Management

Dr. Howard Jarman Verrico, MD
Chief Executive Officer and Secretary – Director

Dr. Verrico obtained his medical degree from the University of Toronto in 1985 and has been a member of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia since July 1986. Dr Verrico is currently a practicing physician working in both emergency and general practice in the province of British Columbia. Dr. Verrico has served as the CEO, Secretary and a Director of Consolidated Ecoprogress Technology Inc. (an environmental technology company), a public company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange, from October 2002 to March 2004. In addition, Dr. Verrico has extensive experience as an investor in the junior capital markets providing both venture capital loans and a number of private placements. Dr. Verrico will devote approximately 35% of his time to the business and affairs of the Corporation.

Mark Senner, BSc.
President and Project Leader

Mr. Senner holds a BSc. from the University of British Columbia with additional certifications in sales and marketing leadership and management.  Mr. Senner is a Senior Business Leader with over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry with extensive experience in sales, sales operations, sales and marketing management, project management, and key account management.  Mark has built and strengthened his skills and talents through applying his expertise and expanded responsibilities both regionally and nationally in a variety of positions at Merck-Frosst Canada Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada Inc., Solvay Canada, Novartis Canada Inc. and, most recently, Biovail Canada both in Ontario and in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Dr. Bertrand Plouvier, PhD, PMP
Chief Scientist and Project Manager

Since 2007, Dr. Plouvier has been a consultant for several start-up pharmaceutical companies, one of them being Verona Phamra plc in UK. Before that, Dr. Plouvier worked with Cardiome Pharma from 1995 to 2007 and established the company’s chemistry department. He is a medicinal chemist who has discovered several pre-clinical and clinical candidates for the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias and cough over the course of his career. He was associate director of synthetic chemistry at Cardiome Pharma and contributed to the discovery and clinical development of Vernakalant, a new antiarrhythmic agent developed for the treatment of recent onset of atrial fibrillation currently pending approval by the FDA. Prior to that Dr. Plouvier worked as a post-doctoral fellow in the chemistry department of the University of Alberta. He obtained his PhD at the University of Lille, France in 1991 and a master in drug design from the Institut de Chimie Pharmaceutique de Lille, France. Dr. Plouvier is co-author of 12 publications and 6 patents. Dr. Plouvier took additional courses and obtained his certification as Project Manager Professional in March 2008. 

Christopher Hopton,CGA
Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Christopher Hopton is Sirona Biochem's Chief Financial Officer.  He brings 15 years of expertise in financial management and operations.  His extensive experience covers areas of financial planning, accounting policy and business process improvement.  As a business investment and finance consultant, Mr. Hopton has worked with several public and privately-held companies.  Most recently, Mr. Hopton was the Chief Financial Officer of Central Resources Corp., a junior mineral exploration company.  Formerly, he held the position of Division Controller at Canadian Airlines where he was responsible for an annual operating budget of $200M.  Mr. Hopton was also involved in the restructuring of 360 Networks, a network communications company, which led to a buyout by Bell Canada.  Mr. Hopton earned his Bachelor of Business Administration from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada and received his professional designation as a Certified General Accountant.