Senior Management

Donald J. McCaffrey

President and CEO, Co-Founder

Don is Resverlogix’s strategic leader, founder, mentor and the overall ‘heart’ of the company.

Biography


Donald McCaffrey is Co-Founder, President, & CEO of Resverlogix Corp. He has almost 30 years experience in drug discovery & development, and international conference and tradeshow management across multiple industries, including biotechnology. Don has led Resverlogix through significant change and achievement from its initial days as a private company to becoming a TSX listed company, including raising over CAD $140 million.  In addition to garnering appropriate financing for Resverlogix’s aggressive development plan, Don has strategically directed the Company in its discussions with top global pharmaceutical companies, while creating new therapeutic markets for its key technology platforms. Don’s expertise in corporate operations has attracted an international team of R&D experts to Resverlogix.  This scientific and operational expertise has pioneered RVX-208, a drug which has the potential to be first in a new class of drugs for the treatment of cardiovascular disease.  Under his guidance Resverlogix has won multiple awards including the 2008 WEF Technology Pioneer award.

Don’s career accomplishments have been recognized by the business community and peers, as he was nominated for Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year twice. He is a contributor to community non-profit organizations including the United Way, Alberta Children's Hospital, Education Matters, and Calgary Urban Project Society Literacy Program.



Norman C.W. Wong, M.D., FRCP

Chief Scientific Officer & Co-Founder

Norman is the visionary for the scientific development of Resverlogix’s therapeutic platforms.

Biography


Norman's research interest focus is on the molecular actions of hormones related to the regulation of lipoprotein expression and pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus. His clinical interest encompasses patients with thyroid disease or diabetes mellitus. Norman 's most recent successes have come from elucidating the potential therapeutic opportunities for cardiovascular disease by harnessing the regulation of Apolipoprotein A-I (ApoA-I) gene expression. Norman keeps active in the academic community with speaking engagements at national and international medical conferences. Norman has been the author and co-author of more than 220 articles and abstracts and has been invited to sit on more than 35 panels and committees. Norman has also acted as a consultant to several leading pharmaceutical companies, including Eli Lilly, Merck Frost, GlaxoSmithKline, Solvay Pharmaceuticals and Abbott Laboratories.


A. Brad Cann, CA

Chief Financial Officer

Brad is responsible for accounting, taxation, finance, treasury, corporate governance and risk management.

Biography


Brad has more than 14 years of financial and business experience. Prior to joining Resverlogix, Brad was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Royal Host Real Estate Investment Trust, a diversified hospitality trust engaged in hotel ownership, investment, management and franchising, and Canada's second largest hotel REIT. Brad joined Royal Host in January 2004 and held a number of senior positions and was appointed Chief Financial Officer in May 2007 and Executive Vice President in January 2008. Brad's responsibilities included financial reporting, accounting, taxation, investor relations, payroll, information technology and internal audit. As acting Co-Chief Executive Officer of Royal Host, Brad shared responsibility for developing the strategic initiatives of the Trust and leading its executive team in day-to-day operations, as well as investing, financing and real estate transactions. 

Prior to joining Royal Host, Brad was a business consultant and held senior management positions with several companies including Chief Financial Officer of a sulphur export development company and Chief Financial Officer of an oilfield waste water treatment company. Prior thereto, Brad held various positions with a chartered accounting firm.

Brad is a Chartered Accountant and a Chartered Business Valuator, and holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Saskatchewan.



Jan O. Johansson, M.D., Ph.D.

Senior Vice President Medical Affairs

Jan oversees the clinical and regulatory development, and provides scientific guidance to the corporation.

Biography


Jan has had a distinguished 30 year career of which the past 15 years have been in small biotechnology and large pharmaceutical companies with expertise in the cardiovascular disease therapeutic area. He has served as Chief Medical Officer at Nuvelo, Inc., VP, Clinical Research and Development at Lipid Sciences, Inc. and was Co-founder, VP, Clinical Affairs and Senior Clinical Research Fellow of Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. From 1995 to 1997, Dr. Johansson was a medical adviser with executive responsibilities at Pharmacia bringing one lipid lowering product to the market and heading the apolipoproteinA-IMilano clinical program.

