My Backstory

My parents immigrated to Canada from India with almost nothing to their names to pursue a better education and life. My father landed in 1979 to complete a PhD in Molecular Biology at Carleton University and an MBA at the University of Ottawa and my mother followed shortly after. My mother was born with severe asthma, and with no access to effective treatments at the time, she was told for most of her upbringing that she likely wouldn’t live a normal life. Against all odds, she persevered and put herself through medical school and eventually secured a residency position at the University of Ottawa. Fast forward to today, my father recently retired from his position as Manager of Infectious Diseases in Health Canada’s drug approvals division after nearly 35 years (and approved a cure Sovaldi/Harvoni for Hepatitis C which Lumira had a hand in), and my mother continues to practice as a child psychiatrist with The Royal. Goes without saying, my parents are my role models.

My affinity and appreciation for medical innovation are simple and very personal. Like my mother, I was born with severe asthma that put me in the ER on three separate occasions, and one time in particular I am told I almost didn’t make it. But today, mine and my mother’s asthma are now under control in large part due to innovative therapies, dubbed ‘miracles’ by my mother whose only option as a child was to simply wait out her attacks. This is how I learned medical innovations can truly change lives and today I hope to help advance new ‘miracles’ for patients in need.

I began my education at McGill University intent on becoming a doctor to help patients, but eventually concluded I could make a bigger impact pursuing this through business. After 4 years at ZS consulting for big pharma and another 3 with DRI Capital acquiring healthcare royalty streams, I wanted to be closer to innovation and as a proud Canadian I wanted to do that here at home. At the end of 2018, just before leaving for an MBA program at INSEAD, I reached out to Lumira to understand what opportunities would be available to me after graduating. After being inspired by Lumira’s mission, I decided to forego my start date (and a sizeable deposit) to apply to Lumira – the rest is history!

What Drives Me Today

Unfortunately, I’ve lost people close to me for a variety of reasons: prostate cancer, atrial fibrillation/heart failure, mental health, and degenerative genetic conditions. I have had others whose quality of life has been impacted in living with their conditions or helping family members live with theirs: asthma, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and dementia, macular degeneration, etc. My list goes on and I imagine everyone has a list of their own.

As healthcare venture capitalists, we are in the fortunate position of being able to influence which potential life-saving treatments get funded and advanced to patients. However, this opportunity also comes with a significant responsibility to do right by the patients we hope to serve while treating those we work with fairly along the way. It is our duty to ensure these treatments are both safe and effective for patients and that our companies are operating with strong ethics and integrity.