Prof. Ronald Li is a co-founder of Novoheart, and has been serving as the CEO since 2016. He is concurrently Director of Ming-Wai Lau Centre for Reparative Medicine, HK node, Karolinska Institutet (KI), Sweden. Prof. Li has been an advocate of stem cell technology for many years, starting from his career as Assistant Professor of Cardiology, and Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) School of Medicine. He founded and led the Human Embryonic Stem Cell Consortium when he was recruited in 2005 to become a tenured Associate Professor at the University of California, Davis, in light of state’s USD3-billion stem cell initiative Proposition 71. Prof. Li also co-directed the Section of Cardiovascular Cell & Tissue Engineering in Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai with Prof. Kevin Costa. Prof. Li has received multiple accolades and recognitions during his career, including the Spirit of Hong Kong Innovating for Good Award by the South China Morning Post (2015), the Top Young Faculty Award (2002, 2004), the Top Prize for the Young Investigator Basic Research (2001) and Top Postdoctoral Fellow Helen Taussig Award (2001) of JHU School of Medicine, Young Investigator Award 1^st Prize from the Heart Rhythm Society (2002), and the Career Development Award from the Cardiac Arrhythmias Research & Education Foundation (2001). Prof. Li graduated with his B.S. with honors in Biotechnology from University of Waterloo, Ontario, on Dean’s List and his Ph.D. in Cardiology/Physiology at the University of Toronto.

Prof. Costa is one of the scientific co-founders of Novoheart, and has served as the CSO since 2017. He is Director of Cardiovascular Cell and Tissue Engineering at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, and was previously trained at the Johns Hopkins University and on the faculty as Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University. As a "blue-blood" biomedical engineering (BME) expert (B.S. and M.S. in BME from Boston University, Ph.D. in BME from UC San Diego, and postdocs in BME from JHU and Washington University) in cell and tissue biomechanics and cardiac tissue engineering, he has developed one of the first engineered cardiac tissue systems and is an inventor of several cardiac tissue engineering technologies. Since 2009, he has been working with Prof. Ronald Li to translate such systems into human cells. Prof. Costa has received research funding from the Whitaker Foundation, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH; NHLBI, NIBIB, and NIGMS). He was also a recipient of the prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the NSF.

Dr. Camie Chan joined Novoheart Hong Kong as the Chief Operating Officer in 2016, after having served as the Deputy Director of the Faculty of Medicine Core Facility at HKU, a founding member of the Management Committee of the Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine Consortium (SCRMC), and Assistant Professor in the Department of Anatomy between 2010 and 2016. She has had extensive experience managing laboratory operations in her capacity at HKU, and her prior career as Assistant Professor at the University of California, Davis, and Assistant Investigator at the Shriners Hospital for Children. Dr. Chan is also a co-inventor of technology allowing mass production of human ventricular heart cells from pluripotent stem cells.

Dr. Chan graduated with her B.Sc. with honors at the University of Waterloo and subsequently obtained her M.Sc. degree in Medical Sciences and Ph.D. degree in Immunology at the University of Toronto, Canada. She then completed her postdoctoral training at the Sydney Kimmel Cancer Research Center at Johns Hopkins University. She has garnered numerous awards in her career, including the prestigious National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Developmental Research Grant Award.

Dr. Bernard Fermini joined Novoheart as Chief Research & Development Officer in 2018. Dr. Fermini has been a leading figure and expert in cardiac safety pharmacology for over two decades. Prior to joining Novoheart, Dr. Fermini was Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President of Safety & Toxicology Assessment at Coyne Scientific. Previously, he spent 17 years at Pfizer Inc., where he held positions of increasing responsibilities including Co-chair of the Global Safety Pharmacology Department and subsequently Head of the Ion Channel discipline. Prior to joining Pfizer, he held senior scientific positions at Merck, and the Montreal Heart Institute.

Dr. Fermini received a B.S. in Physiology from the University of Montreal, and a Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of Sherbrooke (Canada); he completed his post-doctoral training at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. He has authored >50 scientific publications, and has been a guest lecturer at MIT and the University of Connecticut. 

