DEUTSCH
Board of Directors
Allan Yap, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Rosanna Chau, M Comm, FCPA (HK), FCPA (Aust), CGA, Director
Johann F. Tergesen, MBA, CA, President and Chief Operating Officer
Stuart Macgregor, B.Sc., MBA,Director
Richard O'C. Whittall, Director
Paul Westdal, M.Sc., P.Ag., Director
Lawrence Wang, Ph.D., FRSC, Director
Lorne Tyrrell, MD, Ph.D., Director
Alan Chan, BA, Director
Allan Yap, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Yap has over 27 years experience in finance, investment and banking. Dr. Yap was the President and a director of Burcon Group Limited from June 1998 to July 2007, a private company which is involved in real estate and other investments. Dr. Yap obtained his Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Victoria in 2001. Dr. Yap is the Chairman of Hanny Holdings Limited, an executive director of Wing On Travel (Holdings) Limited and See Corporation Limited, all of which are companies whose shares are listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. He is the chairman and chief executive officer of China Enterprises Limited, a company whose shares are traded on the OTC Securities Market in the United States. He is the executive chairman of PSC Corporation Ltd., Intraco Limited and Tat Seng Packaging Group Ltd., all of which are companies whose shares are listed on the Singapore Exchange Limited. He is also the chairman of MRI Holdings Limited, a company whose shares are listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.
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Rosanna Chau, M Comm, FCPA (HK), FCPA (Aust), CGA, Director
Ms. Chau has over twenty-six years' experience in international corporate management and finance, holds a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in commerce, and is a fellow member of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the CPA Australia and a member of the Certified General Accountant's Association of Canada. She is the Deputy Chairman and Managing Director of ITC Corporation Limited, a company with interests in a diverse portfolio of businesses, the shares of which are listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Ms. Chau was also a director of Oxford Properties Group Inc. (July 1995 to October 2001).
Johann F. Tergesen, MBA, CA, President and Chief Operating Officer
Mr. Tergesen is one of the founding shareholders of Burcon Capital Corp., which acquired B.M.W. Canola Inc., in October of 1999 and subsequently changed its name to Burcon NutraScience Corporation. Prior to his role as president and C.O.O. of Burcon NutraScience, Mr. Tergesen was vice president and treasurer of Burcon Properties Limited, a real estate development and ownership company with assets in excess of $3.0 billion. Mr. Tergesen has been with the Burcon group of companies since December of 1995. Prior to that, he was a manager in the corporate finance group of the Vancouver office of Coopers & Lybrand, Chartered Accountants. Mr. Tergesen holds a B.A. in economics from the University of Winnipeg and an M.B.A. from McGill University, and is a member of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants.
Stuart Macgregor, Director
Mr. MacGregor has over 30 years of investment banking and financial management experience. Currently he is President of MacGregor Equities Inc., a private investment management partnership with a focus on private equity investments. Previously Mr. MacGregor was a partner of Polar Capital Corporation, a Toronto-based investment partnership firm engaged in the management of hedge fund and merchant banking operations. Mr. MacGregor has held a number of senior financial management positions at The Loewen Group Inc. during the company's early growth phase and prior to that he was a partner active in investment banking at Loewen, Ondaatje, McCutcheon & Company Ltd. and an investment analyst at Burns Fry and the Bank of Montreal.
Mr. MacGregor holds degrees from the University of British Columbia (B.Sc. - 1975) and the University of Western Ontario (M.B.A. - 1979).
Richard O'C. Whittall, Director
Mr. Whittall is a partner of Watershed Capital Partners Inc., an investment banking firm based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Over the past 22 years, Mr. Whittall has participated in a diverse range of corporate activities, including mergers and acquisitions and the completion of several major corporate financings in Canada. He currently serves as a director on the boards of several public companies and is a member of the Investment Committee of the Vancouver Foundation. Mr. Whittall holds degrees from University of British Columbia and University of Cambridge. back to top
Paul Westdal, M.Sc., P.Ag., Director
Mr. Westdal is a founder of B.M.W. Canola Inc.,
the Manitoba based company that developed the technology acquired by Burcon
NutraScience Corporation in October 1999.Mr. Westdal is a professional agrologist, belonging to the Agricultural
Institute of Canada.He is President of
Agri-Tec International, a consortium of grain industry construction companies
based in Winnipeg.Mr. Westdal was
previously the Director of Marketing for the Canadian International Grains
Institute and the Manager of the London, UK office of the Canadian Wheat
Board.Mr. Westdal has over 31 years of
experience marketing and developing sales of agricultural products around the
world.Mr. Westdal holds Bachelor of
Arts and Master of Science degrees from the University of Manitoba.
