Gail Garland
Alumni
Gail Garland is the founder and CEO of Ontario Bioscience Innovation Organization (OBIO), a not-for-profit, membership-based organization championing the development of an integrated health innovation economy for Ontario.
Gail established OBIO in partnership with dozens of like-minded industry CEOs to advance the goal of making Ontario into a world-leading health innovation sector where health science companies will flourish, as well as a global leader in providing health technology products and services to the international marketplace.
Since 2009, OBIO has developed and implemented a province-wide strategic vision called OBEST (Ontario Bioscience Economic Strategy Team). Building from that strategy, OBIO published a series of white papers – in collaboration with industry executives, health system leaders, and academics – that identify the highest priority issues facing Ontario’s health science economy, like access to capital, access to industry-ready business talent, and innovation adoption. OBIO’s reports led directly to the establishment of OBIO solutions-focused programming, like CAAP® (Capital Access Advisory Program) in 2013 to increase deal flow for high potential early stage companies, Pre-CAAP in 2015 to help boost investability of seed stage companies, and H2BB™, the Health to Business Bridge™ internship program in 2016, which combines OBIO’s deep-rooted relationships across academia and industry to improve access to industry-ready business talent.
Gail serves on the Dean’s Advisory Council, Faculty of Science, at Ryerson University; the Biotechnology Advisory Committee at Humber College; the Canadian Life Sciences Advisory Counsel for Springboard Enterprises; and the Advisory Board for the Centre for Bioengineering and Biotechnology, University of Waterloo. Gail is the Industry Chair of the OBIO MPP Health Sciences Caucus and serves on the Conference Board of Canada’s Council for Innovation Procurement in Healthcare. She has advocated for the future of the health science industry on national television (Business News Network) and has also written extensively on the topic, with numerous publications in both the national press (The Globe and Mail) and international industry publications (Biotechnology Focus).
Before starting OBIO, Gail had more than twenty years of industry experience, including senior roles in banking, pharmaceuticals, biotech and in the medical devices sector. Gail holds a Chartered Director (CDir) designation in governance (McMaster), an MBA from the Rotman School of Management (University of Toronto), and a BSc. (Carleton University). Gail is a recipient of the Arbor Award for Exceptional Volunteer Service to the University of Toronto and in 2017 she was named one of Carleton University’s seventy-five best graduates in celebration of the school’s 75th anniversary.
Source: http://www.obio.ca/obio-governance/
Gail is an alumni representative on the Board of Governors and was elected for a two-year term commencing July 1, 2018 and ending June 30, 2020. Gail was re-appointed as an alumni representative for an additional two-year term, ending on June 30, 2022.
Committees:
- Audit & Risk
- Advancement & University Relations
- Board Representative on Senate