Dr Mario Thomas

Dr Mario Thomas has been appointed managing director of the Centre for Commercialization of Research (CCR), a Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR) managed by the Ontario Centres of Excellence. Thomas is an experienced tech executive and venture capitalist with particular expertise in integrating business and science to underpin corporate growth. Past positions include co-founder, president and CEO of EntoMed (France), president and CEO of Vancouver-based TerraGen Discovery Inc and more recently VP and partner at T2C2/Bio Venture Capital in Montreal. He holds a PhD in chemistry and a BSc from Laval Univ and a diploma in business administration from École des Haute Études Commerciales at the Univ of Montreal….

Dr Raphael (Rafi) Hofstein has been appointed president and CEO of MaRS Innovation, replacing Dr Ilsa Treurnicht who has served as president and CEO since 2004. Hofstein comes to MaRS from Jerusalem-based Hadasit Ltd — the tech transfer arm of the Hadassah Medical Organization — where he was president and CEO since 1999. He was previously president of Mindsense Biosystems Ltd and VP business development for Ecogen Inc, a subsidiary of Monsanto in Langhorne PA. A co-founder of the Israeli Life Science Industry Organization, Hofstein holds a PhD and MSc in life sciences and chemistry from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot Israel and a BSc in chemistry and physics from Hebrew Univ in Jerusalem….