A native of Nova Scotia, I came to McGill as an undergraduate student in the Department of Chemical Engineering. Midway through my degree, I became infatuated with the new genomics revolution and the cross-disciplinary intersection between chemical engineering, biology and computer science. These were some of the early and most exciting days in the genomics field. The race was on to sequence the human genome and the power of humanity’s understanding of DNA was just being uncovered. My McGill professors helped me put together a novel curriculum that combined chemical engineering, biotechnology, data science and other areas like entrepreneurship. This effort took my life in a whole new direction and positioned me perfectly for the genomics revolution to come.
My unique qualifications from McGill allowed me to get a research position at the CNRC Biotechnology Research Institute doing recombinant protein production research. This, in turn, led to a scholarship to attend an Ivy League university to study biomedical engineering. At the end of this degree, we patented my thesis work and started a company in California based on the technology.
My career pivoted to entrepreneurship and I became one of the early employees who spun Google Life Sciences out of Google to become Verily Life Sciences. My understanding of chemical engineering, biology, and data science (now machine learning and artificial intelligence) combined with my newly acquired business acumen, helped me play a lead role in growing and scaling that business and creating some of the first major collaborations and joint ventures between big tech and the life sciences industry. I am now the CEO and Managing Partner of a multibillion-dollar venture capital firm that invests in technology, healthcare and their intersection, assisting other entrepreneurs to bring new technology to market.
My whole journey was catalyzed by the willingness of my McGill professors to help me position my education to explore a new and emerging technology field. I’m forever grateful for what they did to get me where I am today and all the doors their efforts opened for me along the way.