Board of Directors

Dr. Simon Pimstone is a founder and non-executive Board Chair at Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc. (“Xenon”), a publicly traded Canadian biotechnology company (Nasdaq: XENE). Xenon is engaged in discovering and developing novel pharmaceuticals targeting neurological diseases with a key focus on ion channels.

Dr Pimstone is also a founder and CEO of XYON Health Inc., a privately held Canadian Company delivering innovative healthcare solutions for men and women with hair loss.

Dr. Pimstone received his MD from the University of Cape Town (MBChB, 1991) and is an internal medicine specialist (FRCPC, UBC, 2001). Prior to his specialization, he trained as a clinical research fellow with the Department of Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia and obtained his PhD in cardiovascular genetics through the University of Amsterdam (1998).

Dr. Pimstone also serves as a consultant physician at the UBC Medical and Cardiology Clinic at UBC Hospital in Vancouver.

Dr. Pimstone has served on numerous non-profit boards including BIOTECanada, LifeSciences BC, the Center for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics, Providence Healthcare and numerous life sciences company boards including Eupraxia Pharmaceuticals and Alpha9 Oncology.

Dr. Pimstone has received a number of awards and is widely published.

Dr. Helliwell is the Co-founder and CEO of Eupraxia Pharmaceuticals. A board-certified Cardiac Anesthesiologist, he previously maintained a busy quaternary clinical and academic practice with a focus on cardiac transplantation and held a double tenure as President of the Anesthesiologists of BC.

Dr. Helliwell’s experience in the operating room and ICU instilled an appreciation for the value of precision drug delivery to achieve successful patient outcomes. This led him to create Eupraxia Pharmaceuticals, a company developing precision medicines in areas of high unmet medical need. In 2021, Eupraxia became the first biotech to successfully list exclusively on the Toronto Stock Exchange in almost 20 years. The company’s lead product candidate – a long-acting corticosteroid to treat osteoarthritis pain – is currently in Phase 2 clinical development.

Dr. Helliwell has also applied precision delivery to the medical device space. As Co-founder and CEO of Accuro Technologies, he invented Arthrotap® – a medical device to improve the accuracy of intra-articular injections. After successfully transacting on Accuro, he moved on to serve as Chair of the Board for Guidestar Medical Devices – a company focused on precision medicines delivery for the epidural space.

Mr. Geyer is a Medtech Entrepreneur, angel investor and venture capitalist, and has sat on the Boards of several companies. Over the past 30 years Mr. Geyer founded or led three companies through their growth phase, in one case to exit and in another to a public company. These companies have grown to employ more than 350 people.

Mr. Geyer is currently the CEO of Discovery Parks and Nimbus Synergies, a venture capital investment program focused on growing BC Digital Health companies that operate in the intersection between health, life sciences, and technology. He is an active mentor and angel investor in medical technology companies.

In 1991 he founded Mitroflow, a tissue heart valve company. Mr. Geyer grew the company from nine employees to more than 125 employees, selling in 1999 for more than $50 million. In 2001, Mr. Geyer founded Medical Ventures (Neovasc) where he is on the board and held the position of CEO until June 2008 and was responsible for raising over $40 million in equity financing and overseeing the acquisition of three other companies.

From 2009 to 2017, Mr. Geyer was the first CEO of LightIntegra Technology which developed the ThromboLux, a point of care device to determine platelet quality for blood transfusions.

Since 2008, Mr. Geyer has focused on assisting entrepreneurs to build successful businesses, as a mentor or board member, and as a Fellow of Creative Destruction Labs. He has also worked on building the local community through his involvement as a board member of BCTech, LifeSciences BC, and Science World, Vancouver General Hospital & UBC Hospital Foundation, and Junior Achievement BC along with a number of non-profit community-based organizations. He also participates in a range of philanthropic endeavours.

Dr. Glickman was a co-founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Aspreva Pharmaceuticals Inc. which was acquired by the Galenica Group for $915 million. Prior to establishing Aspreva, Dr. Glickman was the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of StressGen Biotechnologies Corporation.

Dr. Glickman currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Essa Pharma Inc and Engene Corporation, and as Director of Vida Pharmaceuticals. In addition, Dr. Glickman served as Chairman of the Board and CEO of Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc., until his retirement in April 2019.

Dr. Glickman has served on numerous biotechnology and community boards, including as a member of the Canadian federal government’s National Biotechnology Advisory Committee, Director of the Canadian Genetic Disease Network, Chairman of Life Sciences B.C. and a member of the B.C. Innovation Council.

Dr. Glickman is the recipient of numerous awards including the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year, a recipient of both BC and Canada’s Top 40 under 40 award, the BC Lifesciences Leadership Award and the Corporate Leadership Award from the Lupus Foundation of America.

John retired as CEO of RBC Global Asset Management in 2015, at which point the company managed $370 billion in assets, placing it among the 50 largest asset managers worldwide. John currently serves as Director and Audit Chair for the following organizations: Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, AbCellera Inc. (NASDAQ), and Eupraxia Pharmaceuticals (TSX). He also serves as Director for Aritzia Inc. and Chairs White Crane Capital, a Vancouver-based hedge fund.

John’s past volunteer roles have included Chair of the UBC Board of Governors, Chair of St. Paul's Foundation, Chair of The Vancouver Police Foundation, Killam Trusts Trustee, co-Founder of Take a Hike Youth at Risk Foundation, Chair of the Vancouver Public Library Capital Campaign and Director/Chair Investments for the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. He serves as a Director for the Gairdner Foundation, the Rideau Hall Foundation, and Windmill Microlending.

John holds a Chartered Financial Analyst designation, a Bachelor of Commerce degree with Honours from the University of British Columbia, and an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Emily Carr University of Art and Design.

Dr. Wilmink is an Orthopaedic surgeon and partner in OrthoArizona where he is active in both the Operations Committee and Research Committee. Dr. Wilmink was an early pioneer of the muscle sparing anterior approach technique for hip replacements and currently lectures and teaches this technique to surgeons across the United States. In addition, Dr. Wilmink is a surgeon designer for NextStep Arthropedix and has brought two FDA approved hip replacement systems to the market and a total knee system coming to the clinical market in 2023. Dr. Wilmink is active in the Phoenix medical community sitting on the boards of OASIS Surgical Hospital and the Banner Gateway Outpatient Surgical Center.

Michael completed his undergraduate education at University of California at Los Angeles in Physiological Sciences as a scholarship All American Water Polo player. Dr. Wilmink completed his Medical Degree and Orthopaedic Surgical Residency at the University of British Columbia.

Outside of the medical world, Dr. Wilmink was elected to be a Phoenix Thunderbird and collaborates with business leaders in the community to run and operate the WM Phoenix Open PGA Golf Tournament.