Navigating Geopolitical Shifts: Canada’s Innovation Strategy for the Life Sciences Sector

Dr. Jason Field is President and CEO of Life Sciences Ontario (LSO), an organization that works collaboratively with government, academia, industry, and life sciences partners across Canada to support the sector’s commercial success and growth.

He holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Massachusetts and a B.Sc. from the University of Waterloo. Jason’s career spans both the pharmaceutical industry and the Ontario government. He joined LSO as Executive Director in October 2011 and was appointed President and CEO in April 2014.

Jason serves on several boards and advisory committees, including the University of Toronto’s Translational Research Program, ReMAP, BioTalent Canada, and Research Canada. He also co-chairs the Resilient Healthcare Coalition.

He is a recipient of the University of Waterloo’s 2018 Distinguished Alumni Award, served as Chair of Ontario’s Life Sciences Council (2023–2024), and was awarded the King Charles III Coronation Medal.

Karimah Es Sabar is a highly-recognized Canadian life sciences leader with global experience and a successful career spanning multi-national pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, startups, not-for-profit organizations, innovation ecosystems and venture investment firms.

Ms. Es Sabar is the former founding CEO & General Partner at Quark Venture LP, a global venture capital firm, and Director of the Global Health Sciences [GHS] Fund focused on bioscience investment in therapeutics, vaccines, medical devices, digital health, AI and convergent disruptive technology companies.

Ms. Es Sabar was CEO & President of the Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD]; CEO & President of LifeSciences BC; and she has held several executive and senior management positions in the biopharmaceutical industry, most notably at Sanofi Pasteur. She also co-founded and enabled several health science companies.

Ms. Es Sabar has received multiple awards and recognitions for her leadership and pioneering work, including the Order of British Columbia and Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Award. She holds an Executive Certificate in Management and Leadership from the MIT Sloan School of Management; a MSc degree in Neurochemistry from the Institute of Psychiatry, University of London, England; and a BSc Joint Honours degree in Biochemistry/Chemistry from the University of Salford in Manchester, England.

Ms. Es Sabar has served on numerous boards; currently she is Board Chair of TRIUMF Innovations, and serves on boards of HSO, Variantyx, Canary Medical, Qualisure Diagnostics and Capricor. She was Chair of the Health/Biosciences Economic Strategy Table (Government of Canada) and Member of the Industry Strategy Council (Government of Canada).

Wendy Zatylny is a seasoned executive who brings 30 years’ experience spearheading issues on the federal and provincial-territorial landscapes—including policy development and roll-out, reputation stewardship, issues management, and advocacy to advance member interests.

Wendy has represented Canadian issues on the world stage, and led national stakeholder engagement and government relations programs developed in concert with effective media and advertising strategies. Born in Quebec and charged with Canada-wide program initiatives, Wendy brings a bilingual and truly national perspective to her work.

Wendy brings extensive leadership experience across key sectors of the Canadian economy, including life sciences, logistics, telecommunications, and marine transportation. Before joining BIOTECanada, Wendy was Canadian Country Manager for a global telecommunications infrastructure provider, during which time she led a $7.5 million project to upgrade the company’s passive infrastructure.  Prior to that, she spent nine years as President at the Association of Canadian Port Authorities (ACPA), advocating on behalf of the marine transportation system.  On the life sciences front, she spent eight years at Rx&D, the national association representing Canada’s research-based pharmaceutical companies where she held several senior positions in public affairs and government relations.

Outside of the office, Wendy is a proud mom to her 28 year old son, as well as an accomplished  competitive ballroom dancer. Active in her community, she is a recipient of the Governor General’s Commemorative Medal for the 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada, and was recognized by the Supply Chain Management Association as one of 100 Influential Women in Canadian Supply Chain in 2019.

Stéphanie Michaud is the President and CEO of BioCanRx, Canada’s Immunotherapy Network. BioCanRx invests in the development of immunotherapies for the clinic in order to increase the number of clinical trials in Canada based on novel approaches to treating cancer. She brings over 20+ years of experience from the public, government, private and not-for-profit experience in research, science, technology and innovation (STI) policy and program delivery. Dr Michaud holds a PhD in organic chemistry from McGill University and has worked as a synthetic organic chemist in industry. In addition to contributing to numerous committees and working groups within the science policy and cancer research landscape, she currently serves as Director on the Board of Exactis Innovation and Research Canada, the advisory board of the Canadian Cancer Research Alliance and is a past Board member of the StemCell network. She is a past alumna of both the Governor General Leadership Conference and inaugural Centre for Drug Development Executive Institute. She lives in the province of Québec with her husband and daughter.

After 20 years of experience in IT for hospitals, space agencies, and city-wide storage infrastructure, Alexandre Le Bouthillier transformed his understanding of large systems to tackle the inefficiencies in healthcare. Now, Alexandre works with world renowned AI experts and physicians to revolutionize the speed, accuracy, and ultimately clinical outcomes of patients. He is a Board Member of Mila (honorific since 2023), IVADO, MEDTEQ+, envisAGE, Health Innovation District & Montreal InVivo. With a Ph.D. in Parallel Computing and Optimization from the Université de Montréal, Le Bouthillier is co-founder and general partner at Linearis, an AI health fund to foster a collaborative, accessible, equitable and sustainable end-to-end health continuum.

Bethany Moir is Senior Director, Public Affairs at adMare BioInnovations, a pan-Canadian organization that provides scientific and commercial expertise, specialized R&D infrastructure and seed capital to help build Canada’s life science industry from sea to sea.

Prior to joining adMare, Bethany held a variety of roles covering research and insights, stakeholder relations, strategic projects and client services at Toronto Global, the foreign direct investment attraction agency for the Toronto Region. Since joining at the organization’s inception in 2017, she was proud to have contributed to many of Toronto Global’s key projects, including as core researcher and author of the Toronto Region response to Amazon’s HQ2 request for proposals, securing more than $15 million in government funding, designing and implementing a new governance structure, authoring influential white papers, and initiating the Ontario Wet Lab Coalition that has helped raise awareness and secure government funding for multi-tenant lab space that supports graduation-stage life science companies.

Bethany has previously held roles with municipal and provincial (Ontario) governments and started her career as a marketer with experience working in multi-national organizations as well as start-up and scaling Canadian tech companies. Her professional experience is complemented with an MBA, International Business and an M.Sc. Local Economic Development from the London School of Economics along with a global mind-set resulting from living in Canada, Australia, Italy, the UK, and China.

President & CEO of Life Sciences BC, Wendy Hurlburt, holds a critical leadership role in B.C.’s dynamic life sciences ecosystem. She takes a collaborative approach to building relationships between local SMEs, global partners, educational institutions, and government to support the thriving sector and is a highly regarded spokesperson in key international markets. Regarded as a promoter and advocate for the sector, Wendy attracts new business and investment opportunities to the province.

Wendy is passionate about volunteerism and seeks out tangible ways to give back. She is a member of the Economic Development & Fiscal Committee for the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade; the Clinical Trials BC Advisory Council, Michael Smith Health Research BC; a committee member for the Canadian Chamber of Commerce Life Sciences Strategy Council, a member of the Public Policy Forum (PPF) Life Sciences Council and Co-Chair of the PPF Life Sciences working group. She is also a member of the Management Board of Invest Vancouver, Board member and Chair of Finance & Audit Committee for Nimbus Synergies, and Vice Chair of the Board and Board member of Science World.