Our second mini-networking night of the year will provide graduate trainees and postdoctoral fellows the opportunity to meet professional guests in Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship. It will feature professionals from Sixty Degree Capital, Noetic Fund, SyntheX Inc and Amplitude Ventures.
Note that spots are limited to maintain a guest-to-trainee ratio of 1:5-8 and are available on a first-come, first-serve basis. We will prioritize registrants currently enrolled in a graduate degree (MSc, PhD, other professional degrees) or postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto. Your spot in the event is confirmed only when you receive an email by December 2, 2022 containing your breakout room assignment and the Zoom Link. Please ensure you check your junk mail. If you do not receive this information, unfortunately, the event capacity has been reached and we are unable to accommodate any additional participants. Please be considerate when registering for this event. If you are accepted and do not inform the team (networking@lscds.org) you will no longer be attending, you may not be accepted to attend future mini-networking events.
In preparation for the event, you are encouraged to read the guests' bios below to develop tailored questions and facilitate more meaningful conversations.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at networking@lscds.org.
Event Agenda:
1) Opening Remarks and Guest Introductions (5-10 minutes)
2) 3x Structured Networking Sessions (25 minutes/session)
Trainees are assigned to a Zoom breakout room and a professional will rotate into the room for each session, such that trainees will have an opportunity to network with 3 different professionals.
3) Closing Remarks and Open Networking Session (25 minutes)
Trainees are given the opportunity to interact with any of the professional guests they please.
This event was brought to you by the Master of Management and Professional Accounting (MMPA).
Guest Bio
Co-founder, CEO, SyntheX Inc.
Dr. Maria Soloveychik is the co-founder and CEO of SyntheX, a therapeutics company working on accelerating drug discovery using synthetic biology with an internal oncology pipeline. SyntheX was founded in 2016 and is based in San Francisco. Maria has obtained her PhD from the department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto, where she discovered novel pathways linking metabolism and epigenetic signaling. Maria was previously a research scientist at a structural genomics consortium, where her work led to the determination of numerous structures and identification of several drug candidates.
Associate, Sixty Degree Capital
Robin is a Principal at Sixty Degree Capital, investing mainly in Biotech and also general Healthcare innovations. Before joining, Robin worked for biotech and medical device startup operating roles. Previously, he worked for Apotex's research division as well as also performed HIV vaccines and MRI contrast agents research at the University of Toronto.
Science Lead, Noetic Fund
With a goal of improving the mental health treatment landscape, Teja is a Principal with Noetic and has helped raise and deploy $60M+ in venture capital in the mental health sector across therapeutics, devices, digital modalities and currently serves in board roles for early-stage companies. Previously, he co-founded & led business development for a stealth neuropsychiatry-focused biotech; and is experienced in early stage investment opportunity analyses across therapeutic areas from TIAP (MaRS Innovation). Teja has a Ph.D. (summa) in biology from the Max Planck Society, and is trained as a Biotechnology engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India.
Dr. Ali Tehrani
Partner, Amplitude VC
Dr. Ali Tehrani has a Ph.D in Microbiology from UBC (2003) and a Masters in Biochemistry form UMass Amherst (1996). He has served as a member of Amplitude’s Board of Advisors since 2020 and is also on the Boards of Nanology Labs and Creatus Biosciences. As a staunch advocate for the development of Canada’s biotech sector he volunteers on the Boards of BIOTECanada and CQDM and mentors at Toronto’s Creative Destruction Lab. He co-founded Zymeworks in 2003 and led the company as President and CEO from inception to clinical validation, through an IPO, and to a peak $1.9B valuation. He stepped down as President and CEO at Zymeworks in January 2022 and joined Amplitude Ventures as Partner in February 2022.