With more than 30 years of global pharmaceutical experience, Paul Fonteyne’s career spans over three decades of leadership roles across North America and Europe with companies including Boehringer-Ingelheim, Merck, and Abbott Laboratories. Until 2018, he was President and CEO, Boehringer-Ingelheim USA. He is past board member of the National Pharmaceutical Council and PhRMA, He serve on the boards of ResTORbio Inc., Gelesis Inc, and Ypsomed AG, Mr. Fonteyne holds an MBA from Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, and a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Brussels, Belgium.

Fouzia Laghrissi-Thode, was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Chefaro Pharmaceuticals in April 2018. Most recently, Dr. Laghrissi-Thode was Vice-President at AstraZeneca of the US Renal-Cardiology Therapeutic Area. In her previous roles she led the global product and portfolio strategy of the cardiovascular, metabolism and renal therapeutic areas at AstraZeneca and Roche. She has more than 20 years of pharmaceutical industry leadership experience in US and Europe through working in clinical development, global strategic marketing, business development, licensing and M&A. She is a director on the board of Minerva Neurosciences Inc., Nuro Corp. and Chefaro Pharmaceuticals. She served as a board member of the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) Europe and was recognized by HBA in 2012 for her work in developing and promoting women leadership in healthcare. From 1992 to 2014, she held an appointment as faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, UPMC, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. Dr. Laghrissi-Thode is board certified in Psychiatry and holds Doctorate in Medicine from the University of Tours School of Medicine in France.

Dr. Leheny has over 25 years of experience in the life sciences industry as a scientist, a research analyst at several investment banks, and as a venture capital investor. Dr. Leheny is a Founding Managing Director for Valence Advantage Life Sciences, a venture firm based in New York. Prior to Valence, she co-founded Caxton Advantage Venture Partners, from which Valence Life Sciences emerged. Before that, she was a Senior Vice President and Head of the biotechnology research team at Lehman Brothers. She also led the biotechnology research team at UBS Warburg. She started her biotechnology research career at Hambrecht and Quist. Dr. Leheny obtained an A.B in Chemistry with honors from Harvard College, and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Columbia University. She did post-doctoral work at the University of California, Berkeley, where she was an NIH fellow and a lecturer.

Henry d’Abo is an experienced bio-tech investor, who has been involved in a number of different Cambridge based start-up companies. Mr. d’Abo serves a director at Chefaro and runs his own investment portfolio and has extensive property and agricultural interests in the UK and Germany. Previously, he owned a controlling interest in a US based CRO which was sold in 2000.

Laurence Terrisse Rulleau is currently a Partner at CTI Life Sciences Fund. Previously, Dr. Rulleau served as a life sciences analyst covering the Canadian life sciences sector for more than 10 years. She worked at different firms including Desjardins securities, Yorkton securities and Blackmont securities where she was involved in numerous mergers and acquisitions as well as IPOs.  Dr. Rulleau was ranked the number one Canadian life sciences analyst by the Starmine survey (a Thomson Reuters Company) and number one independent analyst by Brendon Wood survey. Dr. Rulleau was also CEO of HLA-G Technologies a biotechnology start-up based in France and more recently she served as Vice-President Business Development of Univalor, the technology transfer office of Montreal’s university and affiliated schools. Under her responsibility at Univalor in the last 3 years, more than 40 licenses with the industry were signed and 8 companies started. Dr. Rulleau has a master’s degree in biology from The Université du Quebec à Montreal (UQAM) and a doctorate from Montreal University executed at Montreal Clinical Research Institute.

Mark L. Smith is the President of Pandion Investments Ltd, a private family office that manages the affairs of Bill Sinclair in addition to the investment affairs of André Desmarais. Bill Sinclair is the co-founder of JDS Uniphase, the world’s largest fiber-optic company. André Desmarais is the Vice-Chairman and Co-CEO Power Corporation of Canada, a diversified international and investment and management holding company. Power Corporation of Canada has total assets under administration in its group inexcess of $1 trillion. Mr. Smith attended McGill University’s Business School where he obtained his CA and was a Rhodes Scholar finalist and James McGill scholar. Mr. Smith served as President of Claridge SRB Investments, Senior Vice-President of Investments of the entire Claridge Group and Chief Operating Officer of Claridge Israel. Mr. Smith has a wide range of investment experience in a wide range of industries including the financial services industry, telecommunications, technology, sports, pharmaceuticals, food, media and entertainment, health care and medical services and agro-chemical industries. Mr. Smith’s directorships include and have included Netstar Communications, Medisys Medical Group, Enterprise Capital, Venture Coaches, Interset, Osem Food Group, ECI Telecom Inc., The TNA Group, Campbell Resources, Crowntek Business Systems and CBCI Telecom. In 2013, Mark was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his outstanding contributions to Canada.

Rody Yared is an accomplished investment banker with over 17 years of experience spanning North America and the Middle East. Rody serves as a director at Chefaro and is a managing director of Trussbridge. Prior to Trussbridge, Mr. Yared was responsible for growing J.P. Morgan’s investment banking business in Abu Dhabi from 2010 to 2014. He also managed J.P. Morgan’s equity capital markets business in the MENA region, and was one of the founding members that established the bank’s investment banking franchise in the region in 2007. Previously, Mr. Yared served as head of the Syndicate & Equity Capital Markets department at SHUAA Capital in Dubai, after spending six years at Credit Suisse in New York.

He studied finance at Concordia University.

Royston John Glasspool is the former Executive Vice President, Head of Corporate Strategy and Customer Operations at Baxalta US, now part of Shire. Mr. Glasspool is currently an advisor to MIT NEWDIGS and leads the FoCUS project looking at pricing and policy with durable oncology Therapies such as CAR-T. As a seasoned pharmaceutical executive with over 25 years of experience in the industry, Mr. Glasspool has extensive experience in multiple line and staff functions in the US, UK, Europe, and global markets through his roles of increasing responsibility at Scotia Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Baxter, and Baxalta. This experience has helped him architect innovative approaches to patient-centered drug development within the companies he has served, such as the P5 planning process and patient access approach. Mr. Glasspool has led franchises with over $6B in sales and has launched over 10 products. He is regularly invited to expert panels and also served on the Board of Directors of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) and was President of Vaccines Europe. Mr. Glasspool is a member of the board of advisors of the non-profit Life Science Cares. Mr. Glasspool holds 2 patents and has degrees in politics and international relations from the University of Staffordshire, UK, and in business administration from Oxford Brookes University with a focus on international marketing.

Serge Langford is currently Portfolio Manager at Fonds de solidarité FTQ. With 35 years of experience, including 26 years in venture capital, Serge Langford is an expert in the life sciences industry: he is a seasoned professional in managing investment projects and handling large transactions in this field. Prior to his arrival at the Fonds, Mr. Langford worked as a venture capital consultant. He was managing partner at Multiple Capital and before that, Investment Manager at Desjardins Venture Capital. Serge Langford earned a master’s degree in management sciences from HEC Montréal, where he taught a course on managerial economics, offered as part of the management certificate program.