Meet the visionary team behind Bioenterprise Canada

Colin Farnum

Chairperson and Innovation Advisor

Previously the Senior Director, Innovation and New Technologies at Maple Leaf Foods, Colin is a seasoned food science/business professional with 40+ years of food experience. Having worked in multiple food categories he has led teams of 5 to 20 Food Scientists responsible for product and process development, cost containment and cost reduction. Since his retirement he has continued his involvement through a combination of consulting, mentoring and Bioenterprise Board work.

Olga Pawluczyk

Board Director

Olga Pawluczyk is the co-founder and CEO of P&P Optica (PPO), based in Waterloo, Ontario, part of Canada’s largest and fastest-growing tech community. Olga is an expert in medical imaging, with a technical background in systems engineering and deep knowledge of the science of spectroscopy. Under the leadership of Olga and her co-founder, her father Romek Pawluczyk, PPO launched in 2004 as a research company focused on developing high-end spectrometers. Olga assumed full leadership of the company in 2010 and has grown the company from a research-driven organization to focus on commercialization across different industries (oil and gas, space exploration, medical applications). Olga pivoted the company over the past 6 years to focus exclusively on building quality and safety solutions for the food processing industry. Olga is driven by the opportunity to combine emerging hardware and software technologies to significantly improve the nutritional quality, safety, and sustainability of our food.

Olga participates regularly as an advisory board member in both the meat industry and the Canadian tech sector, with organizations such as the Canadian Food Innovation Network and Bioenterprise. She is an active member of the North American Meat Institute (NAMI) Foreign Materials Committee.

Olga has a BASc (Engineering) from the University of Waterloo; an MSc (Medical BioPhysics) from the University of Toronto, and an MBA from Wilfrid Laurier University.

James Meddings

Board Director

James Meddings was in the federal public service for 32 years, and most recently served as the Deputy Minister of FedDev Ontario for the past five years. Previously, he held increasingly senior roles with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, the Privy Council Office, Human Resources Development Canada, Environment Canada, the Canada School of Public Service and Western Economic Diversification. Prior to his retirement, Meddings was a board member with Communitech Corporation and served on the Toronto Region Board of Trade Recovery Framework Steering Cabinet, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce’s Advisory Council on Ontario’s Economic Future, the U.S-Canada Innovation Partnership and the federal government’s Advanced Manufacturing Sector table. He also represented Canada on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Regional Development Policy Committee for the last six years.

Keith Thomas

Board Director

Keith is a proven entrepreneur with experience in leading and growing businesses across a variety of sectors. He is a Partner at Abbeywood Partners, an investment firm focused on mid-market private companies.  He is the Chair and former CEO of Vive Crop Protection. He built and sold healthcare technology firm Vector Innovations to a Fortune 50 company.  He has also led large-scale restructuring projects at New York-based Tandon Capital, managed strategy and operations projects at Booz Allen & Hamilton, and completed corporate finance transactions at Citibank.  He is a member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), former board member of CropLife America, and former Chair of the University of Toronto Governing Council’s Business Board with board oversight of its operating and capital budget.  He holds an M.B.A. from Columbia University, and an M.A. in Economics and B.A.Sc. in Engineering from the University of Toronto.

Lorelei Graham

Board Director

Lorelei Graham is a Partner at law firm Bennett Jones where she practises intellectual property law with a significant focus on clients in the food and agribusiness sectors. She has developed a practice that addresses all aspects of her food and agriculture clients’ intellectual property needs, from initial consultations regarding IP strategies to drafting, filing and prosecuting patents, trademarks, industrial designs and copyright in Canada, the United States and internationally. Graham has also written extensively on the growing role of precision agriculture in agribusiness.

Richard Cloutier

Board Director and Innovation Advisor

Richard Cloutier brings nearly 40 years of expertise in the deployment of innovation, business start-ups and business development strategies, including managing partner of the Ecofuel Fund, a venture capital fund that invests in climate tech including agri-tech. He has also been President and CEO of the Centre québécois de valorisation des biotechnologies (CQVB), an organization dedicated to innovation and technology transfer in Quebec’s bio-industry sector, and was the founder, president and CEO of Gelkem, a private biopharmaceutical company involved in controlled drug delivery systems. Cloutier holds a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Sherbrooke University and an MBA from Laval University and is frequently consulted on innovation strategy development.

