Board of Directors

Dr. Simon Pimstone, MD, PhD, FRCPC, is a founder, Director, and Chief Executive Officer at Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc., 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 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 (“UBC”) 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. He is a founder and co-principal investigator (PI) of the Study to Avoid CardioVascular Events in BC (“SAVE BC”), a provincial program focused on atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and is founding PI of the SAfER BC study, a provincial study established to track COVID-19 and its impact in the workplace.

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 Theranostics.

Dr. Pimstone has received a number of awards and recognitions including the Globe and Mail and Business in Vancouver’s Top 40 Under 40 Awards and was a 2020 Bloom Burton Award finalist. Under his leadership, Xenon has received multiple awards, including the 2020 LifeSciences BC Deal of the Year Award, the 2013 LifeSciences BC Company of the Year Award, the 2013 BIOTECanada Gold Leaf Company of the Year Award and the 2008 BIOTECanada Gold Leaf Emerging Company – Health Award.

Eupraxia founder James Helliwell holds a medical degree from UBC, a Fellowship Certification in Cardiac Anesthesiology and Transplantation, and board certification in Perioperative Echocardiography. Prior to founding Eupraxia, he worked in a clinical practice at a quaternary academic cardiac center in St. Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver. He also served as Clinical Assistant Professor at UBC in the Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics and was the President of the provincial body guiding anesthesiology care in British Columbia.

Dr. Helliwell is a physician-entrepreneur who holds many granted patents and created a medical device, built a company around it and sold it to a large strategic partner.

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.

Mr. Montalbano is the former Vice Chair of Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) Wealth Management and CEO of RBC Global Asset Management. In 2015, when he retired as CEO, the organization had extended its scope to include offices in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Hong Kong, managing in aggregate more than $370 billion, placing the firm among the largest 50 asset managers worldwide. John currently serves as a Director of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Aritzia Inc. and AbCellera Inc.

Mr. Montalbano has served as Chair of the UBC Board of Governors, Trustee of the Killam Trusts, Director of the Investment Committee of The Canada Council for the Arts and Chair for the Vancouver Public Library Capital Campaign. John currently volunteers as a director for The Gairdner Foundation, The Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, The BC Achievement Foundation, Windmill Microlending (in support of skilled immigrants and refugees), as well, is the current Chair of St. Paul’s Hospital Foundation and recent past Chair of The Vancouver Police Foundation.

Mr. Montalbano holds a Chartered Financial Analyst designation and a Bachelor of Commerce, with Honours, from the University of British Columbia. He is a Leslie Wong Fellow of the UBC Portfolio Management Foundation and holds an Honorary Doctor of Letters 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 inventor 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 2021. Dr. Wilmink is active in the Phoenix medical community sitting on the boards of OASIS Surgical Hospital and the Gateway Outpatient Surgical Center.

Michael completed his undergraduate education at University of California at Los Angeles in Physiological Sciences and was 71 a scholarship All American Water Polo player. Dr. Wilmink completed his Medical Degree and Orthopaedic Surgical Residency at UBC.

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 Waste Management Phoenix Open PGA Golf Tournament.