Lawrence Wang, Ph.D., FRSC, Director
After an extensive teaching and research career, Dr. Wang
retired in 2005 and became Professor Emeritus in the Department of Biological
Sciences at the University of Alberta. Dr. Wang undertook his graduate studies
in the United States and finished his Masters degree in Biology at Rice
University, Houston, Texas, and his Ph. D. degree in Animal Physiology at
Cornell University in Ithaca, New York in the 1960’s.
Dr. Wang’s research involved energy and fat metabolism and the enhancement of cold tolerance in man, hibernation and hypothermia, and the influence of herbs (e.g. ginseng) on learning and memory, aging, exercise, and obesity.His publications include five patents, five edited books, and over 150 original scientific research papers and reviews.He is the inventor of the Canadian Cold Buster bar and the Access bar, a patented, technology-transferred product based on his 18 years of research on energy and fat metabolism. This “fat-conversion activity bar” is currently being marketed in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea and the United Kingdom.
Throughout his career, Dr. Wang has received numerous awards including the Innovative Technology of the Year, Alberta Science and Technology Leadership Award (1992), the Gordon Royal Maybee Award from the Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology (1992), Elected Fellow, Academy of Sciences, Royal Society of Canada (FRSC, 1993), the highest honor achievable by any academics in Canada and the Friendship Award, Government of China, for service to eco-rehabilitation and poverty alleviation in rural China (2006) to name a few.
Lorne Tyrrell, MD, Ph.D., Director
D.
Lorne Tyrrell is the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR)/Glaxo
SmithKline Chair in Virology in the Department of Medical Microbiology and
Immunology at the University of Alberta. Since 1986, he has focused his
research on viral hepatitis. Supported by CIHR and Glaxo Canada, Dr. Tyrrell’s
work on the development of antiviral therapy resulted in the licensing of the
first oral antiviral agent to treat chronic hepatitis B infection – lamivudine
– in 1998. Today, lamivudine is licensed in over 200 countries worldwide for
the treatment of Hepatitis B Virus.Dr. Tyrrell was Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry from 1994-2004 at the University of Alberta. Since leaving the Deanship in 2004, Dr. Tyrrell has taken on a number of important positions in healthcare in Alberta and in Canada. These include the Chair of the Board of the Institute of Health Economics and the Chair of the Board of the Health Quality Council of Alberta. He served seven years on the Medical Advisory Board of the Canada Gairdner International Awards and is currently the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Gairdner Foundation. The Canada Gairdner International Awards recognizes excellence in medical science research globally. Of the previous Gairdner Foundation awardees, 73 subsequently won the Nobel Prize. Dr. Tyrrell is a member of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research – Research Council. He has served on the Alberta Life Sciences Institute and Alberta Sciences Advisory Authority. He is currently on the Advisory Council for the University of Alberta, Faculty of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences. This latter appointment evolved from his background and interests in agriculture, nutrition and health.
For his studies on viral hepatitis, Dr. Tyrrell holds 22 international patents. He has received numerous prestigious awards including the Gold Medal of the Canadian Liver Foundation (2000), the Alberta Order of Excellence (2000), Officer of the Order of Canada (2002), Fellow of the Royal Society (2004), FNG Starr Award of the Canadian Medical Association (2004), and the Principal Award of the Manning Awards Foundation (2005). He has served on the boards of several biotech companies and has experience with integrating a company’s intellectual property with product research and development, and commercialization. In April 2010, D. Lorne Tyrrell has been appointed as the inaugural director of the Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology at the University of Alberta.
Alan Chan, BA, Director
Alan Chan is an executive director of ITC Corporation
Limited and ITC Properties Group Ltd., both of Hong Kong. At ITC Corporation Limited, Mr. Chan has
focused on the sourcing, negotiations and valuation of venture capital deals in
various sectors including technology in the U.S. and Korea, natural resources
and commodities opportunities in China, hospitality in Greater China and
Southeast Asia, public and private corporate finance transactions, as well as
business development and strategy for the group's hospitality business. At ITC Properties Group Ltd., Mr. Chan has
been involved with due diligence, negotiations, investment, sourcing as well as
master planning and design of commercial, hospitality and residential
projects. In addition, he is the lead
executive director developing new policies for green and sustainable
development practices throughout the group. Prior to joining ITC, Mr. Chan worked in the Investment Banking Division
of the Goldman Sachs Group with a focus on capital raising, mergers &
acquisitions and strategic advisory for financial institutions in Greater China
and Southeast Asia with transactions ranging from US$500 m. to US$5.6 bn.
Mr. Chan is a graduate of Duke University and is active in various organizations, including the Bisagni Environmental Enterprise (BEE Inc.) and the YElites Group in Hong Kong.
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