About Us

Management

Brian E. Jahns, PharmD

President& CEO

Dr. Brian Jahns is an accomplished senior executive whose extensive experience spans healthcare, pharma and biotech, mature organizations and start-ups. During his career, Brian fulfilled progressive clinical and business roles at Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. He then went on to become Senior Vice President, Commercial and Business Development of Trillium Therapeutics (NASDAQ/TSX:TRIL), consulted or worked for a several pre-clinical and clinical stage companies, and ultimately joined Vasomune as President and Chief Operating Officer, and was later promoted to Chief Executive Officer. Prior to joining pharma, Dr. Jahns completed a Doctorate in Pharmacy, a Fellowship in Clinical Toxicology at University of Illinois & Cook County Hospital, and was Boarded as a Diplomate of the American Board of Applied Toxicology.

Harold Kim, PhD

Vice-President, Research & Scientific Affairs

Dr. Harold Kim has been instrumental in the development of Vasomune’s lead candidate AV-001 from bench to bedside. With 20 years experience in academia and industry, Dr. Kim has dedicated most of his scientific career to bringing AV-001 to the clinic. Dr. Kim completed his undergraduate degree at Western University and received his PhD from McMaster University in Molecular Biology, Genetics, and Cancer. He has published on vascular biology, host response, and cancer cell signaling, and has patented work describing novel methods of drug delivery into the cerebrovascular circulation. Dr. Kim was a Research Fellow with the late Dr. Daniel Dumont, discoverer of the Tie2 receptor, at the Sunnybrook Research Institute.

Gosia Hodgson, CPA, CA

Vice-President, Finance

Gosia Hodgson brings a strong background in finance, administration, and intellectual property management. A dynamic finance leader with over 13 years of experience across a variety of industries including biotechnology, IP management and public accounting. Gosia is an astute technical accountant (USGAAP, IFRS, ASPE, PSAS) who thrives in fast paced environments that require innovative thinking and adaptability. Having worked most recently with the Triphase Accelerator Corp., and Klondike BioPharma, Ms. Hodgson has experience in closing more than $500M in capital transactions, ten licensing deals and one exit. Vasomune is confident that her determination, technical capability, and leadership will help propel that organization toward success.

Shahid Ahmad, PMP

Vice-President, Operations & Planning

Shahid Ahmad is a certified PMP with over 20 years of experience in Operations and Supply Chain Management and multiple successful project and process implementations across operations, quality, and regulatory systems at several life science companies. Shahid joined Vasomune in 2019 and led the filing of the company’s pivotal IND, managed NRC-IRAP grant and SRED funding, and was instrumental in obtaining US DOD CDMRP funding worth ~$10M including post-grant commitments and scale up manufacturing, enabling transition of Vasomune to a clinical stage company. 

 

 

Board of Directors

Niclas Stiernholm, PhD

Chairman

Dr. Niclas Stiernholm has decades of executive experience in the biotechnology industry, most recently as President and Chief Executive Officer of Trillium Therapeutics. Under his direction and leadership Trillium grew from one to 65 employees, raised over $200 million in the capital markets, and transitioned from a discovery-based academic spin-out venture to a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company, listed on both Nasdaq and the Toronto Stock Exchange. Dr. Stiernholm joined Trillium from YM BioSciences where he was Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer when the company successfully completed its Initial Public Offering in 2002. In the past Dr. Stiernholm has served on numerous corporate, scientific and non-profit boards. He received his Ph.D. in immunology from the University of Toronto, where he also completed his postdoctoral training.


Raphael Ronen, MSc, CFA

Director

Mr. Ronen has over 17 years in the medical device industry, with wide-ranging experience in business development and commercialization including product development, financing, technology assessment, licensing, and IP management. For the past 10 years, he has had increasing managerial positions in technology transfer and business development with various worldrenowned academic institutions including MaRS Innovation, University of Toronto, and Robarts Research Institute. Most recently, he serves as Director, Business Development at Sunnybrook Research Institute. Raphael has also held senior management and advisory positions within several emerging Canadian image guided therapy companies, including FUS Instruments and Harmonic Medical. Throughout his career, Raphael has raised more than $55M in grants for commercialization activities for several industry and academic partners across Canada including the previous FedDev TDP and ICP awards to SRI, bringing together 28 industry and academic partners to advance IGT technologies. Raphael holds a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation, an M.Sc. in Medical Biophysics from the University of Western Ontario, and a B.Sc. in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo.

Prakash Gowd, MBA, C.Dir.

Director

Prakash Gowd joined TIAP in January 2024 as Vice President and took on the role of Interim President & CEO in April 2026.

An accomplished healthcare and life sciences executive, Prakash brings over 25 years of diverse experience across biopharma, capital markets, and entrepreneurship. His track record spans private and public companies, startups and large corporations, and different business models, healthcare verticals and emerging sectors.  As a leader and strategist, he has held responsibility for people, P&Ls, financing, licensing, M&A, and go-public leadership.

Prior to TIAP, Prakash was Chief Operating Officer and Head of Corporate Development at a mental health and psychedelic medicine company, where he led the development of a clinic network, took the company public, managed U.S. operations, and oversaw acquisitions and the eventual sale of the business.  Previously, as co-founder of a health technology company focused on individualized treatment strategies in a newly regulated market, he helped build the team, launch the product, and guide the company through to acquisition.

Prakash is also an experienced capital markets professional, having served in senior biotech equity research and investment banking roles at CIBC World Markets, National Bank Financial, and Canaccord Capital.  The foundation of his career was built over many years in commercial operations and new product development in the pharmaceutical industry.

Prakash serves on the boards of BioSyent (RX-TSXV), Appili Therapeutics (APLI-TSX) and HDAX Therapeutics (private), and has previously served as Director at FendX Technologies and Isotechnika Pharma (now Aurinia Pharmaceuticals). He holds an MBA from McGill University, degrees in Pharmacy and Zoology from the University of British Columbia, and is a Chartered Director.

Advisory Board

Carolyn S. Calfee, MD, MAS

Carolyn S. Calfee, MD MAS is Professor of Medicine and Anesthesia at the University of California, San Francisco, where she attends in the intensive care units. She completed her undergraduate studies at Yale University and medical school at University of Pennsylvania before coming to UCSF for her residency, chief residency, and fellowship training, as well as her Master’s in Clinical Research. Her primary academic focus is the pathogenesis and treatment of the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Her areas of research interest include molecular subphenotypes of ARDS and precision medicine in critical care; the role of environmental exposures including smoking, air pollution, and novel tobacco products in susceptibility to lung injury; and novel treatments for ARDS.

Eddie Fan, PhD, MD, FRCPC

Dr. Eddy Fan is an Associate Professor in the Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care Medicine and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto and a Staff Intensivist at the University Health Network/Mount Sinai Hospital.  Dr. Fan received his undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto, his medical degree from the University of Western Ontario and a PhD in Clinical Investigation from Johns Hopkins University. He is currently the Medical Director of the Extracorporeal Life Support Program at the Toronto General Hospital.  Dr. Fan’s research has focused on advanced life support for acute respiratory failure and patient outcomes from critical illness.

Dana McClintock, MD

Dana McClintock, MD – Dr. McClintock is the Chief Medical Officer of Alladapt Immunotherapeutics, Inc., a role she has held since 2018. Prior to joining Alladapt, Dr. McClintock was Global Head of Innovation for Immunology, Infectious Disease and Ophthalmology, at Genentech/Roche. Prior to this position, Dr. McClintock held roles of increasing responsibility at Genentech/Roche, including Global Head of Pipeline and Portfolio Planning for Immunology, Infectious Disease and Ophthalmology, as well as Interim Global Co-Head of Ophthalmology. Earlier in Dr. McClintock’s pharmaceutical career, she was deeply involved in respiratory, immunology and ophthalmology clinical development activities across a range of phases, from IND-enabling work and early clinical trials through post-marketing commitments and medical affairs activities. Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. McClintock’s academic research focus was in ARDS, with publications evaluating ventilator parameters as well plasma biomarkers of epithelial and endothelial cell injury. Dr. McClintock received a BA in Chemistry from Duke University and an MD from the University of Virginia. Dr. McClintock completed her training in Internal Medicine and Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, both at the UCSF.

Ivor S. Douglas, MD, FCCP, FRCP (UK)

Ivor S. Douglas, MD, FCCP, FRCP (UK) Professor of Medicine, is Chief of the Division of Pulmonary Sciences and Critical Medicine at Denver Health Medical Center and the Director of the Medical Intensive Care Unit. He is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado, Denver. He completed medical school in South Africa and Internal Medicine Residency training in London, Great Britain. He moved to the University of Chicago in 1994 and completed pulmonary and critical care fellowship training and achieved Board Certification. Dr. Douglas is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and the American College of Chest Physicians. Dr. Douglas is an NIH, DOD and industry-funded principle investigator for ongoing investigations in several aspects of clinical critical care including acute lung injury, sepsis, metabolic disturbances in critical illness, ventilator-associated pneumonia, the contribution of alcohol intoxication and withdrawal in critical illness and therapeutic strategies for sedation and delirium in the critically ill. Dr. Douglas is co-investigator for the NIH-funded Prevention and Early Treatment of Acute Lung Injury and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Network (PETAL).