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NADINE AFARI, MSc, serves as Manager of Research Programs at Children's Hospital Orange County (CHOC), a part of Rady Children's Health, and the University of California, Irvine, working directly with CHOC's Chief Scientific Officer and UCI's Vice Dean for Research, Pediatrics. She is also an R&D and Education Associate with the FDA-funded West Coast Consortium for Technology and Innovation in Pediatrics (CTIP) and held a leadership role as co-chair with the Pediatric Medical Devices Design Phase led by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH).
With 20 years of experience spanning academic, corporate, and hospital environments, Ms. Afari previously taught at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, USC's Viterbi School of Engineering, and USC's Keck School of Medicine. Her two decade of medical device R&D experience encompasses engineering, program management, and executive roles across the full spectrum of medical device development. She serves on the board and committees of several Southern California-based wet labs and accelerators and on the steering committee of Together Health, an organization that facilitates collaborative sharing of best practices and resources to accelerate health innovation. She focuses on accelerating the translation of basic research into innovative diagnostic and therapeutic technologies that improve patient outcomes by bridging the gap between scientific discovery and commercial development, ultimately enhancing healthcare delivery and quality of life for patients.
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STEVEN ARLESS, BSc鈥�71(Chemistry), is a prominent 涩里番 alumnus who returned to his alma mater in the fall of 2016 as Professor of Practice in the Faculty of Medicine (now Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences) in the Department of Surgery鈥檚 cutting-edge Surgical Innovation Program. More recently, he joined one of Canada鈥檚 fastest growing medical technology accelerators, Centech, as Entrepreneur-in-Residence.
After graduating from 涩里番, Mr. Arless worked for 17 years at Smith & Nephew Inc., serving as President for close to five years. His experience includes extensive involvement in technology transfer and strategic acquisition projects across the United States and Canada. His innovative talent led him to CryoCath Technologies Inc., a catheter-based cryoablation technology for the treatment of Atrial Fibrillation, which he nurtured from a startup to commercial success, serving as President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) from 1996 to 2006, ultimately selling this to Medtronic Inc. for $400 million. Mr. Arless completed an MBA at Concordia University in 2008. He maintained his interest in the diagnosis of and minimally invasive therapies for rhythm disorders of the heart, assuming the position of CEO of Cleveland-based CardioInsight, from 2009 to 2012, with the Company ultimately being sold to Medtronic for over $100 million.
Mr. Arless is the Co-Founder and past CEO and Chairman of the Board (2015-2019) of Soundbite Medical, a Montreal-based shockwave technology company, also in the field of cardiovascular disease therapy. Most recently, Mr Arless co-Founded and is CEO of ViTAA Medical Solutions Inc., a precision medicine, AI-powered software company for the better management of patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) disease.
His most notable award was Ernst & Young鈥檚 2005 Entrepreneur of the Year in the life science category.
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RAYMOND HAKIM, MDCM鈥�76, is Adjunct Professor of Medicine in the division of nephrology and hypertension at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. He received a Master of Science degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a PhD in engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and worked in Montreal as a research engineer for Hydro-Qu茅bec. He then attended medical school at 涩里番 and performed his residency in internal medicine at the Royal Victoria Hospital of the MUHC. He carried out his renal fellowship at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women鈥檚 Hospital. From 1980 to 1987, he served on the faculty of Harvard University and was Associate Professor of Medicine and attending nephrologist at the Brigham and Women鈥檚 Hospital in Boston.
In 1995, Dr. Hakim was one of the founders and the Chief Medical Officer of the Renal Care Group, a provider of outpatient dialysis services with excellent patient outcomes. The group merged with Fresenius Medical Care in 2007, and Dr. Hakim became the Chief Medical Officer, serving from 2008 to 2012. He has published extensively (200+) on clinical and basic research in chronic kidney disease, dialysis and plasmapheresis, and has contributed more than 35 chapters to medical books.
Dr. Hakim is the recipient of numerous awards, including being listed among the 鈥淏est Doctors in America鈥� and 鈥淎merica鈥檚 TOP Physicians鈥� for multiple years, the Medal of Excellence from the American Association of Kidney Patients Award, and the prestigious Belding H. Scribner Award in 2017. In addition to the Hakim Family Prize for Clinical Innovation in Health Care, Dr. Hakim also funded the Catherine McLaughlin Hakim Chair in Medicine and, more recently, the Hakim Family Bursary for newly arrived immigrants and refugees entering or enrolled in a health sciences degree program at 涩里番.
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Carmela De Luca, Ph.D., J.D. is a principal with Smart & Biggar LP. Carmela is a lawyer and registered patent agent in Canada and the United States and practices in all areas of intellectual property, focusing on patent matters, particularly for life science companies. She advises clients on strategic global aspects of obtaining and managing patent portfolios, as well as in the preparation and procurement of patents and industrial designs. She works closely with clients including start-ups, universities as well as multinationals in preparing and prosecuting patent applications relating to biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, biologics, diagnostics, green technologies, and other areas in the life sciences. Carmela is also active in the analysis of patent issues such as validity, infringement, and freedom to operate.
Carmela is the founding and Emeritus Co-chair of the Greater Montr茅al Chapter of Women in Bio (WIB) and a member of its Excellence in Canadian Board Governance (ECBG) committee. She has been a faculty member of the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada's (IPIC) Patent Drafting Course and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Clinical Innovation Platform (CLIP) of the Research Institute of the 涩里番 Health Centre.
