Biography: Rob Henderson (President/CEO, BioTalent Canada)

Rob Henderson is a seasoned executive with more than 25 years of private and public sector management experience. He has led the transformation of BioTalent Canada into an in-demand partner, policy influencer, and project leader that brings together the largest national bio-economy network in Canada. Under Rob’s leadership, BioTalent Canada’s national portfolio has expanded, with the mandate to increase student job-readiness matched to health and bioscience related career opportunities.

Since 2011, Rob has grown BioTalent Canada from an initial staff count of five to its current contingent of more than 40 team members. Under Rob’s guidance, BioTalent Canada has engaged with government, employers, industry associations, post-secondary institutions, immigrant serving agencies, and service providers. Together, this dynamic network strengthens skills, connects job-ready talent to industry, and creates opportunities.

Fluently bilingual and a Quebec native, Rob is a respected biotech HR thought leader who provides counsel to all levels of government. He’s a member of the National Stakeholders Advisory Panel for the Labour Market Information Council. Previous to that, at the request of the federal Minister, Rob was a member of the Government of Canada’s Blue Ribbon Panel titled Survival to Success Transforming Immigration. In 2013, Rob presented BioTalent Canada’s talent solutions, in Brussels at the European Union headquarters, to an international audience of global biotech firms.

Prior to his role as President and CEO of BioTalent Canada, he served as President, Quebec and Vice-President, Eastern Canada for Canada NewsWire. Throughout his career, Rob has held Executive Director and Board leadership roles at various associations. In this capacity, Rob shaped numerous Board functions under several different models of governance. Earlier in his career, Rob led the Canadian Association of Journalists through a complex revenue/partnership exercise guided by ethics principles and Board participation and retains strong friendships with Canada’s top journalists to this day.

Rob earned a BSc Honours in Biology from the University of Ottawa. He is active as a volunteer and performer in the Nation’s Capital performing arts community.

Rob shares his lessons along the way and insights on leadership and communications and how his organization is supporting talent development through experiential learning opportunities.

About BioTalent Canada

BioTalent Canada™ is the HR partner of and catalyst for growth in Canada’s bio-economy. BioTalent Canada engages with employers, associations, post-secondary institutions, immigrant serving agencies and service providers and has built a dynamic network that is strengthening skills, connecting job-ready talent to industry and creating opportunities. Recently awarded a Great Place to Work® Certification, BioTalent Canada practices the same industry standards they recommend to their stakeholders.

For more information on BioTalent's programs, please visit BioTalent Canada's website at https://www.biotalent.ca/programs/

Biography: Leah Cowen, PhD
Professor and Chair, Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto
Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Bright Angel Therapeutics

Dr. Leah Cowen obtained her BSc in Microbiology and Immunology at the University of British Columbia and pursued doctoral research with Jim Anderson and Linda Kohn at the University of Toronto focused on the genomic architecture of adaptation to antifungal drugs. As a postdoctoral fellow with Susan Lindquist at the Whitehead Institute, Dr. Cowen investigated how the molecular chaperone Hsp90 impacts on fungal evolution and phenotypic diversity. Since 2007, Dr. Cowen has been a Canada Research Chair in Microbial Genomics and Infectious Disease in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto. Her laboratory takes an interdisciplinary approach to understand what allows some microbes to exploit the host and cause disease, and to develop new strategies to treat life-threatening infectious disease. Dr. Cowen co-founded Bright Angel Therapeutics, a company that leverages state-of-the-art technologies for development of novel antifungal therapeutics.

About Bright Angel Therapeutics:

Bright Angel Therapeutics is a Toronto-based, pre-clinical company committed to developing new drugs to address the growing global public health crisis of antifungal resistance. The company's discovery efforts are focused on molecules that inhibit stress response pathways that are believed to be central to the emergence of fungal resistance. Bright Angel was co-founded by Schrödinger and is leveraging the Schrödinger computational platform to design potent and fungal-selective inhibitors. Other co-founders include Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners (formerly MaRS Innovation), a nonprofit supporting the commercialization of research breakthroughs from Toronto's leading academic institutions; Dr. Leah Cowen, Professor and Chair, Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, co-Director CIFAR Fungal Kingdom: Threats & Opportunities Program, and Chief Scientific Officer, Bright Angel Therapeutics; and company consultant Dr. Luke Whitesell.

Visit brightangeltherapeutics.com for more information.