To ensure the success of the MIF program, it is crucial to ensure that the awarding of fund is handled in a fair and impartial manner. This is why we have reached out to one of McGill University's greatest assets: our alumni. Many graduates from McGIll have gone on to success as entrepreneurs, and in a variety of domains. This experience will provide a frame of reference to enable a clear decision on which projects are likely to succeed.
The Selection Committee will evaluate the applications received and select recipients for the three tiers. Each member of the Selection Committee has been chosen due to their expertise in entrepreneurship, finance, law, marketing, and/or experience implementing innovative projects.
Once projects have been assessed in a first phase by the MIF team, selected projects will be invited to make a pitch to the Selection Committee on December 9, 2021. This will be an important opportunity to make your appeal to committee members, and explain why your project deserves funding.
Selection Committee members
The McGill Innovation Fund is honoured to have the participation of the following McGill alumni as members of the Selection Committee.
Blastoff
Majd Bakar (BEng’94, MEng’97)
Majd Bakar is Vice President and head of Engineering for Fitbit at Google, leading Google’s efforts in health and fitness. He joined the Fitbit team post acquisition in January 2021. Before that, Majd co-founded and led engineering for Stadia at Google, the cloud game streaming service announced and launched in 2019.
Majd joined Google in 2011 to look at the interaction model for consumer devices in the home. He initiated and launched the Chromecast as part of this effort, bridging the Phone and the TV to build a simple and intuitive user experience leveraging the touch screen interface of smart phones. Later on, he led the engineering teams responsible for Google WiFi and Google Home, both of which launched in 2016. His work on these eventually moved to launch Project Stream in 2018, which was the public Beta trial of what is now known as Stadia.
Prior to joining Google, Majd held senior leadership roles at Microsoft XBox unit as the lead architect for its IPTV Mediaroom platform, a service used by major telcos worldwide to deliver TV services over their IP networks. Earlier in his career, Majd led development for a number of technical projects at Nortel.
Majd is a native of Syria and grew up in Montreal, Canada. He earned a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering and a master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering, both from McGill University in Montreal. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and children. In his free time, he enjoys playing the piano and rowing.
Ariel Deckelbaum (Chair, BA’93, BCL’98, LLB’98)
Mr. Deckelbaum is a partner at Paul Weiss in NYC, where he is a deputy chair of the Corporate Department, a member of the Mergers and Acquisitions Group and the firm’s Management Committee.
Mr. Deckelbaum is recognized as a leading M&A lawyer by Chambers USA and Chambers Global. He was recognized in Variety’s 2018 “Legal Impact Report”, and previously in its 2016 “Dealmakers Impact Report”, which both spotlight the top lawyers in the entertainment industry. He has been named by BTI Consulting Group Inc. as a "Client Service All-Star”, an award that identifies attorneys that are “not just great – but head and shoulders above the rest as defined solely by clients.” In 2015, Mr. Deckelbaum was one of only 11 attorneys named a Mergers & Acquisitions MVP by Law360. In 2010, he was named one of Crain’s NY Business’s “40 under 40”, a list of a “dynamic group of New Yorkers who have excelled in their respective fields.”
Mr. Deckelbaum is the Chair of the McGill University Advisory Board – U.S., is a member of the Faculty Advisory Board for the Faculty of Law, and has been a guest teacher in the Faculty. He is a loyal supporter of the University.
Mr. Deckelbaum is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Japan Society, a former Board Chair of the Lawyers Alliance, an organization that enables lawyers to provide pro bono services to nonprofits and community organizations, and was a founding member of the Board of Directors of New Classrooms, a non-profit that strives to bring personalized learning to students.
Mr. Deckelbaum and his wife Cathy (BA’93) met at McGill. The couple has two children and lives in New York City.
Kristine M. Di Bacco (LLB’98)
Kristine is a Partner at Fenwick & West LLP where she represents emerging technology companies primarily in the consumer internet, e-commerce, fintech, digital health, consumer hardware and software sectors. Kristine also represents and advises leading incubators, strategic investors and venture capitalists investing in technology companies.
Kristine focuses on a broad range of corporate transactional matters, including the formation of new startup companies, venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, and public offerings. She provides clients with practical and thoughtful advice to help solve their business and legal issues, and assists clients in structuring, negotiating and closing business transactions quickly and effectively.
Kristine holds a B.A. in Political Science from Western University, an LL.B. from McGill University’s Faculty of Law and an MBA from Cornell University.
