Beni Rovinski, Ph.D. | Chairman of the Board
Dr. Benjamin Rovinski has 30 years of investment, operational, managerial and research experience in the healthcare sector. Beni joined Lumira Ventures in 2001, where he is a Managing Director, with an investment focus on early- to late-stage private and public life sciences companies. With a proven track record of delivering results, both as a senior scientist and a business executive, Beni has held several senior management positions in the biotechnology sector, including 13 years at Sanofi Pasteur (formerly Aventis Pasteur) where he was a senior scientist and director of molecular virology, with a particular focus in the areas of virology, vaccine development, recombinant protein production, and functional genomics. While at Aventis, Beni led global research and development programs in the areas of HIV/AIDS and therapeutic cancer vaccines, bringing several of them through to clinical stage. Beni received a PhD in biochemistry from McGill University in Montreal and did post-doctoral studies in molecular oncology and retrovirology at the Ontario Cancer Institute in Toronto. He obtained his undergraduate degree from Rice University in Houston.
Beni’s current and past board roles and investment responsibilities include several private and public companies, such as Aurinia Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AUPH); Antiva Biosciences; G1 Therapeutics (NASDAQ: GTHX); KAI Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Amgen); Morphotek (acquired by Eisai); Health Hero Network (acquired by Bosch); Avalon Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AVRX; acquired by Clinical Data, Inc.); and SGX Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SGXP; acquired by Eli Lilly). He also serves on the board of directors of Ontario Genomics and Life Sciences Ontario; and he is also a member of the investment committee of the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM) and the advisory board of the TO Health an industry-led initiative to promote the profile of the Toronto region’s Human Health & Sciences cluster. Beni is fluent in English, French and Spanish. He has published over 25 scientific articles and reviews and is the recipient of 32 issued patents.
Judith Blumstock, MBA | Director
Ms. Blumstock brings over 25 years of experience in the life science sector, spanning from early to late stage investments. She is currently the founder and CEO of Diamond Therapeutics, a Toronto based biotech company focused on developing therapies for mental health. In prior roles, Judith was Executive Director, Corporate Development at TIAP, an early stage academic incubator in Toronto. Judith was a principal with Genesys Capital Partners, one of the largest Canadian venture firms focused on the life sciences industry. She was a partner with Royal Bank Capital Partners Life Sciences Fund and Director of Bio/pharmaceutical Research at Drug Royalty Corporation (now DRI Capital). Judith received an MBA in finance from Columbia Business School and BSc in Biology from the University of Toronto.
Matt Carlyle, CFA | Director
Matthew Carlyle was appointed Executive Vice President in February, 2020 and Chief Financial Officer in May, 2017. Mr. Carlyle brings extensive experience and relationships across global biotechnology and venture capital to adMare, having been a partner of a national venture capital firm, CFO of a publicly traded biotech, and CFO of a number of private life sciences companies.
Most recently, Mr. Carlyle was the Chief Financial Officer of Viable Healthworks Corp., and from 2004 to 2013, was Chief Financial Officer of Allon Therapeutics Inc. Previously, he served in Corporate Finance and Development roles for a number of public and private life science and technology companies, and has been involved in raising approximately $200M. Mr. Carlyle is a founding Partner of NDI Capital, a private investment management company focused on investing in high potential life science and healthcare companies. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is a member of the Association for Investment Management and Research, and the Vancouver Society of Financial Analysts.
Leah Frye, Ph.D. | Director
Leah Frye is a Distinguished Fellow at Schrödinger. She joined the company in 2001 and co-founded the Drug Discovery Group. She led the group for 18 years and rose to the level of Vice President before returning to a focus on science as a senior drug designer and scientific advisor for the team. Under Leah’s leadership, the Drug Discovery Group worked with collaborators to put numerous compounds into clinical trials resulting in 2 FDA approved drugs to date. Recently, Schrödinger has also developed an internal drug discovery pipeline. Leah has over 35 years of experience in drug discovery with an emphasis on medicinal and computational chemistry resulting in inventorship on 20 US patents plus a number of recent patent applications. Prior to Schrödinger, Leah was a Principal Scientist at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals and before that she was an Associate Professor of Chemistry with tenure at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Leah holds a Ph.D. in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from The Johns Hopkins University and a B.S. Professional degree in Chemistry from the University of Idaho. She was an Individual Research Service Award postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
Dominic Jaikaran, Ph.D., MBA | Director
Dominic Jaikaran is the President and CEO of Bright Angel Therapeutics. He joined the company in 2018 after playing an instrumental role in the company’s formation. He has over fifteen years of experience in biotechnology and finance. Prior to Bright Angel Therapeutics, Dominic held leadership positions at MaRS Innovation and Diversa Corporation (now BASF), a NASDAQ-listed company in San Diego. He was also a Principal at BDC Venture Capital, focusing on early-stage life science investments.
Dominic holds a PhD in Biological Chemistry and a BSc in Chemistry and Biochemistry, both from the University of Toronto. He also holds an MBA from the Rotman School of Management.