Meet Vanessa Grant. Helping biotech firms realize their business objectives through practical legal advice.
Legal life-sciences experts provide cross-disciplinary insight and practical legal advice, so biotech companies can focus on their core business of developing technology that is changing lives for the better.
Name: Vanessa Grant
Title: Partner
Organization: Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP
Expertise: 18 years experience in capital raising (public and private), mergers and acquisitions, and licensing and commercial agreements for the life sciences industry
Recognized in the Lexpert/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada 2015, Biotechnology
Background: Opera singer, loans officer, flight attendant, erstwhile entrepreneur
I am most passionate about… our clients. We work with the leading experts in life sciences in Canada and around the world and they are working to improve our lives now and in the future. It’s an honour to be able to support their efforts.
I chose a career in Biotech because… I’m an idealist… and a science nerd. I actually believe that we can make a difference.
Biggest misconception about biotech is… that it’s complex and hard to understand. It’s not. It’s exciting (and I have the leaders in their fields explaining it to me)!
I am most proud about… my clients’ achievements. It never ceases to amaze me how much my Canadian clients can do with so little.
One of my clients, Translatum Medicus Inc., led by its President, Dr. Shelley Boyd (who is herself a retina specialist who runs Canada’s only dedicated high risk dry age-related macular degeneration (dry AMD) clinic), is developing a treatment for dry AMD. While new treatments have transformed lives for people with wet AMD, the remaining 85% of patients with AMD have the dry form. And there is no treatment. In fact, AMD is referred to as a “time bomb of vision loss” by the American Academy of Ophthalmology. I’m fortunate to be able to work closely with Dr. Boyd to assist her with her vision of transforming lives not only in Canada, but around the world!
Another of my clients, MyndTec Inc., led by its Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Diana Pliura, develops innovative medical devices and therapies designed to assist people who have had a stroke who are suffering arm and hand paralysis, recover natural, voluntary movement and regain the ability to feed, dress and groom themselves independently. It is incredible to talk to the people with a stroke or spinal cord injury who MyndTec has assisted who regain hand and arm function, sometimes almost 20 years after a stroke, in situations where conventional physiotherapy has not provided meaningful improvements. Yet another example of how Canadian technology is changing our lives for the better.
Top 3 skills for any woman aspiring to lead in biotech… (a) be curious (b) be fearless (c) be yourself.
Best career-enabling activity… try to say yes the first time. You never know where that will take you.
What’s the best part about working in biotech? Working with incredibly smart people and learning something new every day… And, from a legal perspective, whether it’s understanding the science, how patent strategies affect market position, how outsourcing impacts costs, how litigation strategies affect reputation and resources, or how effectively structuring transactions mitigates risk and achieves tax and cost efficiencies, I *love* the fact that my colleagues and I get to provide the cross-disciplinary insight and practical legal advice our clients need to realize their business objectives. I’m blessed.
To women just starting in biotech I would say… Wonderful! Be prepared for the surprises you will encounter along the way, because your undergraduate degree may not take you where you thought it would. You can do anything!
Most-admired scientist: Emmy Noether, Mathematician, (1882–1935). She had to lecture under another professor’s name, and was still recognized as one of the greatest mathematicians of her generation in her lifetime. Wow.
Favourite pastimes: Volunteering; singing!
Favourite book: Le Petit Prince (“on ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur”) – “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly.”
Favourite destination: Anywhere my family is.
Newsletter Issue:
HR Microscope October 2015
