Advisory Committee
Paul Dick
Founder & President, Paul Dick & Associates
Paul Dick, DVM, MSc has over 30 years of experience in the animal health industry with responsibilities ranging from product development, regulatory affairs, business development, product commercialization and general management. Roles in this sector have involved both large and medium multi-nationals, and, small start-up companies in various capacities including COO and CEO level positions. Dr. Dick worked for Elanco Animal Health for 20 years in a variety of management roles including Manager of R & D, Manager of Regulatory Affairs, and, Manager of Quality Control and Corporate Affairs. He eventually became the Chief Operating Officer of Naturagen: a global Elanco Apollo team that was charged with the acquisition, development and commercialization of natural health products for food animals. He successfully led this virtual team and managed a large number of projects simultaneously.
Dr Dick has worked extensively with Health Canada’s Veterinary Drugs Directorate (VDD) and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) on numerous regulatory submissions and on departmental committees, including Health Canada’s Animal Antimicrobial Resistance Advisory Committee from 1999 to 2002. He has served a number of organizations including as Director of the Canadian Animal Health Institute, President of the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association, and peer reviewer of NSERC strategic grants. Paul has authored / co-authored numerous peer-reviewed publications, literature reviews and scientific reports for regulatory agencies, veterinary organizations, and, small and large animal health companies.
He also served on the Expert Advisory Committee for Veterinary Natural Health Products, which provided the Health Products and Food Branch of Health Canada with recommendations regarding policies related to the development of a suitable regulatory approach for veterinary natural health products. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Veterinary Drugs Directorate’s Low Risk Veterinary Health Products Interim Notification Program (now the Veterinary Health Products Notification Program).
Paul Dick
Founder & President, Paul Dick & Associates
Rory Francis
Executive Director, Prince Edward Island BioAlliance
Since 2004 Rory has been Executive Director of the Prince Edward Island BioAlliance, a not-for-profit network of bioscience businesses, academic and research organizations, and government agencies that includes over 55 companies earning over $200 million in annual sales. He is a founder of the Emergence Bioscience Business Incubator, and Natural Products Canada, a new CECR based in PEI.
From 1991 to 2003 Mr Francis held Deputy Minister positions in several provincial government departments, including Environment; Agriculture and Forestry; Fisheries and Aquaculture; and Health and Social Services. Francis is a member of the Canadian BioAccord and serves as a board member with the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute, the Atlantic Chamber of Commerce, the Food Island Partnership, the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, is president of the Eastern Canada Oilseeds Development Alliance, and is currently serves as president of the Greater Charlottetown and Area Chamber of Commerce.
He chairs the advisory board for the Culinary Institute of Canada’s Technology Access Centre at Holland College. In 2017, Mr Francis was appointed co-chair of the Atlantic Canada Bioscience Sector Export Development Working Group and is a member of the Oceans Supercluster team, representing marine biotechnology and fish health and nutrition capabilities in the region, recently announced as one of Canada’s new Supercluster initiatives.
Rory Francis
CEO, Prince Edward Island BioAlliance
Deb Dullen
President & CEO, BioTraceIT™
Deborah is the co-founder of the BioTraceIT™ team, formed in 2014. She brings over twenty years of experience in both the biotech and medical device fields with expertise in business development, sales, R&D, and global market entry. Deborah has a broad background from devices with J&J DePuy-Synthes to pharmaceutical, proteomics and genomics with Applied Biosystems and Eli Lilly. Working with thousands of sales individuals she has participated and led multiple product launches and developed market strategies resulting in blockbuster products and a broad global business network. Deb has founded other successful start-ups, including Imtakt Corporation, a top research consumable company in Asia-Pacific. Deb’s thoughts about medical device start-ups, “Nothing good comes easy, but my whole career has been in healthcare and helping others is worth it.”
Deb Dullen
President & CEO, BioTraceIT™
Bethany Deshpande
CEO, SomaDetect
Bethany Deshpande is the CEO of SomaDetect. She is a highly motivated, big-picture thinker who has more than a decade of experience in science and entrepreneurship, and is always excited to tackle big problems in big ways.
SomaDetect was founded in 2016 with the mission of providing farmers with the information they need to make the best possible milk. The company's core technology is an in-line sensor capable of monitoring critical indicators of reproductive status (heat and pregnancy detection), health (mastitis and ketosis) and milk components (fat, protein, somatic cell counts) from individual cows. SomaDetect’s sensor uses no consumables (no chemicals, no cartridges, no lost milk), is extremely quick (seconds, not minutes), and fits into existing milking equipment.
With Bethany's leadership, the company has grown from 4 people working in a small apartment to now having a team of twenty-five people with offices in both Canada and the United States. SomaDetect was selected as the recipient of the Ag Innovation Showcase prize (St. Louis, 2017), one of the Canadian Innovation Exchange Top 20 companies (Toronto, 2017), Grand Prize winner of $1 M from Buffalo's 43North Competition (Buffalo, 2017), and Rabobank's Foodbytes' Judges Choice Award (NYC, 2018). SomaDetect represents a major innovation in dairy technology, providing milk quality and health data to farmers when they need it most.
Bethany Deshpande
CEO, SomaDetect
Lalit Gaur
Global Head Business Development & Licensing, Vetoquinol
Lalit Gaur is Global Head of Business Development and Licensing for Vetoquinol, one of the leading animal health pharmaceutical company. In this role, Lalit leads a team responsible for new product portfolio enhancement and strategic partnership opportunities. Lalit has accumulated over two decades of progressive experience in business development and licensing function across many segments of healthcare and bio-pharmaceutical industries and consulting.
