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Day 2

Speaker Profiles

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Dr. Lesley Esford, President & CEO, LifeSciences BC

Dr. Lesley Esford is the President of LifeSciences BC, a not-for-profit, industry association that supports and

represents the Life Science community of British Columbia through leadership, facilitation of investment and

partnering, advocacy, and promotion of our world-class science and industry. Lesley received her PhD in

Microbiology and Immunology from UBC and has spent many years in academia, industry and government in

positions supporting the growth of the Life Sciences sector. Since 2006, she has worked as an ITA for NRC-IRAP,

helping over 100 entrepreneurs developing a wide array of products and services, at every stage of the innovation

process, from concept to commercialization. Lesley is a Kauffman Fellow, which is a Silicon Valley-based

international leadership program for venture capitalists and innovators.

Neal Hill, Vice President, Market Development, BDC

Neal Hill was appointed Vice President, Market Development with BDC Capital in 2016. His main responsibilities are

to ensure the continued execution and future development of Canada’s Venture Capital Action Plan (VCAP) and to

identify and develop high-potential Canadian general partners (GPs).

Neal has more than 30 years of experience in technology management and marketing, venture capital, and mergers

and acquisitions in Canada and the U.S. Before joining BDC Capital as Vice President, Fund of Funds, in 2012, he was

founder and Senior Managing Director of Great Northern Capital, Canada’s first attempt to create a growth-stage

venture capital fund of substantial size focusing on emerging technology firms.

Prior to this, he was Senior Vice President, Corporate Development, for Cognos Incorporated, an Ottawa-based $1

billion worldwide leader in business intelligence and performance management software, now a unit of IBM. In this

role, he was responsible for mergers, acquisitions and strategic alliances, including the IBM alliance that led to its $5

billion acquisition of Cognos

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Fazil Mihlar, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Jobs, Trade & Technology, BC

Fazil Mihlar was appointed Deputy Minister, Jobs, Trade and Technology effective July 18, 2017. Previous to this role, Fazil was Deputy Minister, Climate Leadership, effective March 25, 2016, and prior to that was Assistant Deputy Minister, Institutions and Programs Division with the Ministry of Advanced Education and Assistant Deputy Minister, Oil and Strategic Initiatives Division, Ministry of Natural Gas Development. Before joining government in 2013, Fazil was associate editor of The Vancouver Sun newspaper.

Fazil has been nominated twice for a National Newspaper Award for best editorial writing in Canada. Before joining The Vancouver Sun in 1999, Fazil managed the Royal Bank Financial Group’s public affairs department for B.C. and the Yukon. He was also director of regulatory and labour market studies at the Fraser Institute and managed the small business consulting group at Simon Fraser University.

Fazil holds a B.A. in Economics from Simon Fraser University, an M.A. in Public Administration from Carleton University and a Marketing Diploma from the Chartered Institute of Marketing in London, England. He also completed a Certificate Course on Risk Management at Harvard University.

Fazil is the author/co-author of many research reports, including A Review of the Canada/US Free Trade Agreement,

The Cost of Regulation in Canada and The Rational Consolidation of Banking in Canada.

Dr. Jeff Pike, Orthopaedic Surgeon, Clinical Transformational Lead, new St. Paul’s Hospital, Providence Health

Care

Dr. Jeffrey Pike is an orthopaedic surgeon with subspecialty training in wrist, elbow, and shoulder surgery- adult and

pediatric. He is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Orthopaedics at the University of British

Columbia.

Dr. Pike is on active staff at Providence Healthcare (St. Paul’s Hospital) and BC Children’s Hospital, and is currently

Associate Director Medical Transformation and New Technologies for the new St. Paul's redevelopment.

Dr. Pike completed his undergraduate degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a Morehead

Scholar and subsequently returned to Canada and completed both his medical degree and orthopedic surgery

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residency at the University of British Columbia. He subsequently completed a Master of Public Health degree at

Harvard University and two clinical fellowships in upper extremity surgery at the Hand and Upper Limb Center in

London, Ontario and Washington University in St. Louis

Bill Tam, Co-Chair Canada’s Digital Technology Supercluster and Past President, BC Tech Association

