Dr. Robert Booth brings over 30 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry to Thryv Therapeutics. He is the founder and former Chief Executive Officer of Virobay Inc., where he led the company’s strategic direction and growth. He has also served as an Operating Partner and Senior Advisor at TPG Biotech, providing strategic guidance to life sciences companies. 

Previously, Dr. Booth was the Chief Scientific Officer at Celera Genomics, where he oversaw all discovery and development activities. He conceived and initiated the BTK inhibitor program, which was licensed to Pharmacyclics and led to the development and approval of Imbruvica®, a novel kinase inhibitor used to treat various B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas (NHL). Dr. Booth served on the board of directors of Pharmacyclics until its acquisition by AbbVie. 

Earlier in his career, Dr. Booth was Senior Vice President at Roche in Palo Alto, California. He was a member of Roche’s Global Research Management Team and the Business Development Committee, where he evaluated and managed licensing opportunities. 

Dr. Booth holds a PhD in Biochemistry and a BSc, both from the University of London. 

Dr. Daniel Hétu, MD, MBA, brings over 20 years of experience in investment banking, corporate development, and licensing within the life sciences sector. He has been instrumental in guiding companies at all stages of development across North America and internationally. Known for his strategic thinking and problem-solving skills, Dr. Hétu has a proven track record of managing complex initiatives, projects, and transactions. His investment focus is on building companies in the therapeutics and medical device sectors, aiming to develop products and technologies that have a meaningful impact on patient care. Dr. Hétu currently manages Lumira Ventures’ Montreal office. 

An accomplished senior executive with deep expertise in financing and corporate business development, Dr. Hétu spent 10 years at Shire Pharmaceuticals and Biochem Pharma (prior to its acquisition by Shire). As Vice President of Business Development (North America) and Vice President of Corporate Development, he led multiple financing, licensing, and M&A transactions in the therapeutics, vaccine, and diagnostics sectors. At Biochem, Dr. Hétu also served on the company’s portfolio committee and the steering committee for strategic research collaborations, in addition to holding board positions with several portfolio companies. 

Before joining Biochem Pharma, Dr. Hétu worked as an investment banker at a leading Canadian investment bank, where he was involved in mergers, acquisitions, and financing transactions across various industrial sectors. 

Melissa Koomey is a biopharma leader with 30 years of commercialization experience across large pharma and small biotech. She has held global, US and country affiliate roles spanning multiple therapeutic areas. She has a track record of delivering business results and leading organizations through multiple successful product launches. 

Melissa is Chief Commercial Officer of Bluejay Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing potentially life-changing therapeutics for serious viral and liver diseases.  Prior to joining Bluejay, Melissa spent 12 years at Gilead Sciences where she served in several leadership roles including Vice President and Head of Global Commercial Operations; General Manager of Gilead Sciences Canada, and Vice President of Gilead’s US HIV Business Unit where she grew revenue 50% in 3 years from $8.6B to $14B and led the US launch of Biktarvy®, the most successful launch in HIV category history.  

She has served as a director on the boards of biopharma industry organizations and not-for-profit boards including Innovative Medicines Canada (IMC), BIOTECanada and the U.S. National AIDS Memorial. Melissa received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale College and a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School. 

Jean-François Pariseau is the co-founder and Partner at Amplitude Ventures, a capital catalyst for highly innovative companies at the point of value acceleration. Amplitude partners with Canada’s most promising healthcare companies, united by a vision to bring groundbreaking technologies to patients. The firm focuses on building world-class companies in precision medicine and next-generation medical devices. 

Before co-founding Amplitude, Jean-François was a Partner at the Healthcare Fund of BDC Capital and an Investment Manager with CDP Capital Technology Ventures, a subsidiary of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. In these roles, he was responsible for healthcare investments in both Canada and the US. 

While completing his graduate studies in biomedical sciences at a university hospital, Jean-François co-founded a consulting company specializing in regulatory affairs and a pharmaceutical product distribution company. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Imagia-Canexia Health Inc. and Réseau Capital. 

When he’s not traveling to meet with entrepreneurs, Jean-François splits his time between the dojo, his bike, and acting as the personal driver for his two teenagers. 

Dr. Amy Rudolph is a leader in the pharmaceutical industry with over 25 years of experience in both U.S. and global large pharma. She has an accomplished track record with multiple product launches across a broad portfolio of diseases and brings deep experience in discovery, clinical development, medical affairs, and market access.

She is currently with Boehringer Ingelheim, serving as Head of Global Medical Affairs and Cross-TA Medical Affairs. In this role, Dr. Rudolph led a transformation to build a market-leading Medical Affairs organization across regions and countries, with a focus on medical leadership in external engagement, digital/AI, integrated evidence, advanced analytics, and learning.

