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Board of Directors

Erich Mohr, Ph.D., R.Psych.
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Founder of MedGenesis Therapeutix Inc.

Erich Mohr, Ph.D., R.Psych, is the Chairman and CEO of MedGenesis Therapeutix Inc. which he founded in 2005. Dr. Mohr, a Professor of Medicine and Psychology at the University of Ottawa until 1997 has over 20 years of experience in experimental therapeutics of CNS disorders. He is credited with over 150 publications, books, book chapters and abstracts and has edited the Handbook of Clinical Trials: The neurobehavioral approach. Dr. Mohr has chaired and/or served on several regulatory advisory panels for the approval of new products for the treatment of neurodegenerative disease and is the former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CroMedica Global Inc. (merged with PRA International in 2002) and the co-founder of several biotechnology companies. His most recent position was with PRA International, where he served as Chief Scientific Officer. PRA is one of the top 5 contract research organizations in the world and is listed on NASDAQ. Over the course of his career, Dr. Mohr has overseen and/or participated in dozens of clinical development programs resulting in a number of approved drugs.

Patrick (Pat) K. Donnelly
Former President & CEO, PRA International

Mr. Donnelly is the former President & CEO, and Board Member of PRA International (NASDAQ: PRAI). Having joined the company in 1994, he was instrumental in directing PRA's dramatic growth from a small regional contract research organization to one of the top global players in the industry with over $335 million in revenue. During his tenure as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer, then as President, and in 2002 as CEO, he executed and integrated thirteen strategic international acquisitions as well as lead the company through its IPO in 2004, and subsequent successful secondary offering in 2005 both raising over $275 million and stock appreciation of 50% since the IPO. In 2006, PRA International was named to Forbes' Top 200 Best Small Companies and in 2005 it was ranked 55th in BusinessWeek's Top 100 Growth Companies. Prior to his tenure at PRA, he was President of Virginia Capital, L.P. and Vedcorp, LLC, two affiliated venture capital firms. He also spent eight years with BancBoston Capital. Mr. Donnelly graduated from The Pennsylvania State University with a MBA in 1984 and a BS from the University of Missouri in 1980.

Ann C. Kessler
Former Director, International Project Management, Hoffmann - La Roche

Dr. Ann C. Kessler has 27 years of full-time pharmaceutical industry experience in the United States and Europe with Hoffmann - La Roche, where she served as Director of International Project Management and was responsible for global project development decisions. She also held previous positions as Director of the Division of Exploratory Research, the Departments of Pharmacology and Chemotherapy and the Department of Biochemical Nutrition. Her managerial responsibilities in Research and Development concerned the discovery and development of novel drugs for global registration and launch in a number of therapeutic areas, including nervous system disorders. She has authored over 150 publications, books, book chapters and abstracts dealing with obesity, lipid metabolism and appetite regulation. She holds 16 patents concerning pharmacological approaches to diseases.

Armin M. Kessler
Former Chief Operating Officer, Hoffman-La Roche

Dr. Armin Kessler has over 35 years experience in the global pharmaceutical industry. His last appointment prior to retirement was Chief Operating Officer of Hoffmann-La Roche in Basel, Switzerland. Earlier key positions included Director of Pharmaceutical Marketing Worldwide for Sandoz, and President of Sandoz KK in Japan. In addition he served as President of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industry Associations. Armin Kessler has a B Sc. in Physics and Chemistry from the University of Pretoria, a B. Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cape Town, an Juris Doctorate from Seton Hall University and an honorary doctorate in Business Administration from the University of Pretoria. He is a registered Patent Attorney at the USA Patent Office.

Hector MacKay-Dunn
Senior Partner, Farris, Vaughan, Wills & Murphy LLP

Hector is a Senior Partner at Farris, Vaughan, Wills & Murphy LLP which is among Canada’s leading law firms, where Mr. MacKay-Dunn advises private and public high growth companies in a broad range of industries on domestic and cross-border private and public securities offerings, mergers and acquisitions, tender offers, and international partnering transactions. Mr. MacKay-Dunn is recognized by Lexpert, the most respected legal publication in Canada, as among the Top 100 Canada/US Cross-Border Corporate Lawyers in Canada and among Canada’s leading lawyers in mergers and acquisitions, technology, and biotechnology. Hector holds the highest (“AV” Pre-eminent) legal ability rating from Martindale-Hubbell, an authoritative and global source for identifying leading lawyers and law firms and the Best Lawyers in Canada ranks him as a national leader in Technology and Biotechnology. Hector was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2003. Hector is the immediate past Chair of the British Columbia Innovation Council, the Province’s lead agency with the mandate to advance ideas into investment-ready companies in the areas of science and technology , a director of British Columbia Leading Edge Endowment Fund, British Columbia’s $56 million program to attract top researchers to B.C.’s universities and LifeSciences BC and a former director of Genome British Columbia.

Colin Mallet
Former President and Chief Executive Officer
Sandoz Canada (now Novartis, Canada)

Colin Mallet is a professional director with extensive commercial experience in the pharmaceutical/biotech industry. He has held senior executive positions in the pharmaceutical industry in UK, Switzerland, Sweden, S.E. Asia and Canada. He was President and CEO of Sandoz Canada Inc. (now Novartis) for 7 years and is a past Chair of the Canadian Association of Research-based Pharmaceutical companies. He has been a director of more than a dozen Biotech/Pharma companies at various stages of development. He currently serves on the boards of 3 public Biotech companies and is Chair of the Corporate Governance committees for each of these companies. He holds a B.A.(Econ.) from Cambridge and is a graduate of both the Harvard Advanced Management Program and the Canadian ICD Corporate Governance College.

Ken Newport
Former President, CroMedica Global Inc.

Ken Newport is an entrepreneur and life sciences business executive. As a graduate from the University of Waterloo and a Chartered Accountant, Mr. Newport had early success in the financial services industry and served as a partner in a Chartered Accounting firm. His focus changed to life sciences in the mid nineties with the formation of CroMedica Global Inc., a contract research organization. As co-founder and President he witnessed CroMedica's growth to 600 employees within six years. By the time that CroMedica merged with PRA International Inc. in 2002 CroMedica had annual revenues of over $40 million with 13 offices in 9 countries. The combined company became one of the 5 largest contract research organizations in the world with 2,600 employees. Mr. Newport served as a Senior Vice President and Executive Committee member for the last three years until his recent retirement. Mr. Newport was also a founding member of Global Biomedical Capital Corporation, Zelos Therapeutics Inc., Prime Trials Inc. and other life science organizations. He currently serves as the Chairman of the Ottawa Life Sciences Council.

Page last updated: 29 June 2010