners. Mounia started her career as leader of the cellular biology group at Bellus Health (formerly Neurochem Inc.), where she was involved in the development of therapeutics targeting Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes.

Mounia holds a PhD in Neuroscience from Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC) in Paris.

Joseph Mancini

Vice President, Innovation – Biological Sciences

As Vice President, Innovation – Biological Sciences, Dr. Joseph Mancini plays a central role in leading adMare’s R&D team and the strategic development and advancement of adMare’s pipeline of drug development projects to support the building of strong Canadian life sciences companies. Joe brings more than 30 years of experience in drug discovery to the role, and is responsible for overseeing the biology and pharmacology efforts at both adMare’s Montreal and Vancouver Innovation Centres.

Prior to joining adMare in 2020, Joe spent 20 years at Merck, a leading global biopharmaceutical company, where he was responsible for developing novel therapies to treat inflammation, diabetes, and obesity – including being key in the discovery of VioxxTM and ArcoxiaTM, and the Biology Lead for a PDE4-inhibitor for Asthma, and for four INDs and human proof-of-concept trials.

Following his tenure at Merck, Joe joined Vertex Pharmaceuticals where, as Head of Pharmacology and Biology Project Leader, he led the Pharmacology group and a team that developed a therapy to treat Crohn’s disease (licensed to Takeda), as well as initiated new programs in ADPKD and a rare muscular disease.

Joe has been an Adjunct Professor at one of Canada’s top research universities, Montreal’s McGill, since 2000, and is credited with 94 publications and seven patents. He holds a PhD in Biochemistry from McGill University.

Christine Allen 

Vice President, Ecosystem Development

Christine Allen, Ph.D., FAIMBE, FCAHS, Vice President Ecosystem Development, is continuing adMare’s leadership of Canada’s strong life sciences ecosystem through providing state-of-the-art infrastructure, scientific and commercial expertise, and investment capital to companies, enabling them to grow and maintain operations in Canada. Dr. Allen also oversees the adMare Academy ensuring that the Canadian ecosystem has the highly skilled workforce to drive the growth of the Canadian life sciences industry.  

Dr. Allen brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in drug development as a researcher, leader, and entrepreneur. She has over 150 publications, numerous patents, and established collaborations with clinical and industry partners. Since joining the University of Toronto as a professor in 2002, Dr. Allen has held senior administrative leadership roles, most recently University of Toronto’s first Associate Vice President and Vice-Provost, Strategic Initiatives. 

Dr. Allen holds a B.Sc. in Biochemistry from University of Ottawa and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from McGill University.  She also completed post-doctoral training at UBC and the B.C. Cancer Agency.

Dave Rogers

Vice President, Intellectual Property & Legal Affairs

Dr. Dave Rogers joined adMare (then CDRD) as its Intellectual Property Director in January, 2011.

He has been involved in biotech patent law, particularly US patent law, since completion of his graduate research work. In 2000, he joined the San Francisco law firm of Flehr, Hohbach, Test, Albritton & Herbert LLP, which was later acquired by Dorsey and Whitney LLP. While working in San Francisco for Dorsey, he qualified as a patent agent before the US Patent and Trademark Office. In 2005, Dave relocated to Dorsey’s Vancouver office, continuing to work closely with the San Francisco and Palo Alto offices to advise US and Canadian biotech clients on patent matters.

Dave has a background in biochemistry, chemistry, immunology, and neurobiology, and his IP experience includes patent drafting, patent prosecution, portfolio evaluation and development, patent analysis and opinion work (freedom to operate, invalidity, and non-infringement) and IP due diligence for licensing and financing.

Dave received a PhD from the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill University, and a JD from the University of British Columbia.

Frédéric Lemaître Auger

Vice President, Investments

As Vice President, Investments, Dr. Frédéric Lemaître Auger leads adMare’s investments and manages its portfolio companies. He brings more than 20 years experience in life sciences investment management, including extensive health sciences venture capital expertise gained through his prior involvement with Desjardins Venture Capital and CDP Capital – Technology Venture (Sofinov) where he was involved in both biopharmaceutical and medical device deals. At Sofinov, Frédéric was involved in investments such as NuVasive, Inhibitex, IntraLuminal Therapeutics, Acurian, and TransMedics. While at Desjardins, he showed significant leadership in the creation and management of a profitable early-stage health sciences investment portfolio that included, amongst others, BioAxone Therapeutics, Enobia Pharma, and Tranzyme.

In recent years, Frédéric was involved in project-based investments, as well as developing licensing and spin-off opportunities at MSBi Valorisation (now Aligo Innovation). He has served on the board of directors of many health sciences companies, and has been involved on organizing committees of conferences such as MedTech North and AdvaMed.

Frédéric holds an MBA in Finance and International Management from HEC Montréal, a MSc in organic chemistry, and a PhD in polymer physical chemistry, both from Université de Montréal.

Sarah Gallagher

Vice President, People and Culture

As Vice President, People and Culture, Sarah Gallagher leads adMare’s people strategy, programs, and initiatives. She brings a wealth of knowledge from over 20 years experience in leadership roles in Human Resources. Driven by curiosity and possibility, Sarah believes that an inclusive and purpose-driven culture enables teams to deliver on strategic objectives while creating a positive employee experience. She is a strong advocate for leadership and capability development programs that build talent and foster a continuous growth mindset, and is a lifelong learner herself.

Prior to joining adMare, Sarah held leadership positions at the Vancouver Airport Authority and TELUS Communications where she had accountabilities in organizational development, diversity, inclusion and belonging, change management, labour relations, total rewards, talent acquisition and employee well-being.

Sarah holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Victoria, as well as certificates in Labour Relations from Queen’s University, and in Executive Leadership Development from the University of Toronto.