Our Leadership Team
Carolyn Cross
Carolyn Cross, MSC, CFA, MBA
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Carolyn was one of the initial founders and financial supporters of Ondine Biomedical Inc. Her corporate governance experience includes service on a number of private and public Boards and Audit and Finance Committees, including Greystone Capital Management Inc. (Regina), Canadian Foundation for Innovation (‘CFI’, Ottawa), the International Photodynamic Association, and Canadian Light Source Inc. (‘CLS’, Saskatoon), Canada’s national synchrotron light source and research facility. She served on Canada’s National Research Council (2015-2021), including on the NRC’s Departmental Audit Committee, and is a former Board Director of Canada Foundation for Innovation, a Canadian Crown Corporation.
Carolyn has over 25 years’ direct experience working with early-stage companies and 30 years’ experience with public market securities. Earlier in her career, Carolyn was responsible for managing pension, pooled, mutual and private client funds as a Vice President with Royal Bank Investment Management Inc. Carolyn is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and has an MBA from York University and an HBA from the University of Western Ontario (Western University).
In 2016, Carolyn was awarded the Meritorious Service Cross by the Governor General of Canada for her work developing photodisinfection technologies in Canada. She is also a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.
Nicolas Loebel, PhD
Nicolas Loebel, PhD
President and Chief Technology Officer
Nick leads product research and development, photochemistry, systems integration, and cross-functional engineering teams. His research focus has centered on novel photochemistries, rheological modeling of periodontal disease and tooth mobility, fiber optic waveguide propagation theory, evanescent coupling and the applications of optical fibers to interferometric sensors. He has significant experience in dental and medical product development and manufacturing, corporate management and business development in public and private market environments. Nick has authored numerous publications and patents and lectures regularly on antimicrobial photodynamics around the world. He was awarded the 2017 Clinical PDT Research Excellence Award by the International Photodynamic Association in Coimbra, Portugal.
Alan Thomas
Alan Thomas, CPA, MBA
Chief Financial Officer
Alan is a seasoned CFO with over 25 years of experience in both public and private sectors, including healthcare, biotech, and infrastructure. He has led finance and operations teams at organizations such as Maximus Canada and Aspreva Pharmaceuticals, where he drove strategic planning, organizational transformation, and capital optimization.
Alan has a strong track record of creating value through business restructuring, M&A, investor engagement, and internal process improvements. At Ondine, Alan oversees financial strategy and operations, applying his expertise in fiscal leadership, risk management, and performance optimization to support the company’s long-term growth.
Simon Sinclair
Simon Sinclair, PhD
Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Sinclair is a senior executive physician scientist with over 15 years’ pharma, MedTech and consumer healthcare industry experience, including most recently as Chief Safety Officer at Reckitt. Prior to that, Dr. Sinclair was at Johnson and Johnson Medical Devices, first as International Clinical Director, then leading Medical Affairs for its EMEA region. Dr. Sinclair led translational medicine efforts and the early clinical development of several drug candidates at Merck and Co (MSD) in the USA. Originally trained as an ophthalmologist, Dr. Sinclair holds a medical degree and a PhD in neural transplantation from the University of Cambridge.
Bill Kanz
Bill Kanz
Senior Vice President, Engineering & Operations
Bill Kanz has an impressive engineering background spanning 30+ years that includes providing design for manufacturability, process development, and design transfer services to medical device OEMs. His expertise includes electronic, mechanical and optical catheters, patient interface cables, and control consoles. He has helped numerous companies and held product development and project management roles at companies such as Planetary Power, EKOS Corporation (a BTG International Group company), Stratos Product Development, and Boston Scientific.
Dr. Roger Andersen
Dr. Roger Andersen, MD, MPH, RAC
Vice President, Regulatory and Medical Affairs
Roger manages Ondine’s regulatory and clinical programs, working extensively with the FDA, Health Canada, and the EU to obtain regulatory approvals. Prior to joining the company, he practiced as a physician and surgeon in Seattle and directed a clinical research organization for pharmaceutical and medical device clinical trials.
