Management

Mr. Willis is an entrepreneurial healthcare technology executive with a track record of success in bringing products from initial concept to market. He brings strong general management, leadership, and multidisciplinary functional skills.  He is the past President and Chief Operating Officer of ParaPatch (2013–2015), where he was responsible for the development and launch of an over-the-counter women’s health product for the treatment of urinary incontinence. Previously, he was the General Manager of Atia Medical (2012–2013), an incubator founded company focusing on new treatments in ophthalmology. Prior to this, he served as President and CEO of InSite Medical Technologies (2008–2013) a venture backed start-up medical device company that developed a safer and easier to use method for epidural anesthesia. From 2003–2009 he served as Director of New Therapies and Legal Affairs at Guidant Cardiac Surgery; 1997-2002 as Senior R&D Engineer at Foxhollow Technologies; 1996-1997 as R&D Engineer at Heartport; and 1994-1996 as R&D Engineer, Devices for Vascular Intervention at Guidant. Education: MS, Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University (1993-1994), BS, Mechanical Engineering University of California at Santa Barbara (1989-1993).

Dr. Maltz, received his PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, and has over 16 years of experience designing new devices for assessing vascular function and evaluating these on human subjects. A paper describing one of his inventions for the evaluation of endothelial function won the best paper award from the journal Physiological Measurement in 2006. Another first-author paper describing a novel device he co-invented for performing imaging during radiation therapy won the best paper award from the journal Medical Physics in 2010. Dr Maltz is author of over 25 peer-reviewed publications, and holds 18 granted US patents. He was Principal Investigator on $3.8m NIH grant to develop methods for endothelial function assessment. This product leverages this large investment by the NIH. In addition to his academic contributions, Dr Maltz also has 11 years of experience in the field of commercial medical device R&D.

Over 20 years of experience in life sciences with leadership experience in corporate finance, business development, and operational management of life sciences companies. Mr. Janzen is currently Co-Founder and Managing Director of Northview Ventures. He serves as Chairman and CEO of Aequus Pharmaceuticals (AQS-TSXV), a company that was founded within Northview. Prior to Northview Ventures, he was President and CEO of Cardiome Pharma (NASDAQ: CRME) Mr. Janzen held a series of positions including Chief Financial Officer (2003 - 2005), President and Chief Business Officer (2005 – 2009), and President and Chief Executive Officer (2009 – 2012). During this time he raised over $300 million from investors, completed over $1 billion in licensing deals, and led a partnership with Merck to bring Cardiome’s lead product, Brinavess, through to clinical approval and marketing in Europe. Mr. Janzen currently serves on the Boards of Aequus Pharmaceuticals, Alabaster Technologies, Abcellera (Chairman), Ico Therapeutics, Perimeter Medical Imaging, Renaissance Biosciences and Synaptive Technologies. Prior to Cardiome he was an investment banker with Cormark Securities, acting as Managing Director of Life Sciences and has completed over $1B in equity financing for Canadian biotech companies. Mr. Janzen is Past Chair of LifeSciences BC, has served as a Director with Biotech Canada and is a past winner of Business in Vancouver’s “Top 40 under 40 Award.”

A successful entrepreneur and business executive, champion fundraiser, and dedicated public servant, Rocco Rossi is currently President and CEO of Prostate Cancer Canada. His unique blend of experience intersects general management, philanthropy, public policy, politics, business strategy, and new media. As CEO of the Heart and Stroke Foundation – one of Canada’s largest non-profit organizations – from 2004 to 2009, Rossi oversaw four consecutive years of record fundraising raising over $500 million in total and launching many new, life-saving initiatives. His passion for public policy has led him to stand for election both for the position of Mayor of Toronto and for MPP. At Boston Consulting Group, he provided strategic advice to Fortune 500 companies in a wide range of industries in Canada, the U.S. and Europe. Mr. Rossi then joined TORSTAR (publisher of the Toronto Star, one of the largest circulation daily newspapers in North America), in 1996 as Vice-President, Strategic Planning & New Media. As Vice-President, Interactive Media at Labatt from 1999 to 2001, Rossi launched the most popular consumer beer website in the world, beer.com. A past board member of United Way of Greater Toronto, in 2012 he was awarded the Queen's Jubilee Medal for his Philanthropic and Community service. Mr. Rossi has a BA (Hons) in political science from McGill University and a Masters of Arts in politics from Princeton University.

Mr. Disher (CPA, CA) spent 38 years with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Canada, Australia and Ukraine. He was admitted to partnership in PwC Canada in 1991 and from 2011 until his retirement in June 2015 was a partner with PwC Central and Eastern Europe, where he served as both Managing Partner of its 400+ person Ukrainian practice and leader of its Ukrainian audit and assurance group.
Bryan worked in PwC's practice in Canada and Ukraine, serving both privately held and Canadian and US listed companies. He has assisted companies with initial public offerings and secondary offerings in both Canada and the US, going private transactions, acquisitions, audit, financial reporting and regulatory compliance and filings.
He was elected to PwC Canada's Partnership Board in 2001 and his 8 years on the Board included a term as Chair of the Board. He was elected to the board of directors of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, where he served as Chair and Vice-Chair, and also served on a number of not-for-profit boards in Canada. Education: University of New Brunswick, Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Business Administration and Management, General (1975-1978).

Mr. McInnes is a co-founder and principal at Oxygen Capital Corporation, where he applies his over twenty years’ experience building companies from the ground up. He serves as Chairman of the Clean Energy Association of British Columbia and is a director of Prostate Cancer Canada, the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award-British Columbia and Yukon Division and is a Governor of the British Columbia Business Council. He was a participant in the inaugural year (2010) of the SFU Leadership Exchange Program for the Industry Council for Aboriginal Business and was bestowed a Doctor of Technology honoris causa from the BC Institute of Technology in 2009. In 2011, Mr. McInnes was awarded an Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the Pacific Division Cleantech category. Education: BA, Political Science at Dalhousie University (1981-1987), Bishop’s College School (1975-1981).