Bill Tam has been actively involved in guiding the success of entrepreneurial companies as a founder, executive, investor, advisor and board member for the past 20 years. In 2010, he joined BC Tech as a CEO-in-Residence with the Centre4Growth program, advising over 30 companies from startups to mid-stage technology firms. Prior to BC Tech, Bill was the CEO of EQO Communications, a mobile app startup, a Partner at SpringBank TechVentures, an early-stage VC firm, and a founding executive at MetroNet, a successful Canadian telecom startup. Bill has held senior executive positions at AT&T, Rogers, Jones Cable, Infowave Software and Bell Canada. He currently lends his expertise as an industry advisor for BCNet, Simon Fraser University and UBC; and volunteers his time supporting students and aspiring entrepreneurs. Bill holds an MBA from the Ivey School of Business and a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from McGill University. After having the privilege of serving two terms as CEO of the BC Tech Association, Bill decided to retire from his position effective Fall 2017. He continues a part-time advisory role to support the successful transition to a new CEO, as well as championing several strategic initiatives to a successful conclusion.\

Dr. Gail Murphy Vice-President Research & Innovation, UBC

Dr. Gail Murphy assumed the role of Vice-President, Research & Innovation on August 14, 2017.

Dr. Murphy is a Professor in UBC’s Department of Computer Science and was formerly Associate Dean (Research and Graduate Studies) in the Faculty of Science. After completing her B.Sc. at the University of Alberta in 1987, she

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worked for five years as a software engineer in the Lower Mainland. She later pursued graduate studies in computer science at the University of Washington, earning first an M.Sc. (1994) and then a Ph.D (1996).

Dr. Murphy joined UBC in 1996 and was a key driver of the new Masters of Data Science, a professional graduate program launching this fall—and has been instrumental in championing the creation of a Data Science Institute at the university. She also maintains an active research group with post-doctoral and graduate students.

Dr. Murphy’s research focuses on improving the productivity of software developers and knowledge workers by providing the necessary tools to identify, manage and coordinate the information that matters most for their work. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and an Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Distinguished Scientist, as well as co-founder, board member and former Chief Scientist at Tasktop Technologies Incorporated.

Dr. Ali Tehrani, Founder & CEO, Zymeworks

Dr. Tehrani is one of Zymeworks co-founders and currently serves as our President & Chief Executive Officer. Dr.

Tehrani has served as a member of our board of directors since the Company’s inception in September 2003. He has

been an integral part of many of our corporate achievements including raising seed and angel financing and

overseeing our technical operations and patent filings. Dr. Tehrani holds both Bachelors and Masters of Science

degrees in Biochemistry from the University of Massachusetts, and has a Doctoral degree in Microbiology and

Immunology from the University of British Columbia. While completing his Ph.D. degree he co-founded the Student

Biotechnology Network, for which he received the UBC Faculty of Science Achievement Award for Outstanding

Leadership in 2002. Dr. Tehrani has served as a Board Director for the Student Biotechnology Network, LifeSciences

British Columbia, on the MITACS Industrial Advisory Board, and BIOTECanada’s Industrial and Environmental

Committee. Currently, he is a member of the Board of Directors of Creatus Biosciences Inc., CQDM and the British

Columbia Premier’s Technology Council.

Dr. John Delaney, Executive Director, Amgen

John leads Amgen’s Biologic Discovery function responsible for identifying large molecule therapeutic candidates in collaboration with all Amgen Therapeutic Areas, including the discovery of fully human antibody therapeutics using the company’s proprietary platform technology. John joined Amgen in 1992, is based at the Amgen San Francisco

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site, and leads research teams in numerous Amgen locations. In 2010, John added the site leadership role for Amgen’s Burnaby, British Columbia research facility, managing the company’s significant Bologicics resources in Canada, and overseeing site administration. John holds a Bachelor of Science in Zoology from the University of Montana and earned his Ph.D. in the Department

of Microbiology at the University of Arizona. He completed his postdoctoral training at the University of Utah’s

Department of Cellular, Viral, and Molecular Biology.