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BRENT NORTON, MDCM 鈥�84, is an accomplished business leader with operational and director experience across several successful enterprises which have achieved significant product sales and returns for investors, and positively impacted hundreds of thousands of lives. He uses his cross-functional knowledge to develop strategy, raise capital and build important relationships in the academic and business community. Dr. Norton founded PreMD, completing an IPO and listings on both TSX and AMEX. Operationally, he has built R&D and commercial operations, led transactions with AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, L鈥橭real, etc., and taken products through the FDA to global out-licensing with Johnson & Johnson. He was a founding Director of Novadaq Technologies, which was sold to Stryker Corporation. In 2020, Dr. Norton was named to the Board of Directors and the Research & Innovation Committee, and in 2021 the Audit, Finance and Risk Committee of the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada (AFMC). The AFMC represents Canada鈥檚 17 faculties of medicine and is the voice of academic medicine in Canada.
In addition to his medical degree from 涩里番, Dr. Norton holds an MBA from the University of Western Ontario鈥檚 Richard Ivey School of Business and is a certified director from the Institute of Corporate Directors. Dr. Norton has been an active member of several boards of directors, public and private, in both Canada and the US, and an active volunteer. His involvement on boards has commonly been extended to working with the owners, founders or CEOs through a significant inflection point, transition, or the commercial validation and monetization of one or more of the company鈥檚 assets. He is a member of the Ideator and National Committees of Arthritis Society Canada and an Associate at the Creative Destruction Lab (Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto).
DANNY MINOGUE, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Minogue Medical Inc., is a former elite ski racer and an alumnus of the Alpine Canada Can-Am team in the 1970鈥檚. Mr. Minogue started his career in the surgical supply business in 1981 with US Surgical before founding Minogue Medical Inc. in 1986. With more than three decades of managerial experience in the surgical supply business, he has grown Minogue Medical into one of Canada鈥檚 leading distributors of surgical supplies and robotic surgery devices (da Vinci surgical system).
In 2011 & 2013, Mr. Minogue was recognized for his outstanding achievements and nominated as a finalist for Ernst and Young's Entrepreneur of the Year. He also has a strong commitment to community involvement and was elected chairman of the Board of Alpine Canada in September 2011and co-chaired Montreal's 2012 Ride to Conquer Cancer 鈥� an event with more than 2,000 participants that raised $7.0 million.
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CHARLES POSTERNACK, Chief Executive Officer at Avulux. After a long, rewarding career as a practicing physician and senior healthcare executive, Dr. Posternack followed his heart to co-found Avulux. His daughters both suffer from light sensitivity and migraine, and he set out to find an option that would help them. Today, those same women are two of the many Avulux success stories from around the world. Dr. Posternack has been in the healthcare sector for more than 30 years, with leadership positions in both the not-for-profit and for-profit sectors. Dr. Posternack received his medical degree at 涩里番 in Montreal, Canada, and did his specialty training there as well. He has lived in the United States since 1992 and has held senior roles at the Cleveland Clinic and HCA Healthcare, as well as overseeing a large multi-state U.S. healthcare system. He was also an Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University.
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SIMON RAAB, PhD, holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from 涩里番 (Montreal) a Master of Engineering Physics (Surface Physics) from Cornell University, USA, and a Bachelor of Science in Physics from the University of Waterloo, Canada. After receiving permission from Mcgill鈥檚 board of trustees, Raab licensed Bristol Myers subsidiary Zimmer Inc. with the results of his PhD thesis introducing important technology in artificial joint fixation. This event inspired important positive developments in 涩里番鈥檚 industrial relations policies. Raab is the co-founder of Faro Technologies where he was CEO for 26 years and chairman of the board for 37 years. Raab took FARO public on the Nasdaq exchange in 1997, where is it still active. Raab holds more than 80 US patents with associated foreign patents in fields of 3D coordinate measuring systems, bio-materials, medical diagnostics and computerized surgical assistance. Faro licensed Medtronics and BrainLabs with Raab鈥檚 patents on image guided surgery, which continue to set the standard of care in Neuro and ENT surgery. He has invested in diverse startups acting both as scientific advisor and board chairman, these include LunglifeAI focusing on diagnostic tests for early lung cancer and Digital Surgical Systems, developing the first digital 3D surgical microscopes and robotic guidance systems. Raab is currently retired and is working in his first passion, physics and is completing a book describing a new string theory.
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Dr. JOSEPH PETRUCCELLI听is a physician-scientist and fast-track PhD candidate in Surgical Innovation at 涩里番. Recognized as a CAME Rising Star in 2024, he is the Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder of听CoeurWay, an award-winning Quebec-based AI scribe company acquired by MedFar, focused on automating medical documentation across clinical settings. His leadership has helped secure over听$500K in public grants, and earned distinctions such as the听Grand Prix Hippocrate听for Quebec鈥檚 top emerging healthcare innovation. In parallel, he co-founded听OncoTRACK, a digital platform improving care coordination for sarcoma patients, and is conducting cutting-edge research in听3D reconstruction and machine learning听for pediatric orthopedic care. With over a dozen ongoing research projects, four accepted book chapters, and national conference presentations, his work bridges frontline clinical needs with scalable digital innovation. Dr. Petruccelli鈥檚 mission is to reimagine healthcare delivery by combining medical expertise, AI, and system-level insight鈥攎aking him a leading voice in the future of tech-enabled medicine.