Joanne Fedeyko

Board Director

Joanne Fedeyko is the Founder & CEO at Connection Silicon Valley (CSV), an organization that helps accelerate Canadian startups from Seed to Scale, and the Founder of the Canadian Women’s Network (CWN). With over 800 members, CWN is the preeminent community that connects Canadian founders to an influential network of U.S. investors, mentors and executives to help them grow locally and scale globally. Fedeyko is the co-founder and general partner of Women’s Equity Lab Silicon Valley, an angel investment fund with the mission to increase the number of female investors in early-stage startups. She hails from Alberta and has lived in Silicon Valley since 1999.

Ted Bilyea

Board Director

Ted Bilyea is an agri-food consultant specializing in innovation with clients in both private and public sector and special advisor the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute (CAPI) after previously serving as its chair and Chief Strategy Officer. He retired from Maple Leaf Foods Inc. as Executive Vice-President after spending 35 years with the company, including as president of Maple Leaf Foods International, and has served on many boards, such as Paterson Global Foods Inc. and the Alberta Meat and Livestock Agency. Bilyea holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in international relations from York University and was inducted into the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame in 2018.

Dr. Rickey Yada

Scientific Advisor to the Board

Dr. Rickey Yada is Professor and Dean, Faculty of Agricultural, Environmental and Life Sciences at the University of Alberta. From 2014 to 2024, he was Dean of the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia. Prior to UBC, Dr. Yada was at the University of Guelph where he held numerous leadership roles, including Chair, Department of Food Science, Assistant Vice President Research, Canada Research Chair in Food Protein Structure, and Scientific Director of the Advanced Foods and Materials Network (Networks of Centres of Excellence Canada).  

Dr. Yada is a co-editor of Trends in Food Science and Technology and serves on the editorial boards of several journals. Aside from Bioenterprise Canada, he is an advisor to other Boards of research and industry organizations, such as the Canadian Food Innovation Network and Saltagen Ventures Limited (Hong Kong). Other positions include External Advisory Committee Member at Arrell Food Institute; Member of the Scientific Advisory Panels at Riddet Institute (New Zealand), AgResearch (New Zealand); and External Advisory Committee, Sydney Institute of Agriculture, The University of Sydney (Australia). 

Dr. Yada is the Past President of the Deans Council of the Faculties of Agriculture, Food and Veterinary Medicine in Canada; Past President and Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology, and the International Academy of the International Union of Food Science and Technology; as well as a Fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists, and Agricultural and Food Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society. Dr. Yada has an honorary DSc from the University of Guelph.  

Nevin McDougall

Financial Advisor to the Board

Nevin is an accomplished business executive, entrepreneur, and investor with 30 years experience in industry-leading, innovative agri-business organizations.  He has led business operations for companies such as BASF in both North American and International markets with expertise in commercial operations, R&D, and executive management.  He has also been involved as an investor, entrepreneur, and coach to several small and medium sized companies in the agri-food sector.  He brings broad perspective and governance capability to the organization from past roles in industry associations, non-profit, public and private company boards.

Dave Smardon

President & CEO

Since 2005, Dave Smardon has led the development of Bioenterprise Canada, Canada’s Food & Agri-Tech Engine, the leading national accelerator focusing solely on food and agriculture technologies. Bioenterprise Canada delivers significant impact to Canada’s economy through Dave’s vision of supporting innovative, high-growth food and agriculture businesses through funding programs and mentorship that match their potential. Dave is advocating for a united agricultural ecosystem nationally, mirroring the collaboration and cross-regional knowledge-sharing that has made other top-performing countries global leaders in technology and commercialization.

His background in venture capital and corporate leadership includes Apple Computer Inc., and Texas Instruments, as well as angel investment and his own entrepreneurial pursuits. Dave is also an advisor for government, family offices, investment companies, and innovation centres nationally, where his leadership has influenced the progression of Canada’s agriculture industry; an industry which is at the forefront of global innovation and economic development. This balance of finance and corporate experience, coupled with public interest ensures a healthy relationship with government, private sector corporations, and multi-nationals. Dave’s leadership continues to educate the expanded agricultural ecosystem on the potential to adopt and expand emerging technologies in sustainability, digitization, and automation.