Peter Jones, Healthcare Industry Lead, Microsoft Canada

As Healthcare Industry Lead for Microsoft Canada, Peter Jones is responsible for developing the strategy vision of modern healthcare for the Canadian marketplace. Working closely with the Microsoft Worldwide Healthcare team, Peter is deeply enriched in the best practices of healthcare digital transformation that is being practiced by healthcare industry leaders around the globe. Peter’s mandate is to help clients improve their clinical and operational performance by leveraging Microsoft solutions for healthcare data and records management, advanced analytics, and big data, while remaining compliant. Peter joined Microsoft nearly 20 years ago and has been focused on the healthcare industry for over 10 years. He is actively involved in a number Health Informatics groups such as COACH, CHIEF (Advisor), and is an active ITAC Health board member. Dr. Pieter Cullis, Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, UBC

Pieter R. Cullis, Ph.D. FRSC FNAI (USA), Director, NanoMedicines Research Group; Professor, Department of

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Dr. Cullis and co-workers have been responsible for fundamental advances in

the design and application of “smart” nanomedicines for personalized therapies, including gene therapies. This

work has contributed to three drugs that have been approved by regulatory agencies in the U.S. and Europe for the

treatment of cancer and its complications and a fourth drug to treat a previously untreatable hereditary condition

that is likely to receive regulatory approval in 2018. Dr. Cullis has co-founded ten biotechnology companies, has

published over 300 scientific articles and is an inventor on over 60 patents. He also co-founded the Centre for Drug

Research and Development (CDRD) in 2004 and the Personalized Medicine Initiative (PMI) in 2012. Dr. Cullis has

received many awards and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2004. He was also awarded the

Prix Galien, Canada’s premier prize for achievements in pharmaceutical R&D, in 2011. In 2015 Dr. Cullis published

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“The Personalized Medicine Revolution: How Diagnosing and Treating Disease are About to Change Forever”, see

http://www.amazon.com/The-Personalized-Medicine-Revolution-Diagnosing/dp/1771640383.

Dr. Steven Jones, Professor, Medical Genetics, UBC

My research program is firmly entrenched in cancer genomics to understand the mutational landscape of cancer.

The goal of this is to help understand the diversity of oncogenic driving events that accrue and give rise to cancer

and ensure its progression. The computational detection and study of the oncogenic events should also provide an

understanding of how the disease might be mitigated and therapeutics might be targeted - either by more precisely

aligning known therapeutics with the observed mutational profile or by using the mutational information to help

identify novel therapeutic targets. My laboratory has been extensively analyzing data next-generation to achieve

these goals and have developed a number of computational approaches and methodologies to this end.

A significant part of my research program is to determine within specific cancers how the specific oncogenic profile

with a individual cancer might be innovatively exploited. One example is in Lymphoma, where mutations in either

MLL2 or EZH2 are found in the majority of patient samples and it is now apparent that modifications in epigenetic

programming are a key aspect of this disease. Within my research program, we have identified a number of

epigenetic target that have the potential to be modulated in such a way as to reverse the effects of the oncogenic

mutations in EZH2 and MLL2. We have been using computational approaches, such as molecular docking and

molecular dynamics to identify and refine compounds that can modify the epigenetic program. This is research area

is also complimentary to my laboratory’s other role as a data analysis centre for the Canadian Epigenetics,

Environment and Health Research Consortium (CEEHRC).

Dr. Peter Zandstra, Founding Director, UBC’s School of Biomedical Engineering

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Dr. Peter Zandstra graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering degree from McGill University in the Department of

Chemical Engineering, and obtained his Ph.D. degree from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in the Department

of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, under the supervision of Jamie Piret and Connie Eaves. He continued his

research training as a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the field of Bioengineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

(with Doug Lauffenburger). In 1999, Dr. Zandstra began his faculty appointment at the University of Toronto’s (UofT’s)

Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, with cross appointments in the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and

Biomolecular Research and Chemical Engineering. During his time at the UofT, he has held the Canada Research Chair

(Tier 1) in Stem Cell Bioengineering and he was appointed University Professor (2016), the university’s highest

academic rank. In July 2017, Zandstra joined the University of British Columbia as the Founding Director the School

of Biomedical Engineering and as the Director of the Michael Smith Laboratories. In these roles, he aims to build

programs with deeper interactions between the Faculties of Applies Science, Science and Medicine, especially as

related to innovative research and training programs.

Dr. Joby McKenzie, Senior VP, Business Development, LifeLabs

As Senior Vice President, Business Development, Joby is responsible for growing our ehealth and general and advanced diagnostic businesses. Working with a team of cross-functional experts, Joby identifies opportunities for new product and service development to support our long-term growth in new and existing markets. Joby led the integration of CML, BC Bio and LifeLabs which built the foundation necessary to enable the continued growth of the organization. Prior to joining LifeLabs, Joby was a consultant with the Boston Consultant Group (BCG), advising organizations across various sectors regarding business strategy, organizational transformations and operational efficiency. Joby holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from Simon Fraser University; a Doctorate in Philosophy (PhD), Molecular and Medical Genetics, from the University of Toronto; and a Masters in Business Administration, with a specialization in health care from the Richard Ivey School of Business.

