David Chang, MASc, PhD - Chief Executive Officer
David Chang has over 15 years' experience managing SMEs, bringing products to market in the emerging field of metabolomics. He has a Masters of Applied Science at the University of Waterloo and a PhD in Chemical and Materials Engineering at the University of Alberta, where he was first involved in the early discoveries of using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance for metabolomics. He has applied his expertise in signal processing, multivariate statistics and modelling to leading-edge biomarker diagnostic applications.David also holds an appointment as an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Alberta. Before joining MTI in 2015, Dr. Chang was with Chenomx Inc., where he developed and managed business operations.
Haili Wang, MD - Co-Founder and Medical Director
Dr. Haili Wang is a colorectal surgeon and Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta Hospital. She also holds an MSc. in Clinical Epidemiology from the University of Alberta, where her expertise in colorectal cancer led her to the discovery of novel urine diagnostics for improved colorectal cancer screening. Dr. Wang has numerous scientific publications in the area of metabolomics and colorectal cancer surgery.
Kevin Ens, B.Sc. - Chief Operating Officer
Kevin Ens has over 30 years of strategic and operational management experience in biotechnology and biopharma. Kevin has broad expertise in the development and launch of medical devices, with C-level management experience in operations and the commercialization of medical devices, including business development and resolving supply chain, manufacturing and regulatory issues. He has worked in both North America and Europe. Before joining MTI in 2019, Kevin was CEO of a medical device startup.
Lu Deng, PhD - Vice President, Product Development
Dr. Lu Deng, PhD, has over 10 years' experience in the field of metabolomics and mass spectrometry. She holds both a PhD in Chemistry and a Certificate in Management (CIM) from the University of Alberta. Before joining MTI, Dr. Deng worked as a post-doctoral fellow at The Metabolomics Innovation Centre, where she applied her expertise in metabolomics, mass spectrometry, method development and validation to biomarker discovery. Dr. Deng received the Mitacs & National Research Council-IRAP Award for Commercialization in 2016 to recognize her outstanding work on developing a clinically scalable urine test for the detection of colorectal cancer.
Jean Forsythe, BA - Vice President, Corporate Development
Jean Forsythe has extensive experience in project management and business development in industry and academia. Before joining MTI, Jean was a Campaign Coordinator for development at Stanford University. She has a BA from the University of British Columbia.
Ashley Xia, BPhm, MSc - Research Associate
Ashley Xia has more than nine years experience in analytical chemistry, specializing in mass spectrometry, metabolomics, and data analysis. She has a MSc. from the University of Alberta, and a Bachelor of Pharmacy Science from Shenyang Pharmaceutical University. Ashley previously worked at the Metabolomics Innovation Center and in QA/QC with Labs-Mart Inc., a Canadian analytical testing company.
Kat Ismond, MSc, MLIS - Manager, Special Projects
Kat Ismond is an information specialist, with over ten years experience providing scientific writing and editing support, and experience in knowledge translation. She has a MSc in Library Science from the University of Alberta and a MSc and BA from Carleton University in Canada.
Gail Riehl - Administrative Assistant
Gail Riehl has over 10 years of experience as a legal assistant in insurance law. She is also an experienced event planner and organizer with various charities.
Randy Yatscoff - Board Chair
Dr. Randy Yatscoff is the former Executive Vice-President of Business Development for TEC Edmonton, a business service provider and incubator. Prior to joining TEC Edmonton, Randy was CEO and President of the drug development company Isotechnika, raising over $200M in equity financing. He has over ten years’ experience as a biotech executive. Randy was the national recipient of the 2016 Startup Canada Adam Chowaniec Lifetime Achievement Award. In an earlier lifetime, Dr. Yatscoff was an accomplished academic, a full professor and researcher at several Canadian universities. In total, he holds more than 20 patents.
