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OurTeam

Pioneers of Canada’s pharmaceutical sector, our leadership team consists of executives with experience at the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies.

Our expertise lies in clinical  research, pharmaceutical and analytical development, quality control operations, quality assurance and compliance. We are supported by world-class Medical and Clinical Advisors and renowned physicians, psychiatrists, academics and field experts from Canada and abroad on as needed consultation bases.

5575 North Service Road, Suite 603
Burlington, ON, L7L 6M1, Canada

T 416.291.2580   E info@empowerpharm.ca​

Copyright © 2024 EmpowerPharm Inc. • All Rights Reserved

Aubrey Dan
Aubrey Dan
Chairman, Co-CEO, & Co-Founder

Former pharmaceutical executive at Novopharm Ltd. and President of Wampole Canada Inc. with over 15 years industry experience. Aubrey is a Canadian businessman, philanthropist as well as a Tony-Award® winning producer (MEMPHIS) who is also the principal of the Dancap Family Investment Office www.dancap.ca. Aubrey received an honorary Doctorate of Laws Degree (honoris causa) from Assumption University in 2008 and from Western University in 2019. He also received a Professional Achievement Award in 2015 from Western University. He is a Governor at Tel Aviv University. Aubrey received the Order of Canada in 2019.

Peter Billiaert

Peter Billiaert

President, Co-CEO, & Co-Founder

Pharmaceutical industry veteran and senior manager with Novopharm Ltd. and Teva Pharmaceuticals with over 35 years experience. Peter has extensive experience in R&D program management, Decommissioning and Construction of manufacturing facilities and laboratories, Integration of companies, Technology Transfer, ERP selection and implementation. He was the Vice President responsible for the Integration of Novopharm Ltd. with Teva Pharmaceuticals. Peter then became Vice President of Business Process Improvement, responsible for the standardization of all business processes across North America for Teva Pharmaceuticals.

Peter obtained the Chartered Director (C.Dir.) designation from The Directors College at the DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University, 2022.

Peter received the designation Administrateur de sociétés certifié (ASC) from the University of Laval, in 2022.

Jack Kay
Jack Kay
Vice-Chairman

Former President & CEO of Apotex Inc. with 55 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry including generic and branded. Jack spent 10 years in the pharmaceutical Industry as a detail sales representative for a Branded pharmaceutical company before moving over to Director of Government sales for ICN Canada in Montreal. He then joined Apotex Inc. as VP Sales & Marketing progressing to various roles including Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating officer, President and Vice Chairman.

Bob Andersen

Lead Director

Professor of Business, Economics and Public Policy, and Professor of Strategy at the Ivey Business School, Western University. Cross-appointed in the Departments of Sociology, Political Science, and Statistics and Actuarial Science. Management experience includes Associate Dean at Ivey and Dean of the Faculty of Social Science at Western. Previous academic appointments include Distinguished Professor of Social Science at the University of Toronto and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. His research and teaching deal with issues related to inequality, diversity, and inclusion. Recent research also explores the mental health of university students, and the impact of free public health care on health outcomes. He has consulted for the United Nations, the European Commission and the Canadian Government.
Nancy Bains

Nancy Baines

Corporate Governance & Compensation Committee Chair

Senior executive with over 20 years experience in the OTC pharmaceutical field with broad ranging contract manufacturing oversight with most of the world’s top-20 research-based pharmaceutical companies. Nancy has been Director of New Business Development for Boehringer Ingelheim (Canada) Ltd. eventually becoming VP of the Consumer Health Division, and responsible for a vitamin and supplement manufacturing facility in Vancouver, B.C. She was VP of North American Business Management for Patheon Inc. responsible for customer relationships in Canada, the U.S. and Puerto Rico, maximizing product life cycle, reducing competitive threats, identifying line extensions, and making strategic manufacturing decisions.

