Benjamin Rovinski

Dr. Benjamin Rovinski has 30 years of investment, operational, managerial and research experience in the healthcare sector. Beni joined Lumira Ventures in 2001, where he is a Managing Director, with an investment focus on early- to late-stage private and public life sciences companies. With a proven track record of delivering results, both as a senior scientist and a business executive, Beni has held several senior management positions in the biotechnology sector, including 13 years at Sanofi Pasteur (formerly Aventis Pasteur) where he was a senior scientist and director of molecular virology, with a particular focus in the areas of virology, vaccine development, recombinant protein production, and functional genomics. While at Aventis, Beni led global research and development programs in the areas of HIV/AIDS and therapeutic cancer vaccines, bringing several of them through to clinical stage. Beni received a PhD in biochemistry from McGill University in Montreal and did post-doctoral studies in molecular oncology and retrovirology at the Ontario Cancer Institute in Toronto. He obtained his undergraduate degree from Rice University in Houston.

Beni’s current and past board roles and investment responsibilities include several private and public companies, such as Aurinia Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AUPH); Antiva Biosciences; G1 Therapeutics (NASDAQ: GTHX); KAI Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Amgen); Morphotek (acquired by Eisai); Health Hero Network (acquired by Bosch); Avalon Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AVRX; acquired by Clinical Data, Inc.); and SGX Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SGXP; acquired by Eli Lilly). He also serves on the board of directors of Ontario Genomics and Life Sciences Ontario; and he is also a member of the investment committee of the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM) and the advisory board of the TO Health! industry-led initiative to promote the profile of the Toronto region’s Human Health & Sciences cluster. Beni is fluent in English, French and Spanish. He has published over 25 scientific articles and reviews and is the recipient of 32 issued patents.