Willie Heller (BCom'78)
Willie has over 30 years of experience in both conventional and renewable energy. Prior to co-founding Organic Waste Logistics, he was Chief Executive Officer of Tamar Energy, the UK’s largest anaerobic digestion company, where he focused on constructing new plants, plant operations and feedstock acquisition.
Previously, Willie was Chief Executive and founder of Falck Renewables Wind and developed over 700 MW of projects across Europe. Under his leadership the company became the largest independent wind power developer in the UK.
From 1996 to 2002, Willie held several senior management positions with Edison International and its subsidiaries, including Chief Executive of Edison Mission Energy, and Senior Vice President of Edison International.
He began his career with McKinsey & Company as a consultant in the energy practice in Houston. He worked in the firm’s London office as Partner and, later in Los Angeles as Partner and Energy Practice Leader. Willie holds a B.Com, Finance (Hons) from McGill University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Willie currently serves on the following boards:
- Board of Directors, ADBA (Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association)
- Principal's International Advisory Board, McGill University
- Faculty Advisory Board, Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University
Avak Kahvejian (BSc’97, PhD’04)
Avak Kahvejian, Ph.D. is a life sciences inventor, entrepreneur, and CEO. Since 2011, he has been a partner at Flagship Pioneering, where he leads a team to invent and launch new therapeutic platforms. His work has led to the creation of multiple high-value public and private companies including Seres Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MCRB); the first microbiome therapy platform; Rubius Therapeutics (NASDAQ: RUBY); developing Red Cell Therapeutics, engineered red blood cells capable of providing potent and prolonged therapy for rare diseases, cancer, and autoimmunity; Codiak BioSciences (developing engineered exosome therapeutics as cancer treatments); Cygnal Therapeutics (pioneering new drugs that target neuronal pathways for the treatment of cancer, and autoimmune/inflammation disorders); Ring Therapeutics (revolutionizing gene therapy with its commensal virome platform); Cellarity (designing medicines against the cell as opposed to a single molecular target); Laronde (pioneering endless RNA – eRNA™ – a new class of programmable medicines capable of expressing therapeutic proteins inside the body); and Generate Biomedicines (pioneering Generative Biology™ to create breakthrough medicines).
Prior to Flagship, Avak was Vice President of Business Development at Helicos BioSciences. In this role, he developed and commercialized the world’s first single molecule DNA sequencer.
Avak serves on the board of the International Institute of New England, an institution which creates opportunities for refugees and immigrants to succeed through resettlement, education, career advancement and pathways to citizenship. From 2014 to 2020, he served on the board of the Canadian Entrepreneurs of New England, an organization dedicated to assisting Canadian entrepreneurs build ties with the Boston life sciences and technology ecosystems.
Avak earned his Ph.D. and B.Sc. in Biochemistry from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
Craig Shepherd(LLB’96)
M. Craig Shepherd is a Senior Managing Director in the Blackstone Life Sciences group and a member of its Investment Committee. Since joining Blackstone in New York in 2017, Mr. Shepherd has played a leadership role in Blackstone’s acquisition of Clarus, Blackstone’s $2 billion investment with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, and Blackstone’s $330 million investment with Harmony Biosciences, among other initiatives.
Prior to Blackstone, Mr. Shepherd was a Managing Director and a member of the Investment Committee at DRI Capital, a life sciences private equity firm dedicated to the acquisition of pharmaceutical royalties through its managed funds Drug Royalty I, II and III. He joined DRI from Amgen where he held roles of progressive responsibility at Amgen’s global HQ in California and its international HQ in Switzerland.
Mr. Shepherd holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, a law degree from McGill University, and a BA from the University of Western Ontario. Mr. Shepherd is a member of the Healthcare Advisory Board of the Partnership Fund for New York City and a member of the McGill University Chancellor’s Advisory Board.
Peter Sherk (BA'87)
Peter Sherk currently serves on the board of Wabash Valley Resources, a development company in which he has personally invested and is actively involved. The Wabash project involves the repurposing of an existing Gasifier complex, which formerly operated as a IGCC, into a large scale producer of Carbon Free Hydrogen, achieved by becoming the country’s largest C02 sequestration project, sequestering 1.6 million tons of CO2 per year into permanent underground storage. While still in the development stage, this innovative project has attracted attention from major oil companies, environmental organizations, the international clean hydrogen industry as well as green energy investors.
