Team

In his role as President & CEO of BIOTECanada Andrew is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Association.  In this capacity, he is the primary spokesperson for Canada’s biotech industry communicating on the industry’s behalf with government, regulators, international bodies, media and the Canadian public. He also ensures BIOTECanada plays a central role in partnership with Government in the development of policy relating to Canada’s biotech sector and the member companies of BIOTECanada.

Prior to joining BIOTECanada, Andrew served from 2004-2012 as Vice President, Public Affairs and International Trade and Vice President, Government Relations and Communications for the Forestry Products Association of Canada. In those roles he held responsibility for the Association’s government relations, communications, media relations, advertising and international trade undertakings. From 1993-2004 he held the position of Assistant Vice-President, Government Relations with the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association. Between 1989 and 1993 Andrew held political assistant positions with a Member of Parliament and the Minister of State (Finance).

Andrew Casey is a native of Montreal, Quebec. After attending Loyola High School (Montreal) and St. Lawrence CEGEP (Quebec City) he graduated from Carleton University (Ottawa) with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science.

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With fifteen years of practical experience in the field of communications and public affairs Cate McCready joined BIOTECanada in November of 2001 and currently serves in the role of Vice President, External Affairs.

Her current role with BIOTECanada encompasses the development of national programs designed to inform and highlight the value of biotechnology innovation in Canada. This includes leading advocacy, media relations, and public awareness activities of the association to showcase the industry.

Her experience includes more than eight years of service within the federal government. This included roles for federal ministers and to the Prime Minister of Canada. Prior to her federal government experience she served in corporate and non-profit roles for national organizations.

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Dr. Ron Boch is the Vice President, Biotechnology and Industry Affairs with lead responsibility for BIOTECanada’s policy development reflecting the diverse nature of Canada’s health, industrial and agricultural biotechnology sectors.

He brings a wide range of scientific, research and commercialization expertise in his work with emerging companies, vaccine manufacturers and global pharmaceutical companies, having worked for over 25 years with industry particularly regarding biotechnology products, vaccines and formulation. In 2021, Ron was awarded the Canadian Society for Pharmaceutical Sciences Award of Leadership in Canadian Pharmaceutical Sciences for demonstrated leadership in advancing the cause of pharmaceutical research and development in Canada. As a named inventor of over 60 US and international patent applications including nine different patent families, Dr. Boch developed new technologies for business opportunities and managed relationships with key opinion leaders in the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industry. At QLT Inc., he contributed to the development of Visudyne used for photodynamic therapy of age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in people over 60. He led formulation and pharmaceutical development activities of a wide variety of preclinical and clinical products.

Dr. Boch serves advisory Boards including the Canadian Society for Pharmaceutical Sciences  and Industry Advisory Committee of the Drug Development and Innovation Centre at the University of Alberta.  He completed postdoctoral studies at the University of British Columbia, a Ph.D. in Chemistry and B.Sc. in Biochemistry, earned from the University of Ottawa.

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Pascale brings over ten years of experience in healthcare policy, clinical programs, digital health technology, and population health research.

Before joining BIOTECanada, Pascale was Senior Engagement Manager at Think Research, a health technology company, where she led the Client Success team’s long-term care initiatives, the data strategy team, and managed strategic partnerships. Prior to this work, Pascale acted as Senior Funding Specialist at Cancer Care Ontario (Ontario Health), where she leveraged her skills in health policy analysis, stakeholder engagement, and project management to lead numerous initiatives stemming from the province’s Health System Funding Reform.

Pascale holds a Graduate Diploma in Population Health Risk Assessment and Management from the University of Ottawa and a Master of Science Degree in Epidemiology from Queen’s University. Throughout her graduate studies, she held the role of Technical Master’s Student at the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France. Her peer-reviewed publications focused on the study of hazards of cancer and occupational risk factors of cardiovascular disease. 

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Over the past 20 years, Alex Solomakha has researched, developed and tested hundreds of customer relationship management solutions and advanced statistical models for a variety of clients. He brings to BIOTECanada a fusion of business intelligence, data science, machine learning, and finance experience as it relates to databases. With BIOTECanada, Alex provides direction of BIOTECanada’s data management and research capacity to better inform policy decisions; collect and analyze relevant data to help articulate the life sciences ecosystem value proposition to stakeholders including members and government. He also monitors, identifies and forecasts trends in the industry to support the direction of the association’s work.

Most recently as a Senior Business Intelligence Analyst with the Canadian Coast Guard and Data Analyst at the Canadian Medical Protective Association, he sharpened his skills in extracting important information, forecasting, modelling, and resource planning. Alex leverages DAX, M language, Python, R, Power BI, Cognos, and MS Azure ML in his work. He also gained a Microsoft Data Science Professional Degree in 2017. Alex graduated with distinction National Technical University (Kharkiv, Ukraine) studying Industrial Engineering & Management.

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With 15 years financial experience in non-profit organizations, Janice Burke joined BIOTECanada in January 2004. In her current role as Director, Finance and Operations Janice manages the day-to-day fiscal and physical resources of the association. Other responsibilities include administration of group benefits and human resources, overseeing capital acquisitions and service contracts, facilities management as well as some business solutions benefiting our membership.

Prior to joining BIOTECanada, Janice served for nine years as Information Systems Manager for South Asia Partnership Canada, a non-profit organization working in human development. In this capacity, she managed financial reporting as well the LAN and IT systems for the Partnership and was responsible for government and partner reporting for several overseas development programs. Janice also oversaw database design and maintenance.

Janice has also served as board director of a national non-profit, has extensive experience in organizational restructuring, strategic planning, information technology management and working with volunteers. She has training in conflict resolution and human rights.

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With over 18 years of Association experience Shaely joined BIOTECanada in June 2019. Her role with BIOTECanada comprises of using her past experience to lead the Association’s identification, outreach and recruitment of new members. To seek out sponsorship opportunities and nurture partnership while growing and maintaining the savings and services program that supports BIOTECanada’s members.

Shaely is the lead facilitator for the Canadian presence at the annual BIO International Convention and coordinates the planning and execution of our annual BIOTECanada Investor Summit in Whistler.

Prior to joining BIOTECanada, Shaely served for 9 years as the Manager of Member Relations for the Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologists where under her stewardship efficient membership processes were put in place to enhance the overall member experience.

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Emily Meyers joined BIOTECanada in August 2013 and currently serves in the role of Manager, Business & Policy Development. Emily supports BIOTECanada’s member outreach programs and leads on the association’s presence at several key international industry events.

She manages the Business Development Fund available through BIOTECanada in partnership with the Trade Commissioner Service, and implements business solutions offered to members. Emily supports a number of policy files, especially within environmental, industrial, and agricultural biotechnology. She also assists with communications, including website maintenance, events, and marketing.

Emily holds an MSc from the University of Ottawa in Environmental Sustainability, and a BSc from Queen’s University in Biochemistry.

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Aurelina joined BIOTECanada in 2006,  her responsibilities encompass managing the President’s schedule, coordination of the Board of Directors, Executive Committee and ACCORD Committee meeting, teleconferences and all related communications.

She also oversees other administrative support functions for the Senior Management team and assists in the coordination of internal and external meetings, conferences and events. Aurelina takes a lead role in the maintenance of the internal contact database including select aspects of website maintenance and new member services.