Our Team
Directors and Officers
Tyler Powell
Chief Executive Officer & DirectorTyler Powell is an experienced entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience in the financial services sector. As a leader, Tyler identifies areas with substantial unmet need and builds collaborative teams with diverse experience that believe in the mission.
Tyler has deep expertise in venture capital, initial public offerings, secondary financings, mergers and acquisitions, public vehicles, and operations as well as in media and investor relations. While running a financial services consulting company for a decade, Tyler supported promising companies with infusions of capital, management and restructuring to maximize the value of their core business.
Connect with Tyler on LinkedIn here.
Arron Victory
Chief Strategy Officer & DirectorArron Victory is a purpose-built entrepreneur, corporate strategy leader, Canadian Armed Forces Veteran and advocate with robust experience in health care, emerging therapeutics, and community engagement.
Arron is also an Ambassador for Veteran advocacy group, Wounded Warriors Canada, Board Member of the Heroic Hearts Project, a charity providing access to psychedelic therapies for Veterans, and an Advisory Board Member for the Chronic Pain Centre of Excellence, a research centre improving the understanding of Veteran-specific chronic pain and how best to manage it.
Connect with Arron on LinkedIn here.
Dr. Orion Lekos
Chief Science Officer & DirectorDr. Lekos is an industry-leading green entrepreneur and engineer, specializing in the extraction of valuable phytochemicals from plants, renewable energy, water, biomass derived chemicals, and micro-organisms.
With a PhD in Bioengineering and a master’s degree in environmental chemistry, Dr. Lekos has led global clinical trials while being instrumental in the development & design of the extractions and formulations for a top three global cannabis company. He also served as the Chief Science Officer of a biotechnology company developing poppy genetics to produce non-addictive opiate alkaloids.
Dr. Lekos also has robust experience in Technology Commercialization, Environmental Management, Life Cycle Analysis, Industrial Plant Design, Plant Commissioning, Green Chemical Design, and Good Manufacturing Practices.
Connect with Dr. Lekos on LinkedIn here.
Dr. Peter Tomlinson, MBA
Chief Technical OfficerDr. Tomlinson is a clinical development expert specializing in clinical trial and pharmaceutical commercialization strategy and four decades of health and pharmaceutical experience. With a PhD in analytical chemistry, as President of AlthoTech Consulting, Dr. Tomlinson has helped over 25 biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies develop and execute effective clinical trial strategies, Chemistry Manufacturing Controls (CMCs), Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), and other aspects of new product development.
He has worked across traditional and emerging healthcare sectors, partnering and working with leading companies such as GSK, Tilray, Aegera, Purgenesis, Ultragenyx, Sharp & Taro.
Connect with Dr. Tomlinson on LinkedIn here.
Dr. Mark Johnston, MD, FRCP
Chief Medical OfficerDr. Mark Johnston is a practicing physician, entrepreneur, and clinical researcher passionate in innovation in medical science and systems organization. He has been practicing psychiatry for over 20 years running a private network of mental health clinics focused on Veterans with special expertise in depression and PTSD. In addition to his practice, Dr. Johnston has extensive clinical trial experience. He has been the principal investigator on over 25 central nervous system clinical trials, including trials in depression, bipolar disorder, ADHD, OCD, and Alzheimer’s Dementia.
Most recently Dr. Johnston was the Medical Director of CNS Research at Centricity Clinical Trials.
Sam Isaac
Chief Financial OfficerAs a chartered accountant with a depth of experience in private equity firms, public companies’ start-ups and one of the big four accounting firms, Sam is a results-driven finance and operations executive with proven success across multiple industries.
He brings 15 years of international capital markets experience, having worked with multiple publicly traded companies, raised over $100 million in equity capital and supported go-public strategies, private placements and prospectus offerings.
He also specializes in heavily regulated sectors, having managed financial priorities in licensing acquisition for cannabis R&D, and worked with multiple organizations in technology and energy sectors.
Greg Rutherford
Chief Commercialization OfficerGreg Rutherford is a senior global pharmaceutical commercialization and marketing expert with over 25 years of proven experience in optimizing drug product lifecycles and commercial strategy.
Greg has a record of successfully optimizing treatment and drug product portfolios and launching new products globally, focused now on innovative clinical treatment approaches that address unmet medical need across multiple disease states.