Lennie Ryer

CPA, CA, Audit Committee Chair

Lennie has occupied numerous CFO and board roles in both Public and Private entities and transitioned a number of companies from private to public in both the Canadian and US capital markets. In his 25+ years in the life science sector, Lennie has helped raised in excess of $750 million in equity-based transactions as well as negotiating credit facilities exceeding $225 million. His past experiences include CFO and VP Finance at ConjuChem Biotechnologies Inc. and CFO and VP Finance at Paladin Labs Inc. Prior to that, Lennie was Managing Partner of the Montreal office of BDO, where he specialized in mergers and acquisitions and taxation during his eighteen years in public practice.
Tamas Szederkenyi

Tamas Szederkenyi

Chief Scientific & Quality Officer

An experienced executive with progressive positions at Gedeon Richter Pharmaceuticals, Pharmaglobe Laboratories, Novopharm LTD, and Teva Pharmaceuticals Canada with over 35 years of progressive experience in the pharmaceutical industry, Tamas has demonstrated expertise in all aspects of pharmaceutical research and development and quality operations. Over his career, Tamas has developed strong theoretical knowledge and hands on expertise in the areas of analytical research, pharmaceutical development, regulatory affairs (including chemistry manufacturing and controls), biopharmaceutics (PK/BA/BE), clinical development, IP strategy, and GMP Quality Systems and Operations. Tamas has also served as an expert witness for Health Canada. Tamas holds an M. Sc, degree in Biochemical Engineering from the Technical University of Budapest, Hungary and an M.Eng. degree in Applied Chemistry from the University of Toronto, Canada.

Keith Pang

Vice President, Finance

Keith is a finance professional with over 20 years of public company experience across a wide range of industries, including pharmaceuticals and manufacturing. In his previous role as Corporate Controller of Cynapsus Therapeutics, he was responsible for building the finance function of a clinical-stage pharmaceutical development company. He was instrumental in completing an uplisting on the TSX, a private equity placement, an IPO on NASDAQ, as well as the ultimate successful sale of the company. Other management level roles included Controller of Sublimity Therapeutics, Assistant Corporate Controller of SMTC and Audit Manager with PwC. Keith has considerable knowledge of financial reporting, controls, and regulatory compliance in both the U.S. and Canada. A designated Chartered Professional Accountant, Keith earned his MAcc degree from the University of Waterloo.

Dr. Anat Fields

Dr. Anat Fields

Vice President Clinical and Scientific Affairs

Dr. Fields has 20 years of experience within the pharmaceutical industry, where she headed the global clinical program at Apotex, overseeing scientific affairs, clinical and bioanalytical operations, as well as data management and clinical project management. Dr. Fields was also responsible for the development of clinical/regulatory strategies of the product pipeline. In an earlier role, Dr. Fields was responsible for providing scientific and regulatory guidance on all aspects of study design, statistical analysis, and reporting of bioequivalence and clinical equivalence studies of various dosage forms.

Chirag Shah

Vice President Pharmaceutical Development

Chirag has over 21 years of extensive experience in pharmaceutical product development and manufacturing operations of Generic Drug Development (ANDAs, 505(b)(2), PIV, FTF), Novel Drug Delivery System and drug discovery/NCEs.

Chirag holds Master of Pharmacy degree from Gujarat University, India. Most recently, Chirag was Director, Formulation R&D with Apotex Inc., Canada. Prior to joining Apotex, he held leadership roles with Alembic Research Center, Zydus Lifesciences Ltd., Jubilant Organosys Ltd. and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories in India in formulation development R&D for 10 years.

Chirag has a deep scientific understanding of pharmacokinetics and in-vitro dissolution testing complementary to bioequivalence studies to meet current complex legal challenges and regulatory expectations for robust drug product development. Chirag has rich experience and expertise in technology transfer from lab scale to commercial (including scale up and validation) and global product transfers from one site to another for complex dosage forms.

Ildiko Riss

Ildiko Riss

Vice President, Quality & Regulatory Affairs

ldiko is an accomplished pharmaceutical executive with 30+ years of progressive experience and a strong portfolio of achievements. She has successfully led teams in different areas of pharmaceutical operations, including but not limited to pharmaceutical quality systems, scientific and technical affairs, analytical R&D, and quality control.

She has proven expertise in development and commercialization of both prescription and non-prescription pharmaceutical dosage forms and in understanding related regulatory requirements. She has supported over 70 regulatory submissions (chemistry and manufacturing controls) to different regulatory bodies in her past, resulting in drug approval and commercialization. She has maintained site compliance, led regulatory audits and just recently successfully guided her team to achieve EU GMP compliance for medicinal cannabis manufacturing, packaging and testing.

