WIB-Greater Montreal and Executive Women In Bio announce the launch of the Excellence in Canadian Board Governance (ECBG) Program


Montréal, Québec, Canada, September 12, 2022– WIB-Greater Montreal and Executive Women In Bio (EWIB), an initiative of Women In Bio (WIB) committed to promoting, empowering, and elevating executive women in biopharma and the life sciences, are thrilled to present the 26 women who will participate in this year’s ECBG program.

WIB-Greater Montreal, in collaboration with the McGill Executive Institute, has created a professional development program on Board Governance to accelerate the process in building diversity in the boardroom by increasing board leadership opportunities for women (C-suite/Senior Executives/Founders) in Canada’s Life Science and Biotechnology sectors.

Excellence in Canadian Board Governance builds the skills that board members need to be effective by deciphering the growing complexities of board responsibilities and governance issues and delineating a framework for refined decision-making. The result is a pipeline of prospective life science directors with specialized knowledge of board governance, primed for rapid onboarding.

The 2022 Cohort is composed of a diverse community of ambitious, promising corporate board directors. The candidates selected for this year’s ECBG program are:

  • Maire-Claude Battista, Ph.D. - Director, Knowledge transfer and partnership, Faculté de médecine et des sciences de la santé, Université de Sherbrooke

  • Véronique Bougie – Chief Operating Officer, SemaThera Inc.

  • Susan Chapelle – VP Operations, Medical Services, Pathway Health Corp.

  • Marie-Eve Charrois – Vice-President Regulatory Affairs, IMV Inc.

  • Nadia Di Chiara – Portfolio Manager, Private Equity and Impact Investing / Life Sciences, Fonds de solidarité FTQ

  • Marie Di Maso, Ph.D. – Executive Director, Corealis Pharma

  • Véronique Dugas, Ph.D. – Vice-President Scientific Affairs, CQDM

  • Fiona Fitzgerald – Global Commercial Leader, Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, Canada, Cytiva

  • Allison Hagerman – Vice President Product Development, Oncolytics Biotech Inc.

  • Nathalie Hébert – General Manager, Charles River Labs

  • Petra Hillebrand - Consultant

  • Melanie Kelly – Chief Scientific Officer, TetraBio-Pharma Inc.

  • Karine Lalonde- Vice President, Clinical Operations, Inversago

  • Marie-Christine Locas – Senior Director, Medicago

  • Terri Lohnes – Founder, Tekama Advisory

  • Aidan McNeil – Associate General Counsel and VP Administration, Thryv Therapeutics, Inc.

  • Christine Mormont - Director, Medical Affairs, Novocure

  • Dr. Gilly Regev – Co-founder and CEO, SaNOtize

  • Marie-Helene Reid – Director of Operations, Charles River Labs

  • Nawel Rojkjaer – Founder & President, SmokePond Biologics

  • Elsa Rolo – Consultant, Human Capital Management E.R. Inc.

  • Julia Schoelermann, Ph.D., MBA – VP Business Development, 35 Pharma

  • Louise St Onge – Head, Pricing, Market Access & Government Affairs, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Canada

  • Kristin Tweel - Director, Sector Innovation, Genome Atlantic

  • Dr. Jolanda Westerlaken – Head of Global Regulatory Affairs CMC & Devices, UCB

  • Lindsay Williams – VP, Managing Director, Stryker Canada

The program is offered as 10 half-day live virtual education sessions from October to December 2022. The in-depth sessions will address Strategy, Human Resources in the structure of a board, Duty of Care (legal framework), Board Effectiveness, and Enterprise Risks.

Additionally, the ECBG Program affords Exclusive Networking and Profile Directory across cohorts, Peer Mentorship opportunities, and a Board Competency-Building Curriculum while enhancing participant confidence supporting greater diversity on corporate boards. Graduates earn a McGill Certificate of Completion.