Jan earned his M.D. and Ph.D. at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden where he lead a successful career as a tenured associate professor at the Karolinska Hospital and as a practicing physician. He has published more than 50 peer-review medical articles, and is a member of several scientific organizations including the American Heart Association and the European Atherosclerosis Society.



Kenneth Lebioda, BA

Senior VP Business & Corporate Development

Ken is responsible for the business and corporate development of the company’s technology pipeline and alliance management.

Biography


Ken has over 23 years experience in the innovative pharmaceutical industry with leading global companies such as Bristol-Myers Squibb, Hoechst Marion Roussel and Marion Merrell Dow. He held a variety of management positions with these companies in the areas of sales and business development, regulatory affairs, reimbursement and market access. Ken's past contributions in helping build leading global cardiovascular brands such as Plavix, Pravachol, Cardizem, and Avapro will provide strategic guidance for the company's technologies in the areas of market analysis, regulatory affairs, licensing and commercial development.



Gregory S. Wagner, Ph.D., DABT

Senior VP Research & Development

Greg oversees the company’s preclinical programs and provides extensive expertise in the areas of drug development, regulatory filings, and toxicology.

Biography


Greg has over 30 years of broad and successful experience in early drug and pharmaceutical development. He has worked with leading biotech and pharmaceutical companies such as Kosan Biosciences, Sugen (a subsidiary of Pharmacia), and Rigel Inc.  His expertise is focused on toxicology, drug metabolism, pharmacokinetics and pharmacology. Greg has been a leading force in the early preclinical preparation and development of several important new drug programs such as Sutent, Pfizer’s cancer drug. He will lead Resverlogix’s efforts in establishing overall management of the preclinical programs to support development of compounds for IND candidates.


Dr. F. Allan Gordon, M.D., Ph.D

Senior Vice President of Clinical Development

Allan will lead Resverlogix through clinical development.

Biography


Over the past 20 years Allan has built up a successful career as a Research and Development professional in cardiology. With his expertise and understanding of the market place, he is able to uniquely motivate teams of scientists on both the levels of discovery and applicability. Prior to joining Resverlogix, Allan was the CEO for Nile Therapeutics, an early stage bio-pharmaceutical in cardiovascular science, particularly in acute heart failure. Moreover, Allan led the international development program for Natrecor at Scios Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company. In addition to this work in the United States, Allan has worked with several large pharmaceutical companies in leading positions on the clinical development programs for cardiovascular disease including Astra-Zeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Novartis.

Allan received his M.D. and Ph.D. from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden where he initially worked in a number of hospital settings, followed by his position as an Associate Professor in Cardiology at the Karolinska Institute. He has published approximately 50 articles and abstracts.



Theresa Kennedy, B.Sc.

VP Corporate Communications

Theresa is responsible for all internal and external corporate communications.

Biography


Theresa has spent the past 17 years in the biotechnology industry in a variety of leadership positions. Her experience is focused on corporate positioning, executive profiling, media strategy, stakeholder outreach and government relations. While at Hill & Knowlton, some of her clients included large and small U.S. and Canadian biotechnology companies. In addition, she did work for a variety of international federal governments. Recently Theresa was appointed by the Federal Government of Canada to the Board of Directors of the Assisted Human Reproduction Canada Agency.  She is a guest lecturer for Kluyver Centre for Genomics of Industrial Fermentation, which included lecturing on the topic of strategic communications in biotechnology at Oxford University. In recognition of her work in the biotechnology sector, Theresa won an award for Advancing the Benefits of Biotech for Canadians, was a finalist for the 2005 Silver Sabre Award for biotech and a finalist for 2004 Influential Women in Business awards. In 1998 Theresa was awarded the BIV Top 40 Under 40 Award. Theresa received her B.Sc. from the University of Calgary.