Montreal, February 27, 2023 – The members of IRICoR’s Board of Directors are proud today to announce the appointment of Elizabeth Douville, Ph.D., ICD.D, to the position of President and Chief Executive Officer of the organization. This appointment comes after Dr. Nadine Beauger, Ph.D., MBA, informed the members of the Board of Directors of her decision to leave the position of President and Chief Executive Officer of IRICoR after 14 remarkable years with the organization.
With a very impressive track record, Dr. Elizabeth Douville will bring over 25 years of experience as a venture capitalist in the field of life sciences. She is the founder of AmorChem, a leading early-stage venture capital fund focusing on academic innovation and its translation into start-up biotech companies, and was until just recently its Managing Partner. She has sourced, led and overseen several investments in biotech companies, in promising academic technologies, and has successfully catalyzed the creation and syndication of several spin-off companies, including Inversago Pharma, Corbin Therapeutics, Fairhaven Pharmaceuticals and SemaThera, that have successfully raised capital or partnered with pharmaceutical companies.
Since her early debut in the field of venture capital as a Manager for the GeneChem Technologies Venture Fund, Dr. Elizabeth Douville has gone on to raise close to 300 million dollars for different funds over the course of her career and has piloted several investments in both Canada and the United States.
“Elizabeth Douville is an astute businesswoman, her reputation precedes her. She is known for her leadership qualities, the ease with which she establishes harmonious relationships, her strategic and entrepreneurial vision, and her deep ties with the academic, industrial and governmental world. I am delighted by Dr. Douville’s appointment and I am convinced that these tremendous attributes will enable her to meet the challenges ahead for IRICoR, particularly with respect to diversifying funding sources, attracting new projects and mobilizing our ecosystem’s key players. She will be a leading figure within the organization! There is no doubt in my mind that in collaboration with the current team, she will be able to support the deployment of our actions in order to take IRICoR even further” said Jean-François Leprince, Chairman of IRICoR’s Board of Directors.
Dr. Elizabeth Douville also has a keen interest in governance. In 2020, she received a Certificate in Leadership and Executive Skills from the Leadership Institute and took part in the prestigious Business Development Bank of Canada’s GP Academy program. More recently, she was awarded the ICD.D. designation by the Institute of Corporate Directors. Her highly committed and active participation in the life sciences ecosystem has led her to serve on the Boards of several companies and not-for-profit organizations. She is Chair of Genome Canada, a Member of the Canada Foundation for Innovation and a member of the Research Canada Policy Engagement Committee. She is also the vice chair of the Emerging Company Advisory Board of BIOTECanada and an active member of the Board of Directors of Corbin Therapeutics Inc. and SemaThera Inc.
“I am honoured by this appointment and I thank the members of IRICoR’s Board of Directors for putting their trust in me. I will be devoted to continuing the work undertaken, by putting my expertise and my vision to good use in the success and visibility of the IRICoR solution. I am very excited about joining the team in place and contributing in a tangible way to the development and maturation of promising academic assets and to their exit strategies, by creating investment opportunities for foreign capital through co-development partnerships with the biopharmaceutical industry, and by stimulating the growth of entrepreneurial activities in life sciences in Canada through the creation of spin-off companies.” says Elizabeth Douville.
Also wanting to highlight the work done by Dr. Nadine Beauger at IRICoR since 2009, Jean-François Leprince added: “I would like to thank Dr. Nadine Beauger for her involvement and her longstanding commitment. Dr. Beauger has distinguished herself in many ways, including through her leadership and her outstanding contribution over the course of her mandate to extend IRICoR’s mark across Quebec and the rest of Canada. After fourteen years, we are very grateful to her and we wish her every success with her next challenges”.
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