Michael Atkin

Mr. Atkin has over 30 years of experience in life sciences as an entrepreneur, start-up executive, leader and manager in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, and in advancing early stage research towards commercialization based on satisfying unmet medical needs.

Mr. Atkin is President of Syzent Partners Ltd. ("Syzent"), a consulting firm in life sciences based in Montreal, QC. Prior to founding Syzent in 2008, Mr. Atkin was Executive Chair and subsequently CEO of Ulysses Pharmaceuticals, focused on overcoming antibiotic resistance. He was previously the founding CEO of Aegera Therapeutics, an apoptosis control company formed by the merger of McGill spinout Exogen Neurosciences with Apoptogen, where he raised $33m in two financing rounds, and advanced two novel first-in-class drugs to the clinic. At the helm of Aegera, Mr. Atkin advanced multiple technology and product partnerships with major pharmaceutical companies, generating several million dollars in revenues.

Mr. Atkin was elected Chairman of the Board of antibiotic chemistry firm Sopharmia Inc in St. Joseph, Missouri in 2012. In 2015, Sopharmia intellectual property was acquired by Gladius Pharmaceuticals, which announced a $4m seed financing. Mr. Atkin served as CEO of Gladius from 2015 to 2019. Mr. Atkin serves on the board of a Université de Montréal spin-out company, Affinité Instruments, focused on laboratory and diagnostic tests.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Atkin held senior executive positions in product development and licensing at Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and Lederle International, now part of Pfizer. He holds an MBA from Columbia University's graduate school of business (New York, USA) and a BA from the University of Kent at Canterbury (Great Britain).