Jason Hickok
Jason Hickok, RN, MBA
Vice President, Clinical and Medical Affairs
Jason recently joined Ondine after fifteen years with HCA Healthcare, where he served as Assistant Vice President for Research and Patient Safety in the Clinical Services Group (CSG). Under his stewardship, HCA established CSG’s Infection Prevention Department, successfully deployed multiple quality improvement toolkits, and conducted a large scale public/private research study in partnership with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Jason’s clinical experiences include emergency department, critical care, and case management. He is a member of many industry associations including APIC (Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology), and NAHQ (National Association for Healthcare Quality.
Angelika Vance
Angelika Vance
Vice President, Corporate Communications
Angelika is an inspirational leader and creative problem-solver, with over 20 years experience, in diverse roles across marketing, strategy, business planning and corporate communications. She has led multimillion-dollar projects and helped a broad range of teams and companies translate opportunities into reality with her unique strategic marketing and communication talents. She made the switch from telecom to biomedical in early 2018 after learning of the urgent need for an alternative to antibiotics and the powerful photodisinfection technology developed by Ondine to combat the growing world-wide problem of drug-resistant infections.
In addition, Angelika mentors young entrepreneurs and provides ongoing support as the Chair of a GroYourBiz peer-to-peer advisory board for women business owners and executives.
Nikita Parkhaev
Nikita Parkhaev, CPA
Vice President, Finance
Nikita is a chartered professional accountant in Canada, with extensive experience in financial planning & analysis, full-cycle accounting, corporate governance, and process optimization. Nikita is highly proficient at strategic financial analysis supporting business decisions, establishing corporate governance processes, and financial modeling. He most recently held the position of Controller at Ondine. Prior to that he worked in public accounting at Deloitte and held a managerial role at Manning Elliott, working with clients ranging from series-A startups to mature businesses with revenues of up to $800 million, as well as working in FP&A/IR at Seaspan, a multi-billion-dollar international shipping company.
Dawn Nguyen
Dawn Nguyen
Vice President, Quality
Dawn Nguyen is an accomplished Quality and Regulatory leader with over 30 years of experience in the medical device industry. Specializing in 21 CFR 820 and ISO 13485 compliance, Dawn oversees the company’s quality management system, ensuring a culture of quality and compliance, enhancing customer-centric practices, and driving continuous improvement initiatives. Her focus on process improvement and risk management ensures robust quality assurance practices across all organizational levels to meet global standards.
Before joining Ondine, Dawn was the Quality & Regulatory Audit Manager at Philips Healthtech, managing the Internal Audit Process for the North American Market Quality & Regulatory organization. Her role involved ensuring compliance with regulatory standards, leading audits, and developing audit staff. She also contributed significantly as a Senior Field Quality Engineer and CAPA (Corrective Action Preventative Action) Facilitator, managing cross-functional teams and internal audits.
Board of Directors
Our Board brings together experts from across the world with the expertise and experience to help Ondine position its photodisinfection-based therapies as the leading technology to combat drug resistant infections.
The Honourable Jean Charest joined the Board in January 2018. He serves as the Chair and is a member of the Audit and Risk Oversight Committee and the Remuneration Committee.
As Deputy Prime Minister of Canada and Premier of Québec, and with a public service career spanning almost 30 years, Mr. Charest is one of Canada’s best known political figures. He was first elected to the House of Commons in 1984 and, at age 28, became Canada’s youngest cabinet minister as Minister of State for Youth. In 1991, he was named Minister of the Environment and Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs and Registrar General and Deputy Prime Minister of Canada in 1993.
In 1994, Jean Charest was chosen Leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party. He held that post until 1998 when he became Leader of the Quebec Liberal Party. Mr. Charest then broke a 50-year provincial record by winning three consecutive election campaigns in 2003, 2007 and 2008. Furthermore, the Charest government initiated an unprecedented labour mobility agreement between France and Québec and was best known for a major initiative for the sustainable development of Northern Québec called “Plan Nord”. Jean Charest is notably the initiator of the negotiation for the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA).
Today, Mr. Charest is a Partner at Canadian firm Therrien, Couture, Joli-Coeur, where he provides invaluable expertise to the firm’s clients with his in-depth knowledge and experience with public policy, corporate Canada, and international matters. As a strategic advisor with a unique perspective, he supports clients on complex transactions, projects, and international mandates.
