Management

John Hooper, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer
Former CEO of Phoenix International, which grew under his leadership from 20 to 2,600 employees in sixteen countries and annual revenues of $300 million. Phoenix was sold to MDS for $500 million in April 2000. Dr. Hooper has 37 years of relevant experience, including 32 at the executive level, and a successful track record managing time-sensitive R&D for profit. Dr. Hooper was twice named “Entrepreneur of the Year” for Quebec in the life sciences and in 2005 was made a member of the Cercle Excelcia for "an exceptional career and a remarkable contribution to the Quebec biotechnology and life sciences industries." Dr. Hooper received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of London.

René Paulussen, Ph.D., Chief Operating Officer
Former Vice President, Applied Technologies at Xanthus Life Sciences Inc.
Dr. Paulussen has over 20 years experience working in many areas of laboratory and scientific business management in the biopharmaceutical industry, where his responsibilities have included laboratory design and organization, improving operational efficiency and setting up quality control standards. Dr. Paulussen has a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Nijmegen in The Netherlands.

Majid Belouchi, Ph.D., Vice President and Chief Technology Officer
Former Director of Scientific Affairs at Algene Biotechnologies, a gene discovery company, Dr. Belouchi has 25 years experience in genetics and molecular biology and has played a key role in the mapping of genes implicated in common human diseases. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Montreal.
Dr. Belouchi is a founder of Genizon BioSciences. He received his Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Montreal.

Henry Bretecher, CMA, MBA, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Former Assistant Vice-President Finance and Accounting at Canadian Pacific Limited where he was jointly responsible for the financial affairs of this highly diversified company, and where he gained extensive experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, corporate reorganizations, and other transactions of a strategic or special nature. Mr. Bretecher is a former director of Canadian Pacific Hotels, Eastern Provincial Airways, and Canada Maritime Limited. He manages the financial, corporate, and legal affairs of the company and has over 30 years of relevant business experience. Mr. Bretecher is a Certified Management Accountant and holds an MBA from the University of Toronto.

Tim Keith, Ph.D., Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer
Former Senior Director of Human Genetics at Oscient Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Keith brings nearly 20 years of experience in the biotechnology industry where she has played critical roles in disease gene discovery, pathway analysis and licensing negotiation. From the early days of genetic mapping to more recent programs aimed at identifying genes for complex diseases, Dr. Keith has focused on translating genetic information into innovative therapeutics and diagnostics. 
She has contributed to genetic studies in CNS, metabolic and inflammatory diseases and recently led the team that identified the first asthma susceptibility gene (ADAM33) through positional cloning strategies. She has a Ph.D. in population genetics from Harvard University.

Jean-François Levesque, Vice President, Information Technology
Former Vice President of R&D and C.T.O. for Aviva Solutions (a division of Eicon Networks), Mr. Levesque has been involved in the design and manufacturing of high-technology hardware and software products for over 25 years. With his experience ranging from hands-on architecture and design to managing large software engineering projects, Mr. Levesque is responsible for the development and operations of Genizon's I.T. and high performance computing infrastructure.

John Raelson, Ph.D., Chief Geneticist
Former Director of Genetics at Algene Biotechnologies, Dr. Raelson is a co-founder of Genizon and its Chief Geneticist. He has 15 years experience in human genetics, genetic analysis and LD mapping algorithms. He has been involved in research that has identified the association of the LG72 gene with schizophrenia and in the identification of mutations in the SLC3A1 gene as causes of type 1 cystinuria and in mapping this gene to chromosome 2. He has played a key role in the development of Genizon’s disease mapping programs and in the development of genome-wide association algorithms and their use for the identification of multiple genes associated with complex genetic diseases.
Dr Raelson received his Ph.D. in genetics at McGill University, and has extensive post-doctoral experience in both gene mapping and in molecular biology at Dalhousie University School of Medicine in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Randall Little, Ph.D., Executive Director, Computational Biology
Former Assistant Director of Human Genetics at Genome Therapeutics Corp.,
Dr. Little has been involved in human genetics research for more than 10 years.
He was instrumental in the identification of the asthma susceptibility gene ADAM33, and in the identification of the LRP5 gene as a key receptor involved in bone mineral density regulation. Dr. Little brings considerable expertise in the areas of gene and target identification and biochemical pathway elucidation. 
Dr. Little obtained his Ph.D. in human genetics from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, followed by post-doctoral fellowships at Washington University and at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Bruno Paquin, Ph.D., Executive Director, Business Development
Dr. Paquin joined Genizon as Head of the Technology Development Unit in 2000 shortly after the company’s founding. He has been integrally involved in the development of several new technologies and his participation has also been critical to the progress of Genizon’s gene discovery programs. More recently, Dr. Paquin was Director, Science & Technology Liaison where he supported the business development function by giving external scientific presentations. Dr. Paquin obtained his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Université de Montréal and has 20 years of experience in the field of molecular evolution and genetics.

Paul Van Eerdewegh, Ph.D., Senior Director, Statistical Genetics
Former Director, Statistical Genetics at Genome Therapeutics, Dr. Van Eerdewegh brings more than 30 years of experience in statistical genetics relating to human disease. A former Assistant Professor at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, Dr. Van Eerdewegh has more than 45 publications to his credit. He also holds 2 US patents relating to disease gene discovery for respiratory diseases and obesity. Dr. Van Eerdewegh received his Ph.D. in mathematics from Washington University.

Benoit Houle, Ph.D., Senior Director, Technology Development and CRO Services
Former Director of the Proteomics Service Platform of the McGill-Genome Quebec Innovation Centre and Associate Director, Custom Services, at PerkinElmer BioSignal Inc., Dr. Houle has led various teams working on the development of life science-related products and technologies and on providing custom services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.  Dr. Houle obtained his Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Montreal and did his post-doctoral fellowship at MIT and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (Seattle), working on molecular mechanisms of carcinogenesis.

Robin Cruickshank, Senior Director, Clinical Research
Former Director of Clinical Operations at Phoenix International (now MDS Pharma Services) she headed all recruitment, screening and on study activities for the Phase I Clinical Research Unit. Ms Cruickshank has 20 years of experience in the research field focusing on regulatory and ethical compliance. She is responsible for the conduct of Genizon's clinical projects, management of the Biobank activities, compliance with GCP, ethical guidelines and other applicable regulations and is liaison to Genizon's Ethics Advisory Committee.