His pharmaceutical and healthcare experience includes Johnson & Johnson, Roche, GSK, Lilly as well as McKesson. He currently as well offers consultive advice to a emerging therapeutics API manufacturing organization.
Dr. Enrique Carrazana
DirectorDr. Enrique Carrazana is a Harvard-trained, board-certified neurologist with over 25 years of experience in drug development and the pharmaceutical industry. He is a member of the board of directors of CND Life Sciences, Hawaii Biotech, and the American Society for Experimental Neurotherapeutics.
He currently serves as Senior Vice President, Strategic Initiatives for Neurelis, Inc., where he is responsible for the management of the drug development and safety programs. Previously, he was the Chief Medical Officer of Acorda Therapeutics. Dr. Carrazana also held various medical leadership roles at Novartis, where his last role was Vice President, Global Head Development Established Medicines Franchise, based in Basel, Switzerland.
He was Director of the Epilepsy Center of Excellence at the Miami Veterans’ Administration (VA) Hospital and Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine. He has presented and published a wide range of research on various neurology topics.
Dr. Carrazana received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School and completed his residency in neurology and fellowship in neurophysiology at the Harvard Longwood Neurology Program and is a fellow of the American Epilepsy Society.
Tom McGaugh
Director and Audit ChairAs President & CEO of Greenpoint Associates, Tom provides nearly two decades of financial accounting excellence and experience supporting start-ups, small businesses, and publicly traded companies across the globe with IPO readiness services and financial accounting support.
He has substantial experience in emerging therapeutic markets, as the former Vice President of Finance for Tilray, helping them make history by being the first cannabis company to debut on a major U.S. stock exchange. He was instrumental in getting the company ready for its IPO and proudly flew to New York City to ring the bell in July of 2018.
Jim Pakulis
DirectorJim is a seasoned executive leader and investor with over a decade of experience in emerging industries. He specializes in companies operating within sectors at the cusp of market development with potential for robust growth, focusing on lean and conservative capital structures and guiding them from ideation through to the point of execution.
Jim has experience as CEO & Director of numerous successful public & private companies across North America, raising millions in conjunction. This includes his role as the CEO of WeedMaps, taking them public in 2010 to become one of the first publicly traded cannabis companies in the US. He is the former President of a technology company focused on unique and metered dosing delivery systems of cannabis, and was founder and CEO of TransCanna, a North American cannabis company.
For Apex Labs, Jim offers his extensive sector and corporate knowledge to the executive team, along with a wide network of key funding opportunities.
Clinical Advisors
Raashid is the Senior Director of Medical Cannabis at Shoppers Drug Mart, Canada’s largest pharmacy chain. He currently heads all aspects of the medical cannabis business unit, previously holding roles in eHealth, Pharmacy Operations and Business Development at the company, helping spearhead a new pharmacy dispensing system that is currently implemented across the enterprise.
Prior to joining Shoppers Drug Mart, Raashid worked in the pharmaceutical industry at Janssen Ortho in Sales Analytics and at Eli Lilly Canada in Government and Economic Affairs. Raashid holds a pharmacy degree from the University of Toronto and is a licensed pharmacist.
Dr. Rampakakis has over 20 years of experience in scientific research, has contributed to the conception, design, analysis and interpretation of more than 100 large scale, national and international, pre-approval and observational studies, and has contributed to 8 market approvals. He is an adjunct member of the department of pediatrics of McGill University and an author on over 100 peer-reviewed publications and over 300 presentations at international conferences.
Dr. Rampakakis received his Ph.D. from the Department of Biochemistry in McGill University and the McGill Cancer Centre, and obtained post-doctoral training in Pharmacoepidemiology at McGill University and the Jewish General Hospital.
Dr. Kevin Lutz is a Registered Psychologist in BC, with more than 20 years of clinical experience in a variety of areas ranging from addictions to general mental health to forensic psychiatry. Since 2014 Dr. Lutz has focused his practice toward individual trauma treatment and the facilitation of educational and treatment group programs for trauma and PTSD clinically. Dr. Lutz has also participated in clinical research as a sub-investigator and therapist examining the effectiveness of psychedelics to support mental health since 2015, and since 2022 as a trainer internationally to therapists from around the world who are interested in delivering psychedelic psychotherapy. Currently much of Dr. Lutz’s work is dedicated to supporting military and first responder populations.