Ms. Cross was one of the initial founders and financial supporters of Ondine Biomedical Inc. in 1999, and currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of the Company. Ms. Cross sits on the National Research Council of Canada and on the NRC’s Departmental Audit Committee. She serves on the Board of Canadian Light Source (Canada’s synchrotron) and is a Board Member and Treasurer of the International Photodynamic Association. She is a former Board Director of Canada Foundation for Innovation, a Canadian Crown Corporation.
Ms. Cross has over 25 years’ direct experience working with early-stage companies and 30 years’ experience with public market securities. Earlier in her career, Ms. Cross was responsible for managing pension, pooled, mutual, and private client funds as a Vice President with Royal Bank Investment Management Inc. Ms. Cross is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and has an MBA from York University and an HBA from the University of Western Ontario (Western University).
In 2016, Ms. Cross was awarded the Meritorious Service Cross by the Governor General of Canada for her work developing photodisinfection technologies in Canada. She is also a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.
Dr. Loebel serves as President and Chief Technology Officer to the Company, specializing in product research and development, photochemistry, systems integration, and cross-functional team building. His research focus has centred on novel photochemistries, rheological modelling of periodontal disease and tooth mobility, fibre optic waveguide propagation theory, evanescent coupling, and the applications of optical fibres to interferometric sensors.
He has experience in dental and medical product development and manufacturing, corporate management, and business development in public and private market environments. He has authored numerous publications and patents and lectures regularly on antimicrobial photodynamics around the world.
Dr. Loebel was awarded the 2017 Clinical PDT Research Excellence Award by the International Photodynamic Association in Coimbra, Portugal.
Ms. Duvall is Co-Founder and Chair of cell and gene therapy specialist, Trizell Holding, a subsidiary of Ferring Pharmaceuticals. Ms. Duvall co-initiated and drove Ferring’s entry into gene and cell therapy by leading the acquisition of assets and founding of Trizell. She has since grown the company from ~50 to 250 employees, and into a fully integrated group incl. R&D and manufacturing capabilities in Finland, UK, and Switzerland.
Ms. Duvall was previously Executive Vice President at Ferring Pharmaceuticals, where she was responsible for all legal activities on a global basis, serving also as the secretary to the board of directors. With experience in managing pharmaceuticals regulatory changes from a legal perspective, prior to joining Ferring she was general counsel at major drugs firm, Elan Corporation.
Ms. Duvall has a Bachelor of Science degree from Case Western Reserve University and a juris doctor degree from Ohio State University.
Dr. Bajwa is the Chief Medical Scientist at Microsoft Research and a practising NHS physician. He was previously the Global Lead for Strategic Alliances and Solutions for the Global Digital Centre of Excellence at Merck Sharp & Dohme, where he helped shape their global digital strategy, and co-founded “VelocityHealth” as Europe’s first prevention focused digital-health accelerator, in partnership with Telefonica.
Previously, Dr. Bajwa worked across primary care, secondary care, and public health settings in addition to acting as a payor, and policy maker within the UK, where he specialized in informatics, digital transformation, and leadership. He has consulted for health care systems across the US, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Europe, in addition to being seconded by the NHS to work with IBM.
Dr. Bajwa completed his MBA at the Imperial College Business School in London and has studied health strategy and quality improvement at both Harvard and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Boston. He is a Clinical Associate Professor at University College London and Visiting Scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Ms. Shaw is a seasoned finance professional with extensive experience in investment management and capital markets. Throughout her career, she has held key leadership positions at prominent Canadian financial institutions, including AGF Funds Inc. and CIBC, where she led high-performing teams and managed portfolios exceeding $700 million.
As a former Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and former institutional portfolio manager, Ms. Shaw brings critical financial management skills to the Board, enhancing its ability to navigate current and future financing challenges. She also has a proven track record in strategic planning and risk management. Ms. Shaw previously served on Ondine’s Board from 2009 to 2011 and has a longstanding commitment to the company’s mission to address healthcare challenges through innovative technologies.
Join Our Team
Our people share a common vision and a dedication to performance. We pride ourselves on our ability to attract and retain highly qualified and motivated people for all areas of the company. If you would like to be considered for a current or future opportunity, please send your resume to: hr@ondinebio.com