Her previously held roles include pharmaceutical quality, regulatory, compliance, general management at ARA – Avanti Rx Analytics Inc., Contract Pharmaceuticals Limited, Dalton Pharma Services, Taro Pharmaceuticals Inc., and Novopharm Ltd.

Dave Jadeski

Senior Director, Technology

Dave brings a wealth of global technology experience and knowledge from the financial and medical technology sectors, successfully developing, managing, and delivering technology solutions.

Dave is a graduate from McMaster University. He worked at XorGate Solutions Inc. as Sr. Solutions Architect, responsible for the technical development and support of artificial intelligence-based solutions. He also worked at Quadrant Biosciences – VP Canadian Operations responsible for the technical pre-sales, project management and delivery process development as well as post sales support. He also worked many years at Stryker Corp. as Business IT Leader in Global IS and was responsible for being the liaison between key global corporate functions and IT and was responsible for 100,000 plus licensed devices as part of Canadian establishment licence and all Health Canada Quality and reporting requirements.

Rindy Kerr

Rindy Kerr

Senior Site Director, HR & Logistics

Rindy is a Pharmaceutical professional with over 25 years of experience, having prior responsibilities for manufacturing, packaging, process improvement, facilities and project management. Prior to joining EmpowerPharm she was the Site Director at Pharmetics in Burlington. Before Pharmetics she was a Senior Operations Manager with Patheon Inc. Rindy’s past experience brings to EmpowerPharm a thorough knowledge across organizational departments and a solid team attitude allowing for effective guidance of multi-functional teams towards results. She brings a customer-centric focus ensuring quality services to both internal and external stakeholders which is key in her role as Site Director for EmpowerPharm. Rindy is a certified Professional Logistician (P.Log) with the Logistics Institute of Canada.

Colin Staunton

Colin Staunton

Director of Engineering and Operations

Colin is a Pharmaceutical and Engineering professional that comes to us with over 15 years’ experience in the industry. Prior to joining EmpowerPharm he was the Engineering Manager at Contract Pharmaceuticals Limited where he crafted his skills in process design, continuous improvement, and statistical analysis. Colin brings a worldly view on manufacturing practices having started his career as an Engineer in Ireland with medical device company Boston Scientific.

Dr Murray Stein

Dr. Murray Stein

Senior Medical Consultant

Murray B Stein MD, MPH, FRCPC is Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Family Medicine & Public Health, Vice Chair for Clinical Research in Psychiatry at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), and a Staff Psychiatrist at the VA San Diego Healthcare System.

Dr. Stein graduated from the University of Manitoba and completed his residency and fellowship training at the University of Toronto and the NIMH in Bethesda, Maryland. He subsequently completed a Master of Public Health degree at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Dr. Stein’s research interests include the epidemiology, neurobiology, and treatment of anxiety and trauma-related disorders including social anxiety disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, and mild traumatic brain injury. He has written or co-written over 600 peer-reviewed scientific articles on these topics, including in journals such as JAMA and New England Journal of Medicine.

Dr. Stein is a Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He is a past member of the APA DSM-5 Anxiety, OCD, and Trauma-Related Disorders Working Group (2009-2013), and of the FDA Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee (2011-2016).

Dr. Stein is also Editor-in-Chief for the journal Depression and Anxiety, Co-Editor-in-Chief for UpToDate in Psychiatry, and Deputy Editor for the journal Biological Psychiatry.

Dr. Jacob Thiessen

Dr. Jacob Thiessen

Clinical Research Consultant

Dr. Thiessen earned Pharmacy degrees in Canada and subsequently completed his doctoral studies at the University of California, San Francisco where he specialized in pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and experimental analytics. His academic career has involved ~40 years both at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto and the University of Waterloo where he had strategic responsibility for developing the new Health Sciences campus including Canada’s 10th School of Pharmacy. In addition to the educator/leader role, his Canadian and International basic and clinical research has entailed time-dependent processes, drug response, new therapies in cancer and iron overload, and advanced technologies to diagnose and treat disease.

Beyond academics he has served organizations like the DQTC of the Ontario Ministry of Health, Health Canada’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Bioavailability, Bioequivalence, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Clinical Pharmacology, and the Waterloo-based Research Institute for Aging. His insights in fundamental research and clinical outcomes have brought numerous consulting opportunities in Canada, USA and Europe. Lastly, he remains academically linked as Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto and Adjunct Professor, University of Waterloo.