Dr. Fermini brings his substantial expertise in safety pharmacology to complement Novoheart’s scientific team’s strengths in stem cell and tissue engineering. Since 2013, Dr. Fermini has been the Co-chairman of the Ion Channel Working Group of the Comprehensive in vitro Proarrhythmia Assay (CiPA) initiative headed by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). As Co-chairman, his responsibilities include overseeing the research into identifying next-generation in vitro screening methods for effective detection of potential drug-induced cardiac arrhythmias before clinical trials. Dr. Fermini is also a Board Member on the CiPA Steering Committee and committee member of the Safety Pharmacology Society, as well as an active member of Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI) Cardiac Safety Committee and the Society of Toxicology.

Dr. Bill A. Williams joined Novoheart as Senior Vice President of Commercial Operations in 2018. He previously served as Vice President, Global Sales, Marketing and Business Development at Organovo Inc., a provider of 3D Bioprinted tissue models. During his time there, he successfully drove a 25-fold increase in annual revenue in two years. Prior to his work with Organovo, Dr. Williams was Vice President, Global Sales and Marketing at Aushon Biosystems where he provided a structured sales approach and content-centric marketing program that resulted in a 160 percent growth in testing services and 100 percent year-over-year growth in consumable sales. Dr. Williams’ successful leadership in the life science industry started after receiving his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from Texas A&M University. He has applied 20 years of commercial experience to exceptional team performance, relationship management, and profits. Dr. Williams will lead sales, marketing, and business development at Novoheart, including the MyHeart^TM Platform of human bioengineered heart tissues.

Dr. Gabriel Wong obtained both his B.A. and Ph.D degrees at the University of Cambridge, U.K., the latter under the supervision of Dr. Michael Hastings at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, studying mammalian cellular circadian rhythms. He underwent his first postdoctoral training at the Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, followed by joining the laboratory of Prof. Ronald Li and Dr. Camie Chan at the University of Hong Kong in 2013, where his primary research interest was the role of autophagy as a stress coping mechanism in the human heart, using human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes as an in vitro model. He acquired during this experience the training and expertise in the field of cardiac tissue engineering. He joined Novoheart in 2015, where he serves as V.P. Scientific Development managing the research team in the application of the MyHeart^TM platform of cardiac tissue constructs in drug screening projects.

Dr. Camie Chan joined Novoheart Hong Kong as the Chief Operating Officer in 2016, after having served as the Deputy Director of the Faculty of Medicine Core Facility at HKU, a founding member of the Management Committee of the Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine Consortium (SCRMC), and Assistant Professor in the Department of Anatomy between 2010 and 2016. She has had extensive experience managing laboratory operations in her capacity at HKU, and her prior career as Assistant Professor at the University of California, Davis, and Assistant Investigator at the Shriners Hospital for Children. Dr. Chan is also a co-inventor of technology allowing mass production of human ventricular heart cells from pluripotent stem cells.

Dr. Chan graduated with her B.Sc. with honors at the University of Waterloo and subsequently obtained her M.Sc. degree in Medical Sciences and Ph.D. degree in Immunology at the University of Toronto, Canada. She then completed her postdoctoral training at the Sydney Kimmel Cancer Research Center at Johns Hopkins University. She has garnered numerous awards in her career, including the prestigious National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Developmental Research Grant Award.

Mr. Chang is a seasoned investor who has lately become focused on start-ups. Mr. Chang started his career with Lippo Securities Limited in 1996 and became a Director of Grand International Holdings Limited in 1999, which was engaged in general investments. During the period from 2007 to 2009, he was a Director and Responsible Officer for Astrum Capital Management Limited carrying out regulated activities under the Securities and Futures Ordinance (“SFO”, Cap. 571, Laws of Hong Kong) and with Murtsa Capital Partners Limited as well. During the period from 2007 to 2012, he was also a compliance consultant for Astrum Capital Management Limited. As co-founder and Managing Director of Zebra Strategic Outsource Solution, he has over 16 years of experience in recruitment process outsourcing, executive search as well as and private investment management. In April 2013, he successfully brought Zebra Strategic Holdings Limited  which offers holistic HR solutions to IPO on the HK GEM board (Stock Code: 8260) and was re-designated as and is currently a Non-Executive Director with the company. He is currently a Director and Responsible Officer of Dakin Financial Group, a corporation licensed to carry out type 1, 2 & 9 regulated activities under the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Ordinance.