Franklin King MD is a psychiatrist at the Massachusetts General Hospital and an Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, after which he completed residency in adult psychiatry at the MGH/McLean program, followed by a fellowship in Consult Liaison Psychiatry and a research fellowship at the Cardiac Psychiatry Research Center.
Dr. King is currently the Director of Training and Education at the MGH Center for Neuroscience of Psychedelics. He is actively involved in research into psychedelic-assisted therapies, and in addition practices clinically at MGH.
Dr. Bal Kang is a highly accomplished and celebrated chemist with a distinguished career in drug development. He has a PhD in Chemistry and honed his skills with a Fellowship at the University of Oxford, one of the most renowned academic institutions in the world.
Throughout his career, Dr. Kang has worked at various pharmaceutical and biotech companies and has been instrumental in the development of new drugs for various medical conditions, including antiviral, cardiology, oncology, and anti-addiction treatments.
He has earned a reputation as a world-class scientist and has received numerous awards for his contributions to the field of chemistry. His crowning achievement came when he helped develop the first approved drug for the treatment of COVID-19 making a significant impact on the global fight against the pandemic.
Strategic Advisors
Dana Nohynek, MSc., RAC is a regulatory and clinical consultant that works with start-up and clinical stage biotech organizations to advance programs through the development pathway to market approval. Her +20 years of expertise includes regulatory strategy development and tactical execution, liaising with regulatory agencies during product development and through the marketing submission, clinical development planning, and providing regulatory perspectives for corporate strategic planning.
Dana is also the Director of Regulatory Affairs & Quality Assurance at the CIHR Canadian HIV Trials Network. She has the overall responsibility of developing regulatory strategies to support Network studies and to oversee the maintenance and compliance of quality systems.
Dana holds an M.Sc. from the University of Toronto, and a RAC certification granted by the Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society (RAPS). \She is an advisory board member to select companies and a past executive member of RAPS’ Southern B.C. chapter.
With a PhD in structural biochemistry, David Wood is the Sole Proprietor of psychedelics legal firm, R-Group Legal, and Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel to Psygen Industries Ltd. With a PhD in structural biochemistry, he has an understanding of the context that innovative operators working in psychedelics are facing. Wood has over a decade of experience practicing from a major national Canadian law firm, including four years of co-chairing the firm’s Psychedelics and Cannabis Focus Group, with valuable experience advising a wide variety of operators in the psychedelics space and the cannabis industry on intellectual property, regulatory and commercial strategies.
With over twenty-five years of studying the chemistry and biochemistry of action of psychedelics, including formal education, he provides legal and regulatory counsel rooted in a strong scientific understanding of the treatment landscape.
Bob Cross has more than 25 years of experience as a financier in complex and heavily regulated sectors.
He is a co- founder and Non-Executive Chairman of Bankers Petroleum Ltd., Non-Executive Chairman of B2Gold Corp., co-founder and Chairman of Petrodorado Energy Ltd., and until October 2007, was the Non-Executive Chairman of Northern Orion Resources Inc. with experience as the former Chief Executive Officer of Yorkton Securities and Partner, Investment Banking with Gordon Capital Corporation in Toronto.
Bob has an Engineering Degree from the University of Waterloo, and received his MBA from Harvard Business School.
Victoria Dekker is an award-winning Canadian journalist, communications strategist and public relations specialist with over 15 years’ experience in North American media and communications.
Having served Canada’s largest founding licensed cannabis producers – before, through and after full federal legalisation – Victoria brings deep passion for cognitive liberty and fair access to her approach.
Max Monahan-Ellison is a communications and corporate affairs expert specialized in complex sectors with extensive experience in internal and external communications strategy, corporate narrative and positioning and crisis planning and management. He is the founder and CEO of consulting firm, Sway Strategies, has worked across government and corporate organizations in health and life sciences, emerging therapeutics, cannabis, energy and technology.
Max serves as the Board Chair of Medical Cannabis Canada, Board Member of the Media Empathy foundation, member of the Best Medicine Coalition’s task force on rare disease, Advisor to Heroic Hearts Canada, Start-Up Coach for a Ryerson Univesity Incubator, and equity advisor to multiple healthcare companies.