As an athlete, Joby also represented Canada at international tournaments and was part of the basketball team that

won a silver medal at the Pan-American games and qualified for the 2000 Olympics.

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Dr. Steve Mathais, Executive Director, Foundry, Psychiatrist and Medical Manager, Inner City Youth Program, St.

Paul’s Hospital

Dr. Steve Mathias is a child and adolescent psychiatrist with a fellowship in Addiction Psychiatry (U. of Melbourne). He is the Physician Program Director at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, BC; the Co-Scientific Director of FRAYME/CADRE, a Networks of Centres of Excellence of International Knowledge Exchange Translation Platform (NCE-IKTp) for youth mental health and substance use; and the Executive Director of Foundry, a province-wide initiative to create 11 integrated health and social service centres for young people aged 12 to 24 by 2018. Dr. Mathias is the co-founder of St. Paul’s Hospital’s Inner City Youth Program, a nationally-recognized service which provides integrated health and social interventions to a complex, homeless youth population through a series of partnerships with community agencies, health networks and government ministries. Dr. Mathias has specialized in collaborative care, knowledge exchange and implementation of best practice. He is actively involved in research profiling the service needs of homeless youth. He is the psychiatry lead for the Addiction Medicine Fellowship training program. He works clinically with youth with concurrent mental health and addictions. Dr. Dermot Kelleher, Dean, Faculty of Medicine, UBC

Dr. Kelleher brings significant experience and is recognized internationally for innovation in academic health

leadership and administration, clinical care, research and education.

Dr. Kelleher joined UBC in the summer of 2015 as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. Prior to his appointment at UBC,

Dr. Kelleher served as Vice-President Health and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London, where

he also held a concurrent appointment as Dean of the Lee Kong Chian Medical School in Singapore until 2014. Dr.

Kelleher has also served as Head of the School of Medicine and Vice Provost for Medical Affairs at Trinity College,

Dublin.

Dr. Kelleher graduated from medicine from Trinity College Dublin in 1978, going on to specialize in gastroenterology.

Author of over 300 publications and 14 patents, Dr. Kelleher’s research examines the immune response to many of

the leading causes of gastrointestinal infectious disease worldwide. Over the years he has received many prestigious

awards including a Fogarty Scholarship at the University of California San Diego, Welcome Senior Fellow in Clinical

Science, and most recently the Conway Medal from the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland.

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Dr. Julio Montaner, Director, BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS; Director of IDC and Physician Program

Director for HIV/AIDS PHC

Dr. Montaner is a Killam Professor of Medicine and also holds the endowed Chair in AIDS Research. He is the Director

of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and a Past-President of the International AIDS Society. He was the

founding head of the Division of AIDS for a decade in the Department of Medicine at UBC. He is the UNAIDS Global

Advisor on HIV Therapeutics. He played a key role in establishing the efficacy of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy

(HAART) and since then has established the role of ‘Treatment as Prevention’ using HAART to simultaneously decrease

progression to AIDS and death, as well as HIV transmission.

Dr. Brendan Byrne, Wellness Garage

With his strong vision for how information, communications and technology (ICT) can transform healthcare for

Canadians, Brendan is leading our focus on continued digital innovation and the evolution of our health solutions

from our current applications to an open platform of products and services.

A self-described technophile, Brendan is passionate about the role mobile and digital technology can play in

improving healthcare outcomes in Canada.

Prior to joining TELUS Health, Brendan founded Wolf Medical Systems, which at the time was the largest cloud-

based electronic medical record (EMR) provider in Canada. He directed the evolution of Wolf from its inception in

1998 to becoming one of the fastest growing EMR companies in Canada, prior to its acquisition by TELUS Health in

2012.

Deeply committed to healthcare, he has more than 20 years of experience in family practice, including seven years

as the Director of the Columbia Medical Clinic in New Westminster, British Columbia.

Brendan has a degree in Neurobiology from Yale University and is a graduate of McGill University’s Faculty of

Medicine.

