Chair
President and Chief Executive Officer at IRICoR
Montreal, QC
Elizabeth Douville is the President and Chief Executive Officer of IRICoR, a non-profit organization based at the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC). IRICoR is a hub for the commercialization and maturation of academic drug discovery research at the Université de Montréal.
IRICoR’s mandate is to accelerate the discovery, development and commercialization of novel, highly innovative new therapies in cancer and rare diseases by establishing strategic partnerships with industry and spin-off companies. Since its creation in 2008, IRICoR has become an important actor in the Quebec life sciences ecosystem, mitigating and de-risking early-stage academic assets in the field of drug discovery.
Prior to her role at IRICoR, Elizabeth was the Founder and Managing Partner of AmorChem, a leading early-stage venture capital fund focusing on academic innovation and translating it into early-stage biotech companies. As a venture capitalist with more than 25 years of life sciences investment experience, she has raised and managed funds, sourced, led and overseen several investments in biotech companies and promising university technologies. She has also successfully created several spin-off companies that have raised capital or partnered with pharmaceutical companies. Elizabeth is an active participant in the life sciences ecosystem and several not-for-profit organisations, as the chair of Genome Canada, a member of the Canada Foundation for Innovation and a member of the Policy Engagement Committee of Research Canada. She is also an active board member of Corbin Therapeutics Inc. and SemaThera Inc.
Elizabeth trained as a biochemist, obtaining her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Ottawa and a post-doctoral fellowship from the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London, UK. She also has a Certificate in Management from CIREM/HEC and a Certificate in Leadership and Leadership Abilities from the Leadership Institute. More recently, she received the ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors.