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Our Investment Team

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  Ross Bricker, President & CEO

  rbricker@avacltd.com full contact info

  Ross is the President and CEO of AVAC Ltd, and has over 25 years of experience working with and investing both in early stage technology companies and in the agriculture and food industry. His background is a unique blend of corporate and venture finance, fund-of-fund investing, strategic business planning, industry development and policy, and molecular biology research. Ross has served as a director for a number of early stage companies and not-for-profit organizations, and is currently a director with the CVCA and BioAlberta as well as several private firms. He is also an active partner in the family farm and ranch operation near Calgary. Most recently, Ross chaired the CVCA annual conference this past May. Ross is a professional agrologist with a B.Sc., Agriculture from the University of Alberta and an MBA from the University of Regina.
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  Mark Carlson, Vice President, Investment

  mcarlson@avacltd.com full contact info

  Mark has conducted operational work and strategic planning for emerging technology companies over the past 10 years, with a special emphasis in venture capital investment, corporate finance and valuation. In all cases, investments were early stage extending through the software, life science, agriculture and manufacturing sectors. Mark holds an MBA, is an avid runner and has comprehensive, hands-on knowledge of irrigated crop and cow-calf production based on his southern Alberta farm up-bringing.
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  Wendy Lam, Senior Investment Manager

  wlam@avacltd.com full contact info

  Dr. Wendy Lam is a highly motivated scientist and manager with an entrepreneurial approach. With a 20 year track record of supporting innovation in university, government and industry environments, Dr. Lam has focused on building research collaborations, enhancing technology transfer and commercialization, facilitating partnerships and managing high performance teams. Dr. Lam has applied this experiences and skills at Alberta Ingenuity, University of Alberta, Western Economic Diversification and Natural Resources Canada. Wendy has a Ph. D. in physical chemistry from the University of Alberta and a BSc. in chemistry from the University of Western Ontario.
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  Jacques LaPointe, Senior Investment Manager

  jlapointe@avacltd.com full contact info

  Jacques has a strong history of launching and managing innovative technology products into global markets. Jacques has over 15 years of Product Management, Marketing, Business Development, Operations and Technical experience predominantly in the mobile software, telecommunications products and engineering consulting with companies such as Zi Corporation, Nortel Networks, Interalia, QSound Labs and private engineering. In addition, Jacques also had the unique opportunity to work for the 1988 Calgary Olympic Organizing Committee as a planner. Jacques has a Masters Degree in Business and Bachelor of Science in Engineering with a Professional Engineering designation. Jacques joined AVAC in January 2008.
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  Peggy LeSueur, Senior Investment Manager

  plesueur@avacltd.com full contact info

  Peggy is an innovative Professional Agrologist with 25 years of diversified experience in the agriculture, food and energy industries. Her career has focused on achieving corporate growth via new business development, marketing and facilitation. Peggy has held senior positions in marketing and operations within the grain, beef and food sectors and in addition, has consulted to pre-commercial emerging companies. Over her career, Peggy has been responsible for on-time, on-budget delivery of a number of business projects. Peggy served as a Board member on Alberta's Agriculture and Food Council for 6 years. Born and raised in Alberta, Peggy holds both a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Agriculture from the University of Guelph. Peggy joined AVAC in February 2009.
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  Jim Hardin, Investment Manager

  jhardin@avacltd.com full contact info

  Dr. Hardin joined AVAC as an investment manager in September of 2006. Prior to coming to AVAC, Jim spent over 13 years in academics and the biotechnology industry. Jim has a B.Sc. in Zoology and a Ph.D. in Gastrointestinal Physiology and brings a broad background in life sciences to the organization. He has published over 100 patents, book chapters, full articles and abstracts in the area of gastrointestinal physiology and animal models of infectious disease, thus lending an extensive background in life sciences to AVAC.
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  Craig Urton, Investment Manager

  curton@avacltd.com full contact info

  Craig joined AVAC in May 2006 as an investment manager for new and enhanced food products. Craig has a B.Sc. in Agriculture and an MBA from the University of Saskatchewan . His educational background was further developed into practical applications through a two-year technology commercialization internship where he participated in the commercialization and marketing of early stage agricultural science research. Within this internship, Craig worked with a research institution technology transfer office, venture capital firm, and SME (Small to Medium sized Enterprise). Upon completion of the internship program, Craig's professional track continued in the life science industry where he worked with a nutraceutical/functional food start-up company and a clinical research organization.
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  Martin Vetter, Investment Manager

  mvetter@avacltd.com full contact info

  Martin joined AVAC in November 2008, and brings a strong background in product planning and commercialization to AVAC’s Investment Manager team. Martin has over 15 years in Product Management and related roles with a number of companies including Acceleware, Hemisphere GPS, Novatel Wireless and Nortel; in high performance computing, GPS and telecommunications industries; and addressing market needs such as reducing time for RF product development, asset tracking, and mobile data communications. Martin has Bachelor of Electrical Engineering and Masters of Business Administration degrees.