VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA – Dr. Howard Verrico reports:
Sirona Biochem Corp, formerly High Rider Capital Inc., has restructured the management team with the appointments of Mark Senner as President and Director, Christopher Hopton, CGA, as Chief Financial Officer and John Dougherty to Corporate Development. Dr. Howard Verrico will remain as Chief Executive Officer, Director and will become Corporate Secretary.
Mr. Senner brings 24 years of experience spanning key positions to support the sales and marketing of commercialized pharmaceutical products with major pharmaceutical companies in Canada. Mr. Senner joined SBC (August 2008) in the role of Senior Project Manager spearheaded the overall effort to achieve significant milestones culminating in the final approvals for the company’s Qualifying Transaction and subsequent active trading to commence May 4, 2009. Mr. Senner has lead the team through the licensing agreement with TFChem, coordination of the scientific research plan, approval of the Prospectus and Qualifying Transaction and most recent Private Placement. Mr. Senner’s experience, business acumen and knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry will be instrumental for SBC future success.
“As a physician dealing with the day to day challenges associated with Diabetes and Obesity, it is with great enthusiasm to share this project with Mark. He brings the necessary experience to lead this exciting new drug discovery program. Mark shares my vision of the enormous potential of our SGLT drug development program.” said Dr. Verrico.
SBC has appointed Mr. Christopher D. Hopton C.G.A. as Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Hopton has over 14 years of accounting experience working with private and public companies. Mr. Hopton is a hands-on, team-oriented, professional accountant with a degree in Business Administration. Currently, Mr. Hopton is CFO with Central Resources Corp. In addition to his public company experience, Mr. Hopton has over 20 active clients in the private sector. Mr. Hopton was formerly Division Controller for Canadian Airlines as well as part of the core restructuring team for 360 Networks and had a significant role in the buyout by Bell Canada.
“We are pleased to complete our team by retaining someone of such high caliber as Christopher. He will manage the financial health of Sirona Biochem to enable us to meet our important future milestones. Christopher’s extensive knowledge in finance and accounting will contribute a wealth of experience to the Company’s management team and the overall success of the project,” said Dr. Howard Verrico
The Board of Directors has accepted the resignation of Mr. Roger MacInnis as CFO, Secretary and Director to allow his pursuit of other interests. The Company wishes to thank Mr. Roger MacInnis for his services and overall contributions to Sirona Biochem Corp since the inception of the company.
John Dougherty joins the team in the role of Corporate Development & Investor Relations. Mr. Dougherty has over 30 years of experience as an investment advisor and broker in addition to a great deal of experience related to restructuring and developing businesses in the public sector.
For further information, please contact Mr. John Dougherty, Corporate Development
at (604) 641-4466 , toll free: 1-888-SIRONA1 (747-6621) or email info@sironabiochem.com .
Dr. Howard Verrico,
Chief Executive Officer
About: Mr. Mark Senner
Mark Senner is a Senior Business Leader with over 24 years of experience in sales, sales and marketing management, sales operations, project management, and key account management of commercialized pharmaceuticals. Mark has built and strengthened his skills and expertise through a variety of positions both regionally and nationally at Merck-Frosst Canada Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada Inc., Solvay Canada, Novartis Canada Inc. and, Biovail Pharmaceuticals Canada.
Through Mark’s creative and critical analysis of complex challenges and opportunities he consistently exceeded sales and overall performance measures every year through a focused, results-oriented approach. Mark achieved his goals in working through highly motivated teams that took pride in delivering organizational goals. Mark has extensive experience in leading and working through others to consistently achieve superior and positive outcomes, with particular strengths and interests in coaching, leadership, project analysis and management, teambuilding, staffing effectiveness and organizational development.
Mark enjoys a challenge, has a passion for excellence and rises to being responsible and accountable for tasks and projects with productive and meaningful outcomes. His greatest strength is having an eye for talent, surrounding himself with positive and dynamic people, attracting highly skilled, proactive, motivated, able and stable employees to build dynamic and productive sales and project teams to deliver superior results and contribute to the success of any organization or company. Mark is highly motivated, excited and very interested in applying his extensive experience to SBC. Mark makes valuable contributions in any organization through his experience, leadership and critical business analysis and creative results-oriented thinking.
Mark holds a BSc. from the University of British Columbia with additional certifications in sales and marketing leadership and management.
About: Mr. Christopher Hopton
Mr. Christopher Hopton is Professional Accountant with over with over 14 years of experience in all aspects of Financial Planning, Accounting Policy implementation and Business Process Improvement. He established Orcas Island Finance Ltd. in 1994, a business investment and consulting company with over 20 active clients in privately held and publicly traded companies. Most recently he has assumed the role of CFO for Central Resources Corp. a junior mineral exploration company that went public in September 08. Formerly he held the position of Division Controller for Canadian Airlines where he was responsible for an annual operating budget of $200M. He gained valuable experience as part of the team restructuring 360networks Inc. The conclusion of the 360networks restructuring resulted in a successful buy-out by Bell Canada.
Christopher has earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from Simon Fraser University and is a Certified Professional Accountant (CGA)
About the Company:
Sirona Biochem Corp. (SBC) is an emerging biotech company dedicated to the discovery and development of novel drug compounds. The current focus is on treatments for Type II Diabetes and Obesity. SBC has entered into a license agreement with TFChem S.A.R.L., a Drug Discovery company based in Rouen, France. TFChem licenses its technology of fluorinated carbohydrate mimics: GlycoMim®, and products in development to biotech companies. The license agreement with TFChem provides for research and development of new compounds known as S.G.L.T. inhibitors. S.G.L.T. inhibitors are a new and exciting class of compounds which have great promise and potential to treat both diabetes and obesity.