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Blaine began his career as a Professional Engineer, with a focus on leadership and management roles.  He has over 20 years of experience in the health, technology, and engineering sectors leading and managing large teams and portfolios, capital investment projects, product management, M&A, and go-to-market strategies.  Fifteen of those years were in Executive roles and included Co-founder and CEO of MitoCanada, CEO of the start-up engineering firm Integrated Sustainability, and Vice President of the global technology firm IHS Markit.

Blaine’s involvement in rare disease advocacy and research began in 2008 with the tragic onset of a mitochondrial disease in his then 4-year-old son. Motivated to help others going through similar experiences, Blaine co-founded the MitoCanada Foundation, which has raised over $3 million to advance mitochondrial medicine.

Blaine’s governance experience includes serving on multiple Boards. He is currently the Intricate Group Board Chair, and a Director with the MitoCanada Foundation. Additionally, Blaine is an Executive Advisor to the Mitochondrial Innovation Initiative (Mito2i) – a strategic initiative at the University of Toronto.

Lawrence is a clinician investigator at the University of Calgary where he conducts research in registry best practices at the Korngut Registry Science Lab. He led the development of the Canadian Neuromuscular Disease Registry which includes 31 participating clinics across Canada which has successfully recruited over 4500 patients across four disease sub registries. Recognizing the challenges of designing, implementing and operating registries in various disease groups he has focused much of his academic research on optimizing registry methodology for successful “real-world evidence” outcomes. He has published extensively on the science of registries including leading the Canadian Neurological Registry Best Practice Guidelines. He has also provided guidance and support for the development of registries and their integration into Health Communities, clinical trial programs and post-marketing studies since 2009

Sarah has experience in growing an acquired health and technology start-up by implementing strategies which resulted in the commercialization of SaaS product offerings in the insurance, and health and wellness markets. Sarah graduated from UCalgary with a MSc in Biological Science focusing on gut chronic diseases. During her program she received the Dean’s Graduate Performance Award, in recognition of superior performance, as well as the Presidents’ Award, in recognition of her leadership. Sarah served on the UCalgary Board of Governors, UCalgary Alumni Board, and Calgary Pride.

Victoria is a recognized global expert in registries following her work on large-scale international projects such as the Global SMA Registry and the Global Acromegaly Registry. Her experience in registries includes dataset derivation, protocol and ethics, privacy legislation, and platform design. Victoria also has extensive and varied experience in data analysis and publishing findings utilizing real-world registry data. Victoria co-leads the implementation of platform user requirements in addition to leading ongoing registry projects for clients.

Filip has over 15 years of combined experience in database development, project management and information security in the health, mining, non-profit, and oil and gas sectors. He has extensive experience managing the development of major software and digital transformation solutions across multiple industries with heavy focus on cybersecurity and compliance. Filip has led cybersecurity engagements for big four consulting organizations and is proficient implementing cybersecurity frameworks such as ISO, CIS and NIST.

Derek has over 20 years of experience in sales and business development focused on the healthcare industry. He knows this space from many different perspectives, having worked for small pharma, big pharma, a healthcare vendor, and a contract research organization. During his 10 years with Novartis Oncology, he came to deeply understand and appreciate the importance of patient centricity and the voice of the patient. In his recent experiences as Director of Business Development, Derek led the development of corporate sales strategies for both a CRO company and a digital healthcare start-up.

Ryan has worked to accelerate small and medium-sized companies in the Digital Health, Banking, Post-Secondary, Energy, and Financial Services industries. Most recently, Ryan was the Director, Marketing & Operations for Lumiio Inc. Lumiio, has built a collaboration platform for Health Communities to grow together that has proven to advance the treatment discovery process.

Jan Nighswander has over 30 years of experience in corporate human resources and human resources consulting. Through her career, Jan has designed and built HR infrastructure for organizations from start up through to late stage development and full operations. She is committed to ensuring that human resources programs and practices are built to reliably support the business operations and its employees to achieve success.

Shawn specializes in helping SMEs create the tools, software, and processes needed to help them operate at peak efficiency. He has developed decision support systems, business intelligence solutions, GIS applications, as well as customer facing retail solutions for clients ranging from start-ups to publicly traded multinationals.

Shawn provides platform development expertise in coding, system design, and usability.

Melissa is a CPA with over 15 years of experience in financial reporting. She has worked for both public and private organizations, NFPOs and government not-for-profit giving her a wide range of exposure to various industries. Melissa specializes in designing models to streamline reporting processes to solve stakeholder’s financial information needs, both internally and externally.

Liam combines his academic research and business backgrounds to provide clients with personalized guidance to build sustainable research programs. Liam is a graduate of the Haskayne School of Business with a master’s in Management and holds a BSc from the Faculty of Kinesiology at the University of Calgary. During his time at the University of Calgary, he was a varsity volleyball athlete. Liam has experience in both qualitative and quantitative research in registry science, paediatric emergency medicine, and leadership development.

Kira began her career as a registered nurse where she gained a passion for patient advocacy and optimizing outcomes. Her clinical experience has given her insight into the importance of evidence-based decision making and set the foundation for her career pivot with Lumiio. Kira completed a Masters degree through the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary to develop the business skills necessary to contribute to the healthcare industry at the system level.

Connie is an experienced and recognized medical data expert, utilizing her biostatics expertise to leverage real-world data to improve health outcomes at the federal level and within clinical trials for rare diseases. She holds a BSc. in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Guelph and a MSc. in Public Health from McGill University. Trained as an epidemiologist, she has used her programming and biostatistics knowledge to improve federal programs at the Government of Canada. Most notably, she received the Public Service Award of Excellence for her work during the federal pandemic response. Connie has also worked with clinical trial data as a data scientist, where she gained experienced working in rare diseases from the sponsor’s perspective.