Diamedica Inc.

Management Team




Rick Pauls | President & CEO


Mr. Rick Pauls was appointed President and CEO of DiaMedica in July 2009 and has been Chairman of the board of directors since 2008.  Mr. Pauls was previously the Managing Director of CentreStone Ventures Inc., an early stage life sciences venture capital fund.  While with CentreStone, Mr. Pauls led the investment in Orasi Medical Inc., winner of the Red Herring Global 100 and Red Herring North America 100 awards; LED Medical Inc., winner of Red Herring Canada 50 award in the Health category; DiaMedica and Sanomune Inc., both named one of Canada's Top 10™ Life Science Companies. Prior to CentreStone, he was with Centara Corporation, another early stage venture capital fund. Before this, Mr. Pauls specialized in asset-backed securitization and structured finance with General Motors Acceptance Corporation in Minnesota. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Manitoba and his M.B.A. in Finance from the University of North Dakota.




 
  

  

    





Mark Williams, PhD. | Vice President, Research
Dr. Williams earned his Ph.D. at the University of Alberta in the laboratory of Dr. Lorne Tyrrell, who discovered Lamivudine®, for the treatment of Hepatitis B. Dr. Williams is the co-founder of Sanomune, a company focused on neurological and autoimmune disorders.  He is an inventor on more than 10 patents and has been awarded several research grants. He has overseen the approval of five Phase II clinical trials in therapeutic areas ranging from diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease, to rheumatoid arthritis. Three of these products have successfully completed Phase IIa clinical trials.


 
  

  

    





Ed Rady | Senior Consultant, Licensing & Partnering
Mr. Ed Rady joins DiaMedica as Senior Consultant, Licensing and Partnering. With nearly 40 years of wide-ranging pharmaceutical industry experience, Ed brings a diverse background as a traditional Pharmaceutical sales and marketing leader, a groundbreaking entrepreneur in medical communications, and CEO of the largest healthcare communications network in the world, Publicis Healthcare Communications Group. Ed’s expertise includes organizational leadership, strategic and portfolio planning, launch optimization, acquisitions and new product commercialization. Before joining DiaMedica, Ed was a founding partner of two healthcare strategy firms, Straticore Group and SE3 Partners, which focused on product commercialization strategies and valuation.  Prior to that, Ed was global CEO of Publicis Healthcare Communications Group, charged with the role of organizing, expanding, and managing the worldwide healthcare assets of the Publicis Groupe.  Among his many accomplishments prior to Publicis, Ed also held positions as Chief Strategic Officer, Medicus Group and President, Medicus Global Medical Education. Ed entered the communications side of the industry by founding Discovery International, a full-service medical education agency, after leaving a successful 15 year commercial and product management career at Abbott Laboratories.

 

 


 
  

  

    





James Parsons, CA | Vice President, Finance 
Mr. Parsons joined DiaMedica in October 2010 with an extensive background in the life sciences industry and over 20 years of financial management experience.  Prior to joining DiaMedica, Mr. Parsons was the Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary for Amorfix Life Sciences Ltd where his responsibilities included finance, administration, contract management, corporate governance, and managing the commercialization of a novel services business producing the companies first revenues. Mr. Parsons has been a CFO in the life sciences industry since 2000 with early-stage to late-clinical stage biotechnology companies across many diagnostic and therapeutic service areas.  Mr Parsons a Bachelor of Arts with  Honours and a Master of Accounting degree from the University of Waterloo.

      

 


 
  

  

    





Ted Kolodka PhD. | Director, Intellectual Property and Business Development
Dr. Ted Kolodka joined DiaMedica in 2011 after 9 years as the Intellectual Property Manager at Cangene Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company that develops, manufactures and markets specialty plasma products and recombinant therapeutic proteins. He brings proven business development skills from the biopharmaceutical industry including: intellectual property management, technology development, product commercialization and management of products from pre-clinical research through regulatory approval. Dr. Kolodka earned his PhD at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at SUNY, Stony Brook, New York. Dr. Kolodka also studied patent law at Orange & Chari, a patent firm with McCarthy Tétrault (Toronto).


 
  

  

    





Matthew Charles MSc. | Director, Product Development
Matthew Charles joined DiaMedica in April 2009 where he is responsible for the development, manufacturing and preclinical programs for DM-199 and DM-204. Prior to DiaMedica, Mr. Charles was employed by Sanomune Inc., where he managed product development projects and intellectual property. Previous to this appointment he worked at CentreStone Ventures, a life sciences venture fund, where he evaluated technology investments including pharmaceutical compounds and medical devices.  Mr. Charles successfully completed the Westlink Technology Commercialization Internship Program and was employed at the University-Industry Liaison Office at the University of British Columbia.  He earned his Masters degree in Immunology and Microbiology from the University of Western Ontario.