He started his career in human medical diagnostics, and gained experience in platform technologies, consulting, life science research, animal diagnostics and pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining Vetoquinol, Lalit was founder and president of LG Biopartners, LLC, a boutique firm providing consulting services and helping clients build value through strategic options. Before that Lalit was Director of BD&L for Novartis, leading their business development in North America for the animal health division. He joined Novartis from IDEXX, world leader in animal health diagnostics, where he led the licensing and strategic partnerships function.
Lalit Gaur
Global Head Business Development & Licensing, Vetoquinol
Michael Hemprich
Director, Business Development & Strategy, Ceva Sante Animale
Michael Hemprich
Director, Business Development & Strategy, Ceva Sante Animale
Tom Campi
Partner, Covenant Animal Health
Tom Campi received his DVM and MPVM degrees from UC Davis in 1989. He is also board certified by the American College of Poultry Veterinarians. Dr. Campi is a partner in Covenant Animal Health Partners, a joint venture between Reliance Animal Health Partners and NovaQuest Capital Management. He is also CEO of Modulant Biosciences, a newly formed biotech company focusing on developing novel drugs for food and companion animals.
Previously, he worked for Huvepharma and Elanco Animal Health. At Huvepharma, Dr. Campi was the Head of Research and Regulatory Affairs a role in which he oversaw the development of pioneer and generic drugs and novel vaccines, bringing forward products such as Monovet and Avert NE.
At Elanco, his career path included roles in poultry technical consulting, regulatory affairs in the US and Western Europe, and director of technology acquisitions. In the acquisitions role, he was responsible for leading a team of scientists who evaluated medical breakthroughs for their use in preventing and treating important animal diseases. Prior to his retirement from Elanco he was Director of External Innovation where he was responsible for creating new business models for bridging technology with funding in order to satisfy the growing need for novel medicines for both food and companion animals.
Tom resides in Indiana along with his wife of 35+ years.
Tom Campi
Partner, Covenant Animal Health
Ken Rotondo
Founder and President, Rehavior
Dr. Rotondo is a veterinarian, speaker, consultant and entrepreneur who has collaborated with a variety of groups and organizations to increase business and personal performance.
Dr. Rotondo has been recognized as an expert in practice management and the dynamics associated with successful practices and businesses. He specializes in effective client communication, customer experience engineering, and consumer insights. He has owned and operated 5 veterinary hospitals in New York and has served on numerous boards within local, state and national veterinary organizations. He served on the Advisory Council to the Veterinary College at Cornell University and was selected as President of the New York State Veterinary Society during its centennial year and was honored as the New York State Veterinarian of the Year. He held advisory roles for several veterinary pharmaceutical companies, reference laboratories and veterinary corporate ownership groups. He has represented New York State to the AVMA House of Delegates. He was selected by the AVMA to serve on the Futures Commission. He currently serves on the Canadian BioAlliance Mentoring Board and serves on the board of directors of several charities.
Ken is currently the President and Founder of Rehavior, Inc (formerly Mind Genomics Advisors), an actionable, evidence-based research organization focusing on machine learning based, consumer insights, whose mission is dedicated to delivering specific, targeted messaging to clients, patients, donors, and consumers. Dr. Rotondo lectures annually at university business and medical schools including University of Pennsylvania, Wharton, Cornell, RPI, and Skidmore College. He has presented to a variety of national conferences including the annual automotive Thought Leadership Summit, medical and marketing conferences. Dr. Rotondo has presented at the “IBM World of Watson Conference”, and Social Media Week Conference in NYC. Recently he presented a case study with the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine on medical compliance and messaging at the IBM THINK Conference in Las Vegas, and at the HIMSS Conference in Orlando, FL.
Dr Rotondo and the Rehavior collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania has been published in JAMA and Rehavior has been invited by the US National Cancer Institute provide collaborative insights on a national initiative to improve cancer screening communication by healthcare providers.
Dr Rotondo holds a DVM degree from Cornell University and MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Ken Rotondo
Founder and President, Rehavior Inc.
Joan Turner Adams
Business Development Officer and Bioscience Sector Specialist, Innovation PEI
A true veteran of the Bioscience Industry in Prince Edward Island, Joan has worked directly with local and incoming clients for more than fifteen years. She has a wealth of experience guiding and mentoring companies from their earliest research and development phases through to full commercialization and beyond. Joan is a tireless advocate for her clients and gets her rewards watching them succeed.
Joan’s strength is working collaboratively with industry, all levels of government, institutional and academia to provide support for developing companies. She brings a unique understanding of the necessary environment to support a business as it navigates the growth path from research and development to production and commercialization.
Prior to entering government Joan worked in private sector with a global manufacturing firm as part of their sales and marketing group. She provided industry specific market intelligence and data to the sales team and was responsible for project management of manufacturing contracts with the oil and gas industry with values of $1 - $20 million dollars.
Joan holds a Bachelors degree from the University of Prince Edward Island and a Masters in Business Administration with a specialization in BioTech Business Management. Additionally she has completed industry specific courses in supply chain management, intellectual property and regulatory management.
Joan Turner Adams
Business Development Officer and Bioscience Sector Specialist, Innovation PEI