June 26, 2022
Change is happening at Genome BC. Dr. Margaret (Peggy) Johnston and Dr. Kausar Samli have been appointed as the new chair and vice chair of our Board of Directors. At the same time, Dr. John Shepherd, chair of the Board since 2020, has transitioned to a new role as past chair for the next year, continuing a string of ten years of dedicated service as a Genome BC Board member. Read more about how Dr. Johnston and Dr. Samli each bring a tremendous wealth of experience and expertise to our Board.
Introducing Dr. Margaret (Peggy) Johnston – a pioneer in HIV/AIDs vaccine research
Dr. Margaret (Peggy) Johnston
Dr. Johnston is an independent consultant working with profit and non-profit clients to further their business objectives. Dr. Johnston, with a biomedical background spanning basic, preclinical and clinical research and development, previously served as Senior Program Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In that capacity, she developed and oversaw the HIV team’s advanced vaccine clinical development, laboratory and statistical support grants and contracts and represented the foundation to private and government partners in the U.S. and internationally.
Before that, Dr. Johnston was the Assistant Director for AIDS Vaccines at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the Director of the Vaccine Research Program, Division of AIDS, at NIAID, which is part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). She led a staff of 40 PhDs, MDs and other professionals in the design and facilitation of NIAID’s $250 million annual extramural grant and contract programs that supported HIV vaccine discovery, preclinical and clinical R&D. In particular, she helped develop the clinical capacity that proved instrumental in evaluating several COVID vaccines that are now licensed. She also served as NIH’s representative to the Global HIV/AIDS Vaccine Enterprise and several non-US HIV vaccine advisory groups. Read her full bio.
Get to know Dr. Kausar N. Samli – a leader in the commercialization of new technology.
Dr. Kausar N. Samli
Dr. Samli is an applied-technologies commercialization executive. His engagements span industries (including biotech, quantum computing and blockchain), non-profit organizations and academia.
As a thought-leader, internationalist and entrepreneur, he leads and advises teams on strategy, technology commercialization and organizational development. Living in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North America significantly shaped Dr. Samli’s global perspective. A key theme of his efforts includes democratizing enabling technologies through the intersection of academia, industry and government.
Dr. Samli also has a unique blend of scientific expertise in cell-specific targeting, high-throughput screening, molecular evolution, protein engineering and computational chemistry. Read his full bio.
We are fortunate to have two individuals of their calibre providing oversight, accountability and leadership to our organization, along with other members of Genome BC’s Board of Directors who are Dr. Judi Beck, Dr. Christine Dean, Dr. Nadja Kunz, Dr. Charlotte Loppie, Kory Wilson, Len Boggio, Janet Grove, Dr. Nancy Olewiler, and Dr. Gavin Stuart.