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Dr. Alan Rabinowitz, Cardiologist, Co-founder & CMO, PHEMI Systems

Dr. Alan Rabinowitz received his medical degree from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, completed his internal medicine and cardiology training at the University of Toronto and undertook subsequent training in interventional cardiology at St Paul’s Hospital, University of British Columbia. He was previously the Director of the Coronary Care Unit, and is currently a Clinical Associate Professor in the Division of Cardiology at St Paul’s Hospital, University of British Columbia. Dr. Rabinowitz is the immediate Past President of the Medical Staff at St Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver. In his various leadership positions at St Paul’s, he has played a significant role in leading an agenda of meaningful physician engagement in health system innovation and transformation, which includes driving disruptive change in the context of the planned redevelopment of St Paul’s Hospital. He is actively involved in the recently opened Gunn Pavilion at UBC, which incorporates the Centre for Physical Activity and Exercise Medicine, and is a strategic adviser to the rural Coordination Center of British Columbia, a physician–led organization which aims to improve health education, and which advocates for rural health in BC. Dr. Rabinowitz is the Co-Founder, Chief Medical Officer and a Director of PHEMI Systems, a big data company that has developed enterprise data warehouse solutions focused on creating value through the protection and responsible sharing of data, both in the realm of precision medicine and healthcare, and in other industries. PHEMI has initiated several inter-sector collaborations in precision medicine, systems biology and clinical medicine. Dr. Rabinowitz is involved in these collaborations in his roles at PHEMI, and is also involved in his individual capacity in other creatively disruptive initiatives in several international jurisdictions.

Dr. John Pawlovich, Program Coordinator REAP (Rural Education Action Plan, BC) Medical Director, Carrier

Sekani Family Services

Dr. John Pawlovich is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Family Practice at University of British

Columbia (UBC). He completed his medical degree in 1994 at UBC. He then went to Chilliwack, BC where he

completed a two year Family Practice Residency. He has worked in many rural and remote sites across Canada.

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Over the last twenty plus years an interest in Aboriginal Health evolved with a focus of bringing innovative primary

care and specialty services onto reserve to reach the people most in need. Using new technology such as telehealth

from his home office in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Dr Pawlovich is able to connect to multiple remote aboriginal

communities to help provide the daily primary care they deserve and need. He continues to make monthly visits to

northern aboriginal communities to ensure the closeness of his relationship to the people remains strong. In 2009,

the College of Family Physicians of Canada honoured Dr. Pawlovich with the Reg Perkins Award as British Columbia’s

Family Physician of the Year. He is currently the director of the Rural Education Action Plan in British Columbia as

well as the Medical Director for Carrier Sekani Family Services. Dr Pawlovich is involved in many telehealth initiatives

in the province of British Columbia. He is a co-founder and co-lead of the BC Virtual Health Grand Rounds and the e-

Health theme lead for the UBC Faculty of Medicine. He speaks both nationally and internationally on virtual

healthcare solutions and systems.

Dr. Peter McWilliams, Managing Director, Sanderling Ventures

Dr. Peter McWilliams is a Managing Director with Sanderling Ventures and has more than 15 years experience in

biomedical research and management. He works actively with Sanderling portfolio companies in the role of

Chairman, Director, CEO and member of the management team. Past and present portfolio companies include

Actimis Pharmaceuticals (sold to Boehringer Ingelheim), Artielle Immunotherapeutics, Glycomine, Calcimedica and

Liphorus Pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining Sanderling, Dr. McWilliams worked at Genentech where, as a Product

Manager, he managed a pipeline of oncology products in clinical and pre-clinical development and was the

Commercial Team Leader for Avastin. Prior to that, he worked as a management consultant for Booz & Co. and,

prior to that, he worked as an applications specialist and software engineer for Oxford Molecular. Dr. McWilliams

received an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School, a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Princeton University and a B.A. in

Natural Sciences from Cambridge University.

Dion Madsen, Senior Managing Partner, BDC

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Dion Madsen joined BDC Venture Capital in 2012 as Senior Managing Partner in the Healthcare Fund and has led

investments in Phemi and Zymeworks (ZYME:NYSE)

Dion has 25 years of experience working with innovative startups and major public companies. He Founded and was

Managing Director of Physic Ventures, and was Managing Director of Unilever Technology Ventures. Dion led Chiron

Corporation’s investor communications, as Director of Investor Relations, and worked in Corporate Development.

Prior to this, Dion spent five years as Partner of RBC Capital Partners’ Life Sciences Venture Fund.

Dion is a founding member of the C100 and has sat on the boards of directors of many venture capital funds and

companies in health care, holding operating roles of M&A Advisor, Strategic Consultant and CFO for biotechnology

companies.

