Executive Leadership Team

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Brian Carothers

Vice President and General Manager, Advanced Manufacturing Partnerships Division, Agilent
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Whitney Herd

Vice President of Business Development, Sales, and Marketing
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Andrew Mitchell

Associate Vice President of Business Development
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Normand Blais

AVP, Product Development
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Scott Doncaster

Vice President, Strategic Projects
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Valana Deighan

General Counsel
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Kelly

Kelly Merical

Agilent, Associate VP, Finance
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Anil Palaha

Anil Palaha

VP/GM, Advanced Manufacturing Partnerships Division, Agilent
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Operations Leadership Team

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Mark Wellman

Vice President and General Manager, Complex Chemistry Operations

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Jeff Lay

Associate Vice President AMPD – Quality and Regulatory

 
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Sean McCluskey

Vice President IT
& Digitalization

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issam

Issam Ismaili

Associate Vice President  Operations (Windsor, NS)

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Erfan Asif

Erfan Asif

Associate VP, Quality

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Alex Joseph

Alex Joseph

Associate Vice President, Engineering & Maintenance

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Brian Carothers - Vice President and General Manager, Nucleic Acid Solutions Division, Agilent

  • Bio coming soon!

Whitney Herd – Vice President of Business Development, Sales, and Marketing

  • MBA, George Washington University; B.Sc. in Biology, University of Tennessee
  • Over 25 years of global leadership experience across biologics, vaccines, medical devices, and diagnostic instrumentation
  • Former senior commercial leader with Underwriters Laboratories and Grifols, directing business development and marketing for global life sciences portfolios
  • Brings deep expertise in strategic partnerships, global client engagement, and integrated commercial solutions for regulated manufacturing environments
  • Based in Northern Virginia and supporting customers worldwide

Andrew Mitchell - Associate Vice President of Business Development

  • Joined BioVectra in 2017 as the European Business Development Manager
  • Promoted to BioVectra’s Senior Director, Business Development in 2020
  • 30 years of experience in the global pharmaceutical & fine chemical area
  • Experience in synthesis, and fermentation covering both CDMO and Generics industries
  • Worked with a number of organizations, with various specialized capabilities such as large scale chromatography, energetic chemistry, biocatalysis, high containment & microbial fermentation of small molecules

Normand Blais– Chief Science Officer

  • 20+ years at GSK leading work on multiple vaccine programs
  • Recently held positions in industry include: Senior Director (Function Head) Protein Biochemistry; Director Antigen Design & Prototype Production; and, Lab Head, Antigen Design and Protein Characterization.
  • Key areas of expertise are:
    • Vaccinology and technical development of Biologics
    • Recombinant protein expression systems and purification
    • Viral Vectors, mRNA vaccines, Bacterial outer membrane vesicles production
    • Protein Engineering and Structural Biology
    • Leveraging and interpreting protein biophysical attributes and analytics
  • Post graduate studies in Functional Genomics (Université Laval) and Bioinformatics (MIT); M.Sc. Microbiology and Immunology (Laval).
  • 25+ Patent Applications & 5 Scientific Publications

Scott Doncaster - Vice President, Manufacturing, Technology & Engineering

  • B.Sc. in Biochemistry from Mount Allison University in 1990.
  • Worked towards a Masters program in Biochemistry at Queens University from 1991-1994.
  • Worked for the Hunter Group in Aurora, Ontario from 1994-1995 in developing and supervising high purity solvent distillation processes.
  • Joined BIOVECTRA in 1995, supervising the enzyme and natural products bioextraction processes.
  • Promoted to Operations Manager in 2000 and served in that position until 2003.
  • Served as capital project manager for the BIOVECTRA API facility in 2001-2002.
  • Took the position as Director of Operations for Atlantis BioActives in 2003 to oversee the capital installation, start-up and commercial extraction process for natural taxanes.
  • Promoted to Director of Manufacturing for BIOVECTRA in 2005.
  • Appointed to Vice President, Manufacturing Technologies & Engineering in 2014.

Valana Deighan - General Counsel

  • B.Sc. Degree from University of Prince Edward Island (2001).
  • LL.B. from University of New Brunswick (2004).
  • Admitted to Prince Edward Island Bar (2005).
  • Joined BIOVECTRA in 2005 as Associate General Counsel.
  • Appointed General Counsel in 2011.
  • Responsible for legal and corporate matters.

