Our Team

Ms. Butts is a lawyer, entrepreneur, and a seasoned executive with a strong track record in driving positive change and growth within leading organizations. Currently, Ms. Butts serves as an independent member of the Board of Directors of Canada Goose Inc.; an independent member of the Board of Directors of Aphria Inc.; Chair of The Walrus Foundation Board of Directors; and as a member of the Board of Governors and Audit Committee of the University of Windsor. She also holds several Board Advisory roles including with Bayshore Home Healthcare. Previously, Ms. Butts served as Chief Executive Officer of Rise Asset Development and Senior Vice‐President of Operations and Redevelopment at Mount Sinai Hospital. Jodi received a Master’s degree in Canadian History from the University of Toronto, is a graduate of the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law, and was called to the Bar in 2000.

Kevin Roy is an accomplished financial executive with experience in senior roles, providing principled leadership, strategic thinking, and financial discipline to growing organizations.

With FirstService Corporation (TSX, NASDAQ: FSV) for more than 20 years, Kevin served primarily as Chief Financial Officer of the FirstService Brands division, working with executive management and platform leaders to drive growing businesses and achieve strong financial results. He started his career with FirstService as Director, Corporate Development. Previously he was a member of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Mergers & Acquisitions advisory team and audit and accounting group. Kevin is currently focused on consulting, project engagements, and board work.

Kevin holds a Commerce degree from the University of Windsor and received his CPA, CA designation in 1997.

Fraser Macdonald is a corporate lawyer and public affairs consultant based in Toronto. Fraser has provided advice to blue-chip clients across three continents. Specializing in banking and finance law, Fraser has worked at top-tier international law firms in Toronto, Australia and London, UK. He has a deep understanding of the regulatory landscape for financial institutions and other businesses both within Canada and internationally. He is currently a Vice President at a leading boutique government relations consultancy firm in Toronto.

Fraser holds a B.A. (Hons) in History from Queen’s University and a Juris Doctor (with Honours) from Bond University.

Perry Tsergas has worked in the world of Canadian politics, advocacy and communications for over two decades. He is the co-founder, President & CEO of spark*advocacy, an Ottawa-based public affairs marketing and communications firm. Perry has partnered with hundreds of start-ups, corporations, associations, unions, charities, NGOs and coalitions on communications initiatives of all shapes and sizes. Over the years he has been involved in supporting dozens of health, pharma/biotech and wellness related clients, and has taken a keen interest in how innovation can improve the health outcomes of Canadians.

Dr. Slassi was the Founder, President and Chief Scientific Officer of Fluorinov Pharma Inc. acquired by Trillium Therapeutics (NASDQ: TRIL) in January 2016, and Scientific co-Founder of Mindset Pharma Inc. (CSE: MSET). Dr. Slassi has over 30 years of experience in the successful identification and development of drug candidates across multiple therapeutic areas including Neurology, Psychiatry, Oncology, Immunology and Gastro-intestinal. Prior to Mindset, Dr. Slassi was Senior Vice President of Drug Discovery Research at Trillium; Director and Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry - Manufacturing & Drug Development at NPS Pharmaceuticals (NSDAQ: NPSP) and Cascade Therapeutics, respectively, and earlier he held management and scientific positions at Allelix Biopharmaceuticals Inc. (TSE: ALX) and Bio-Mega/Boehringer Ingelheim Research Inc.. During his career he has been involved in numerous multinational R&D collaborations including with Hoechst AG (Sanofi-Aventis), AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Forest Laboratories, GlaxoSmithKline, Memory Pharmaceuticals and Shire Pharmaceuticals. For seven years, he served on the steering committee for the multinational collaboration on the metabotropic Glutamate Receptors (mGluRs) program between NPS Pharma and AstraZeneca. He has a strong track record of drug development with over 24 drug candidates advanced into late-stage preclinical and clinical development & Market. Dr. Slassi has extensive experience in the areas of intellectual property management and scientific operations. He is an inventor with over 130 issued and published patents and patent applications, and author of more than 65 scientific and review articles published in international peer reviewed journals. Dr. Slassi holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Claude Bernard, Lyon, France and completed his postdoctoral work in the Chemistry Department at the University of Montreal, Canada.

Harriet de Wit, PhD, is Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Chicago. She has studied the behavioral and neurobiological effects of psychoactive drugs in human volunteers for the past 40 years. Dr. de Wit received her BA from the University of Calgary, and her PhD in Experimental Psychology at Concordia University in 1981. She has trained numerous graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and undergraduates, and published over 300 papers. She serves on editorial boards of several scientific journals and she is a consultant to the Food and Drug Administration. She has received several awards for her research, including the Distinguished Achievement Award of the European Behavioural Pharmacology Society (2019), the John F. Lemieux Medal Distinguished Alumni Award, Concordia University (2020) and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Research Society on Alcoholism (2020).