Prior to joining Boehringer Ingelheim, Dr. Rudolph held diverse leadership roles at Novartis Pharmaceutical Corporation, where she served as Head of HCS (Healthcare Systems) Partnerships in Global Drug Development and, within Global Medical Affairs, as Head of Evidence and Launch Excellence. At Pfizer Inc., Dr. Rudolph oversaw the atherosclerosis and stroke platforms, early development, and licensing/technology evaluations. She also held progressive research scientist roles at G.D. Searle/Pharmacia/Pfizer.

Dr. Rudolph holds a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Washington University in St. Louis, MO, and has published 13 patents along with numerous articles spanning preclinical research, drug development, and real-world evidence.

Marc-Olivier Sirard joined the Fonds de Solidarité FTQ in 2015 as an Investment Adviser in the life sciences sector. In this role, he leverages his financial expertise to support strategic investments and drive growth in the life sciences industry. 

Before joining Fonds de Solidarité FTQ, Marc-Olivier worked as a Financial Analyst at Lightspeed POS for two years. Prior to that, he spent six years at RCGT and BDO Canada, where he managed audit, restructuring, and insolvency mandates, gaining valuable experience in financial analysis and corporate strategy. 

Marc-Olivier is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) in the province of Quebec and holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from McGill University. 

Dr. Youssef Bennani brings over 25 years of experience in pharmaceutical R&D leadership and management, with a track record of success spanning from project inception through to clinical work, technology transfer, and licensing transactions. He has played a key role in advancing over twenty preclinical and clinical-stage new molecular entities (NMEs) and has contributed to the development of approved medicines. His strategic governance leadership has been instrumental in driving corporate growth, particularly in guiding Domain Therapeutics and AdMare BioInnovations to the creation of nine single-asset and technology spin-off companies. 

Dr. Bennani’s previous leadership roles include serving as Chairman of the Board at Domain Therapeutics from 2014 to 2023 and as an independent Board Director at Bellus Health from 2014 to 2023, where he supported the company’s successful acquisition by GSK in 2023. He was also the founding CEO of Find Therapeutics. 

Earlier in his career, Dr. Bennani was the Site Head and Vice President of R&D at Vertex Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc., and served as Vice President of Drug Innovation at Vertex’s headquarters in Boston, MA. He has held various senior roles in pharmaceutical R&D at Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Abbott Laboratories (now AbbVie), and Athersys. His work spans multiple therapeutic areas, including oncology, neurology, infectious diseases, inflammation, rare diseases, and renal diseases. 

Dr. Bennani holds a PhD in Chemistry from Université de Montréal, an MBA from the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management (Chicago), and a Corporate Governance designation (ICD.D) from McGill University and Rotman School of Business. 

Maxime Daigle joined Investissement Québec in 2023 as an Investment Director specializing in Life Sciences. Prior to joining IQ, he served as Corporate Controller for a major Canadian public company. He also advised several dozen clients on mergers and acquisitions during his 10 years at PwC, one of the world’s largest accounting firms. 

Maxime is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) in the province of Quebec. He holds a bachelor's degree in accounting sciences and a graduate diploma in Financial Accounting from the Université de Sherbrooke. 

Dr. Frédéric Lemaître Auger leads adMare’s investment strategy and manages its portfolio companies, bringing over 20 years of experience in life sciences investment management. He has extensive expertise in health sciences venture capital, gained through his previous roles at Desjardins Venture Capital and CDP Capital – Technology Venture (Sofinov), where he was involved in both biopharmaceutical and medical device deals. 

At Sofinov, Dr. Lemaître Auger played a key role in investments in companies such as NuVasive, Inhibitex, IntraLuminal Therapeutics, Acurian, and TransMedics. While at Desjardins, he demonstrated significant leadership in establishing and managing a successful early-stage health sciences investment portfolio, which included companies like BioAxone Therapeutics, Enobia Pharma, and Tranzyme. 

In recent years, Dr. Lemaître Auger has focused on project-based investments and developing licensing and spin-off opportunities at MSBi Valorisation (now Aligo Innovation). He has served on the boards of numerous health sciences companies and contributed to the industry by participating in organizing committees for conferences such as MedTech North and AdvaMed. 

Dr. Lemaître Auger holds an MBA in Finance and International Management from HEC Montréal, a PhD in Polymer Physical Chemistry, and an M.Sc. in Organic Chemistry, both from the Université de Montréal. 

Scott is currently the President of SW Consulting where he advises novel life science companies. He was previously a Partner at Amzak Health where he managed the Fund's biotech portfolio.  Prior to Amzak, Scott was a Partner at Pappas Capital where he spent 13 years focused on life science venture investing. Scott was previously an Investment Analyst at Silverback Asset Management, a Vice President at Chicago Growth Partners, and an Investment Banking Analyst at Lehman Brothers where he worked in New York, London and Hong Kong.

Scott received an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business where he was a Thomas F. Keller Scholar and received the Robert F. Garda Endowment Scholarship. He graduated summa cum laude and received a BS in Biological Anthropology and Anatomy from Duke University. Scott has been a buy side investor in the life science sector for over 20 years.