Board of Directors

Shirley Speakman, BA, MBA, CFA - Investment Manager, OCE Investment Accelerator Fund

Shirley Speakman is the Investment Manager for the Ontario Centres of Excellence Investment Accelerator Fund.  The IAF is a $27.5M venture capital fund established by the Ontario government to invest in early stage technology oriented companies in Ontario. As investment manager Shirley is responsible for investment recommendations and decisions.  Prior to joining OCE, Shirley spent over 10 years acting as an advisor to companies in areas such as strategy, finance, legal agreements and fundraising. She has been involved in numerous transactions providing modeling and research support from both the company and investor perspective. Her long-time clients include early stage venture capital funds specializing in biotech, ag-biotech and advanced manufacturing and materials and companies within the biotech and ag-biotech sector.  Shirley holds an MBA from Wilfrid Laurier and a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Waterloo.

Lisa Crossley, PhD, P.Eng. - CEO, Natrix Separations

Lisa Crossley is the CEO of Natrix Separations, a venture-backed biotech company based in Burlington, Ontario.  Lisa's background is in the field of biopharmaceutical manufacturing and new product development. Her previous work experience includes extensive consulting for several of North America’s largest Life Sciences Venture Capital companies, and directing the global manufacturing efforts for two therapeutic lead candidates for a publicly-traded biopharmaceutical company (Dyax Corp, Cambridge, MA).  Lisa sits on the Board of Directors for Viron Therapeutics, a venture-backed biopharmaceutical company based in London, Ontario, and is the co-Chair and co-Founder of Women in Science & Technology Business, a not-for-profit dedicated to advancing the careers of women in the science and technology industries.  Lisa holds a B.S.c. in Anatomy & Cell Biology from McGill University and a B.Sc.E. and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Queen’s University. She is a licensed Professional Engineer in the province of Ontario.

Barbara Fanning, MSc, MBA

Barbara Fanning has worked in business development in the pharmaceutical and life science industries for over 25 years.  Her experience includes developing a business plan for a multinational biotechnology incubator in Iran, a national infrastructure for clinical development in Canada, and numerous specialized partnerships for the development of new chemical entities and drugs.  She has also consulted for several of North America's largest venture capital companies.  This has included the development of exit strategies and preparing companies for new levels of investment and on to IPO's.  Barbara is the immediate past President of Experion, a group of Toronto-area consultants dedicated to expanding their skills and busienss expertise.  Her current consulting projects are in the area of technology assessment, partnerships and collaborations, and strategic planning.  Barbara earned her BSc in Human Genetics at McGill University, an MSc in Experimental Medicine from the University of Alberta and an MBA from Queen's University.  She is an active member of the Toronto Biotechnology Initiative.

Sophie Gaudreault, CA, CPA - Associate Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers

Sophie Gaudreault is an associate partner in the Audit and Assurance Group of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP working in the Toronto office. She has more than 15 years experience serving a range of clients — from small, early stage companies to large, global publicly traded enterprises.  Sophie specializes in assisting clients with public reporting, accounting for revenue recognition, complex equity transactions, acquisitions, adoption of new pronouncements and US GAAP. In addition to statutory audit work, Sophie provides assistance in other areas such as IPOs, reverse takeovers and debt and equity financings.  Sophie is also a member of PwC’s Professional, Technical, Risk and Quality function focusing on audit methodology and risk management issues.  Sophie graduated from the Université of Sherbrooke in 1989. She obtained a CA designation in 1991 and became a CPA (Illinois) in 1999.

Cathy Bogaart, BAA - Portal Manager, MaRS Discovery District

Cathy Bogaart manages all MaRS Web services, including the design, development and execution of website and newsletter programs to promote education, communication and innovation. Cathy has broad experience in managing online media programs and has developed a range of award-winning products. She began her career at Canadian Corporate News where she coordinated Web site production, managed the e-news service and wrote Internet training manuals. She has focused in the life sciences industry, having consulted on projects for the National Ovarian Cancer Association, Asthma Society, Sunnybrook and Women’s College Hospital, Janssen-Ortho, Pfizer and Bayer. Before joining MaRS, Cathy was the Managing Editor of the Health Portal Network at MediResource, reaching over 30 million people annually through all major Canadian Internet portals, including MSN/Sympatico, Canoe.ca and AOL Canada. Cathy holds a BAA in Journalism from Ryerson Polytechnic University, certification in the Ontario Management Development Program and is also a member of Wired Woman Society.

Teresa Snelgrove, PhD – President, ProFitHR

Teresa Snelgrove is the President of ProFitHR-MMI a start-up company and developer of a tool for assessing the non-cognitive abilities of applicants for both the academic and corporate markets. Prior to joining ProFitHR-MMI, Teresa spent thirteen years as an executive recruiter where she specialized in senior level searches in the venture capital community and their portfolio companies, primarily in the technology, healthcare, life science and biotechnology sectors. Teresa’s work has been closely associated with entrepreneurial endeavours beginning with the co-founding of Timothy’s Coffees of the World in 1975, a specialty coffee chain now with over one hundred stores across Canada, Chapters Bookstore café and General Wellbeing a small chain of wellness stores in hospitals. Teresa holds a B.A. from McGill University and a M.A., M.Ed., and Ph.D. from the University of Toronto.

Usha Srinivasan, Director, Market Intelligence, MaRS Discovery District

Usha Srinivasan and her team provide quality and timely market research intelligence to entrepreneurs in Ontario through the MaRS Market Intelligence Services. Prior to joining MaRS, she worked at Frost & Sullivan, a leading global market research and consulting company where she published key research papers, consulted for companies of varying sizes and managed a group of analysts to provide quality research. She has technical & industry background in water, environment and building technologies space having worked with global clients such as GE, Siemens, Veolia, American water, IBM, Honeywell and Brita.  She holds a BSc in Microbiology from University of Bristol and a PhD in Environmental Sciences from University of Abertay in Dundee, Scotland. She is an NRC fellow and has completed postdoctoral work at the US Environmental Protection Agency and University of New Brunswick. She has also worked with the Northern Research Institute and the Department of Forestry in the Yukon and helped to research and write the “State of the Environment” report for the Yukon territories.