He sits on the Board of Directors of Interface Biologics, Phemi, Agrisoma, Milestone Pharma and is Board Observer

at Chromatin.

Dion is a CFA® charterholder and has a Bachelor of Commerce in Finance and Marketing from the University of

Saskatchewan.

Fred Francis, CEO, Imagia Cybernetics Inc.

Frédéric holds a BSc. In Physics from McGill University. He co-founded and was CEO of Resonant Medical in 2000,

leader in 3D ultrasound image-guidance for prostate & breast cancer radiotherapy. Resonant was successfully sold

to Elekta. He was CEO of Harmonic Medical, developer of next-generation focused ultrasound therapy. He co-

founded Lateral Logic, pioneer in real-time rigid-body dynamics for visual simulation & virtual prototyping. With over

15 years of experience in medical imaging and image-guidance oncology applications, Frédéric is a results driven

businessman with proven leadership qualities, strong communication, negotiation and interpersonal skills. Especially

motivated by opportunities requiring highly strategic thinking, creative decision making and hands-on

implementation. He has considerable experience and affinity for innovation driven growth in high tech startups and

rapidly evolving entrepreneurial environments.

Rick Makos, President & CEO, PHEMI Systems

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Rick is currently President of Phemi Systems. Rick is an experienced business executive that is known for his

leadership and teamwork capabilities. He has a reputation of successfully transforming and rebuilding businesses

into marketplace leaders. Rick now working with the Phemi team and its founders to move Phemi into a new phase

of growth. PHEMI is a big data warehouse company that lets organizations easily access and mine any variety of data

at any volume to drive insights that lower costs, improve outcomes, and allow better decisions faster.

With an industry-pioneering approach to privacy, security, and governance, PHEMI protects privacy and ensures

legitimate use of data to drive continuous improvement and help organizations meet compliance and governance

requirements. An organizational ambassador for Privacy by Design, PHEMI brings both privacy and performance to

big data solutions, along with the data management and control formerly only afforded by traditional enterprise

data warehouses.

Dr. Mohammed Qadir, President & Chief Scientific Officer, Fusion Genomics

Dr Qadir’s training is in genetics and molecular biology. Dr Qadir has over 17 years of research experience. The last ten were at the British Columbia Cancer Agency where he worked with world-renowned experts in genomics and drug development. Dr Qadir is the co-inventor of the CHILDSeq-Sarcoma assay and CHILDDecode (part of FUSIONCloud™). Dr Qadir oversees all the scientific aspects of research and development efforts at FUSION GENOMICS and also serves as the interface for all collaborators. Erik Kiss, CEO & Co-founder, Imaging Reality

Erik Kiss started as a developer in the games industry in 1988. Since then, he has worked on all aspects of video and

computer game software design and architecture. He has led and worked in teams of all sizes, from small start-ups

to enormous multinational conglomerates, including Electronic Arts and Microsoft.

In 2007, he co-founded BigPark, which was eventually acquired in 2009 by Microsoft. He acted in many roles,

including CTO, Technical Director and Head of Development for various games and entertainment products on

multiple platforms and devices.

After leaving Microsoft in 2012, Erik has been an independent contractor, entrepreneur and angel investor. He's

currently interested in virtual and head mounted augmented reality, particularly in applications involving medical

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imaging, training and education. He recently started a new company focused on using VR to facilitate the viewing

and sharing of 3D diagnostic imaging like CT and MR.

Vern Brownell, President & CEO, D-Wave

Vern Brownell is the CEO of D-Wave Systems, the world’s first quantum computing company, and is a highly

regarded thought leader in enterprise and data technology. His vision of a virtualized datacenter back in the late

1990s led him to found and run Egenera, a pioneer in infrastructure virtualization. Prior to founding Egenera, Vern

was Chief Technology Officer at Goldman Sachs, where he and his staff of 1,300 were responsible for worldwide

technology infrastructure, including computing platforms, datacenters, data networking, telecommunications and

trading-floor operations. Since joining D-Wave in 2009, he led the company through its first customer sales to

Lockheed Martin and Google, oversaw the development and commercialization of several generations of D-Wave

technology.

Vern has also held various management and engineering roles at Stratus Computer, Ztel and Digital Equipment. He

holds an MBA degree from Anna Maria College and a BEng. degree in Electrical Engineering from Stevens Institute of

Technology.