Prior to focusing his efforts on this project, Peter was CEO Americas for Mercuria Energy Trading, a global physical commodity trading and investments house, based in Geneva, with offices in Greenwich, Houston, Denver, Calgary and Mexico City.
Before joining Mercuria, Peter spent 17 years at Morgan Stanley in the Commodities Division, as a natural gas derivatives trader, Managing Director and Head of North American Natural Gas trading, then Head of the Natural Gas and Power group and ultimately served as Global Co-head of the Commodities Division and Senior Managing Director on the Global Institutional Securities Management Team.
Peter also worked for 5 years at CIBC Capital Markets in both Toronto and New York in the Commodities Trading group, and before that, spent 8 years in various roles at Imperial Oil in Toronto.
Peter graduated with an Honors BA Degree in Economics at McGill in 1987, and graduated from Upper Canada College in Toronto in 1984.
He currently resides in Westport Connecticut with his wife Paula, and they have two sons, one a software engineer and recent graduate of New York University, and the other a junior at Northwestern University. They spend much of their time in Whistler and in Muskoka to keep their Canadian roots well nourished.
Lewis Tepper (BA '92)
Lewis is a Principal of Aston Partners, LLC, an investment partnership focused primarily on early-stage companies in the medical device, pharmaceutical, healthcare IT, Food Tech and Ag Tech sectors. Mr. Tepper is currently a member of the Board of Directors of RedDress Ltd and Amai Proteins Ltd. From 2004 to 2014, Mr. Tepper served as Chief Operating Officer, General Counsel and a member of the Board of Directors of DAVA Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately-held generic pharmaceuticals company. Prior to his time at DAVA, Mr. Tepper was a member of the Healthcare investment Banking Group at Credit Suisse First Boston and a corporate tax associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.
Mr. Tepper is currently a member of the McGill University Advisory Board – U.S., a lecturer at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Children’s Rights, a not-for-profit organization that uses the law to hold governments accountable and defends the hundreds of thousands of kids failed by America’s child welfare systems.
Mr. Tepper holds a J.D. from New York University School of Law and a B.A. in Economics from McGill University (’92).
Launchpad
Bobbi Bidochka (BA '11)
Bobbi is the founder of imagine ideation, Author and Venture Associate for TandemLaunch (Canada’s premium tech incubator). Bobbi recruits aspiring tech entrepreneurs and assists portfolio companies to raise venture capital funding. Bobbi is the resident Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion advocate, she created and runs the Young Women’s Tech Leadership Program and the Social Entrepreneurship Program at TandemLaunch. Bobbi is the co-founder of WIN4Science at McGill University, set to encourage women to remain in science and academia. Bobbi advises startups, mentors entrepreneurs and is a Board Member of Champions for Life.
Claude Theoret (PhD '01)
Claude is the founder and CEO of X Machina AI. In 2007 he founded and exited Nexalogy, one of Montreal’s first AI companies and has been part of management in public companies since 2017. A former Astrophysicist he forged his technical skill set at the inception of big data and the web. While working with CERN he built his first website in 1994.
He played an active role in the birth and growth of Québec’s startup ecosystem. He is one of the top 40 startup mentors in the worldwide Founder Institute network. In 2019 he was COO of Intema Solutions Inc ($ITM.V) and engineered a growth by acquisition strategy. Claude has done deep AI driven political and military intelligence work and has a “secret” level clearance with the CAF.
Pre-launch
Jeremy Lawson (BEng '04)
Jeremy Lawson is a Partner at Robic LLP. He is an engineer and Patent Agent in Canada and the United States. He provides patent counsel with a tailored approach to businesses of all shapes and sizes, handling a wide range of technologies with a speciality in chemical engineering. Jeremy’s practice is focused on the drafting and prosecution of patent and design applications, managing patent portfolios in Canada and abroad, preparing opinions on patentability, validity, and infringement, as well as providing strategic counsel for pre-grant and post-grant patent challenges. Jeremy also regularly conducts clearance opinions and broader due diligence for patent and design matters. Jeremy has considerable expertise in certain industries and technical areas, including waste management, water and soil treatment, oil and gas, biofuels, oil sands processing, mining, medical devices, consumer products, materials, and reactor engineering. He provides experienced patent counsel to universities, start-ups, SMEs and large corporations. Jeremy is a registered patent agent in Canada and in the United States.