Kelly Merical - Agilent, Associate VP, Finance

  • 25+ years’ experience in Agilent finance supporting various division and service organizations
  • Finance Director of Agilent’s CDMO Oligonucleotide division for 13 years through period of explosive growth and greenfield expansion
  • P&L responsibility and partner to executive team in developing long term strategies
  • Compliance, revenue recognition and integration lead
  • MBA from Duke University

Anil Palaha – VP/GM, Advanced Manufacturing Partnerships Division, Agilent

  • Over 25 years of global senior leadership experience in manufacturing operations, supply chain, and commercial management
  • Former General Manager at Catalent Pharma Solutions, overseeing multi-site operations with full P&L responsibility
  • Led major operational, quality, and efficiency improvements supporting biopharma and pharma customers worldwide
  • Previous executive roles with Roswell Textiles, Flex Ltd., and other multinational organizations, supporting large-scale manufacturing, technology transfer, and customer program execution
  • Brings extensive experience partnering with global life sciences companies to deliver reliable, high-quality manufacturing outcomes
  • Based in Canada and overseeing BIOVECTRA operations across Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island

Mark Wellman - Vice President and General Manager, Complex Chemistry Operations

  • M.Sc. Degree from Memorial University of Newfoundland in 1996.
  • Over 20 years experience with BIOVECTRA over which time he has contributed as a team member towards the development of fine chemicals, advanced intermediates, and active pharmaceutical ingredients.
  • Held the positions of Research Scientist (1996), Product Manager (2001), Custom Synthesis Project Manager (2003) and Manufacturing Manager, Special Projects (2005). He has participated or successfully led several API manufacturing projects to completion.
  • Promoted to Director of Biotech Operations in 2009.
  • Appointed to Vice President, Manufacturing in 2014.
  • Appointed to Vice President & General Manager, Complex Chemistry in 2020.

Jeff Lay - Associate Vice President AMPD – Quality and Regulatory

  • Coming soon

Sean McCluskey - Vice President IT & Digitization

  • Electronics Engineering (Yorkville University)
  • Over 30 years of Experience in IT and Digital Product Development and Digital Platform Operations with Leading Canadian Media Brands
  • Over Twenty Years of Leadership Experience in IT Systems Development & Adoption
  • Specialization in Operational and Organizational Transformation and Digital Platform Development
  • SME Entrepreneur

Issam Ismaili - Associate Vice President Operations (Windsor, NS)

  • M.S. in Biotechnology, University of Wisconsin–Madison
  • Nearly 20 years of experience in biomanufacturing operations and production leadership at WuXi Advanced Therapies, Lonza, Catalent, and Roche
  • Experienced in advanced manufacturing across cell and gene therapy, mRNA, monoclonal antibodies, microbial fermentation, and viral vector platforms
  • Brings a proven track record of operational excellence and customer delivery in global CDMO environments
  • Fluent in English, French, and Arabic

Erfan Asif – Associate Vice President Quality/Regulatory

  • Appointed as Associate Vice President Quality/Regulatory in Biovectra in 2025.
  • Ph. D Degree in Pharmacognosy from University of Karachi and Heidelberg University, Germany in 1994.
  • 30 years of experience in Pharmaceutical Industry in leadership role with Abbott Labs, MSD, Apotex, Ciba Vision, Pharmaceutical Solutions Industry, Sanofi etc.
  • Worked in different capacity as QA Manager (Abbott Labs) 1994, QC Manager (MSD) 1997, Validation Manager (Ciba Vision Sterile Mfg.) 2004, Quality Operations Head (PSI, Jeddah) 2012, Senior Technical Consultant (Sanofi) 2015.

Alex Joseph – Associate Vice President, Engineering & Maintenance

  • Licensed professional engineer with more than 30 years of leadership experience in engineering, maintenance, and operations within regulated pharmaceutical and manufacturing environments
  • Former senior engineering leader at Trillium Healthcare Products, where he directed the company’s largest capital investment program and expanded manufacturing capacity by 50%
  • Proven track record delivering reliable, compliant, and efficient facility operations, including maintaining a 100% compliance record across multiple regulatory inspections
  • Experienced in building lean, operations-focused maintenance organizations that improve equipment uptime, reliability, and production continuity
  • Brings deep expertise supporting large-scale infrastructure, capital projects, and technical operations for global pharma and biotech customers
  • Based in Canada and leading engineering and maintenance across BIOVECTRA’s eight facilities in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island

SEO plus – Test

  • 20+ years at GSK, leading R&D activities on multiple vaccine programs
  • Recently held positions in industry include: Senior Director (Function Head), Protein Biochemistry; Director, Antigen Design & Prototype Production; and, Associate Director, Antigen Design and Protein Characterization.
  • Key areas of expertise are:
    • Process development of protein Biologics/Recombinant Antigens
    • Recombinant protein expression (mammalian, insect, yeast, bacterial)
    • Production/design of Viral Vectors, mRNA vaccines, Bacterial outer membrane vesicles
    • Protein Engineering and Structural Biology
    • Defining quality attributes, biophysical characterization of proteins, and analytical strategy
  • Post graduate degrees in Functional Genomics (Université Laval) and Bioinformatics (MIT); M. Sc. Microbiology and Immunology (Laval).
  • 25+ Patent & 5 Scientific Publications