New executive director for Genome British Columbia

Vancouver, BC – August 18, 2004 – Dr Gabe Kalmar has been appointed executive director, operations for Genome British Columbia.

For the past two years, Dr Kalmar has been engaged in strategic consulting activities with several early-stage pharmaceutical companies which included overseeing operations, implementing technology development and providing merger and acquisition planning.

From 1996 to 2002, Dr Kalmar held senior management positions with Kinetek Pharmaceuticals, a privately held Vancouver-based biopharmaceutical company that was acquired by QLT in March 2004. During this time, Dr Kalmar established and managed multiple external collaborations with academics and clinicians in the areas of signal transduction, preclinical studies and technology access.

"Dr Kalmar brings significant strategic experience to his new role, particularly in managing large-scale research collaborations" says Dr Alan Winter, president and CEO of Genome British Columbia. "In addition, he has the expertise to recognize and encourage potential commercialization opportunities, currently one of our business objectives."

Dr Kalmar obtained his undergraduate science degree from the University of British Columbia and his PhD in biology from Simon Fraser University.