As a key founder and visionary for Grand Power Logistics Group Inc. (a company previously listed on the TSXV before its privatization in 2016) and Baoshinn International Express Ltd., Mr. Chiu brings in-depth corporate development and growth experience to the Company's board of directors. He received his education in Oxford University, England, and Beijing University, and began his career in Australia. He has a diversified background in a wide range of industries with roles in finance, audit, real estate, merchandise trading and travel, as well as logistics.

Prof. Ronald Li is a co-founder of Novoheart, and has been serving as the CEO since 2016. He is concurrently Director of Ming-Wai Lau Centre for Reparative Medicine, HK node, Karolinska Institutet (KI), Sweden. Prof. Li has been an advocate of stem cell technology for many years, starting from his career as Assistant Professor of Cardiology, and Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) School of Medicine. He founded and led the Human Embryonic Stem Cell Consortium when he was recruited in 2005 to become a tenured Associate Professor at the University of California, Davis, in light of state’s USD3-billion stem cell initiative Proposition 71. Prof. Li also co-directed the Section of Cardiovascular Cell & Tissue Engineering in Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai with Prof. Kevin Costa. Prof. Li has received multiple accolades and recognitions during his career, including the Spirit of Hong Kong Innovating for Good Award by the South China Morning Post (2015), the Top Young Faculty Award (2002, 2004), the Top Prize for the Young Investigator Basic Research (2001) and Top Postdoctoral Fellow Helen Taussig Award (2001) of JHU School of Medicine, Young Investigator Award 1^st Prize from the Heart Rhythm Society (2002), and the Career Development Award from the Cardiac Arrhythmias Research & Education Foundation (2001). Prof. Li graduated with his B.S. with honors in Biotechnology from University of Waterloo, Ontario, on Dean’s List and his Ph.D. in Cardiology/Physiology at the University of Toronto.

As a 30-year technology industry veteran, Mr. Ma was the CEO of Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks before he retired in July 2016. He held senior executive positions within the information and communications technology sector. His past roles include president for Asia-Pacific at British Telecom, vice-president for Asia at the global telecom solutions sector of Motorola, executive director of Hong Kong Telecommunications – subsequently called Cable & Wireless HKT – and managing director of Hong Kong Telecom CSL. Ma holds an MBA from the University of Toronto and is a fellow member of both the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, UK and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, UK.  He is also a Certified Management Accountant of Canada.

Mr. Topham was an audit partner leading KPMG's Technology Group in the Vancouver office for 20 years, where he worked with many fast growing public companies and was involved in many mergers and acquisitions as well as initial public offering transactions in Canada, the US and Europe. Mr. Topham founded Social Venture Partners Vancouver in 2001 with a mission to strengthen the organizational capacity of innovative non-profits serving children in-need and youth at-risk. It has funded several million dollars and provided thousands of hours of executive time mentoring these local non-profits.

Since retiring at KPMG 9 years ago, Mr. Topham has served as a director on the board of several public and private technology companies, including, most recently, a 6 year tenure on the board of directors of a public telecom company - Norsat International. He is a Certified Professional Accountant and has a Bachelor of Commerce degree with Honours from the University of Saskatchewan graduating as the most distinguished graduate in the College of Commerce. He is a founder of the BC Technology Industry Association that represents the technology industry in British Columbia, and also served as a member of its board of directors for 9 years. For his career achievements in the profession and community, Mr. Topham was awarded the designation of Fellow Chartered Public Accountant from the Chartered Public Accountants of British Columbia, as well as a lifetime achievement award from the BC Technology Industry Association.