Finalists for the 2019 Catalyst Award for Top New Biotech Hire Announced

OTTAWA, Ontario–(BUSINESS WIRE)–lt;a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HR?src=hash" target="_blank"gt;#HRlt;/agt;–BioTalent Canada today announced the three finalists for the Catalyst
Award for Top New Hire. The three finalists are:

– Leanne Bourgeois, Research Scientist, Hyasynth Biologicals, Montreal,
QC
– Mina Huang, Co-op R&D student – Pluripotent Stem Cell,
STEMCELL Technologies, Vancouver, BC
– Thomas Pedron, Backend
Software Developer, Ample Organics, Toronto, ON

As the HR partner and catalyst for growth in Canada’s bio-economy,
BioTalent Canada launched its annual Catalyst Award in 2015 to recognize
the employers who invest in young talent and the dedicated young people,
hired through wage subsidies. With the success of the Student Work
Placement Program, this year’s award included nominations from students
gaining on-the-job skills and experience through work-integrated
learning.

“Bio-economy businesses are experiencing first-hand the benefit from
wage subsidies to give young innovators the opportunity to showcase
their abilities,” says Rob Henderson, President and CEO of BioTalent
Canada. “Their success in pushing the boundaries of Canadian innovation
are stories worth sharing.”

Leanne Bourgeois
Research Scientist, Hyasynth Biologicals

Hyasynth Biological’s primary objective is to improve the yield of their
biosynthetic pathways by using various genetic engineering techniques.
As a small and rapidly expanding start-up, their team incorporates many
new and inventive techniques and strives to make breakthroughs that will
make them competitive and increase the speed at bringing their products
to market. Leanne’s work and management of her project was exemplary in
overcoming challenges and delivering on key milestones for the company.
Leanne’s first task was to test a new genome editing technique, that she
was familiar with from her past work. The technique failed after several
tries. Instead, she used an older and more robust technique which
succeeded in increasing the productivity of our yeast strains and helped
her reach her primary objective for the internship. With this technique,
which she also modified herself after incorporating recent literature
work, she managed to increase the yields of her aspect of the
biosynthetic pathway by ten times. Later, she plans to revisit the novel
technique for another aspect of the pathway. She has successfully shown
the project management and leadership in her work, that we hope to
propagate throughout our company.

Mina Huang
Co-op R&D student – Pluripotent Stem Cell,
STEMCELL Technologies

STEMCELL Technologies is driven by five core values: innovation,
quality, responsiveness, integrity, and collaboration. These core values
enable us to deliver the highest quality products and support, driving
cutting edge basic and clinical research around the globe; for this to
happen it is imperative for our employees to embrace, and embody these
core values in their company culture. Within weeks after beginning her
term, Mina was functioning as an internal ambassador for STEMCELL both
employing theses values into her own work but also working to expand the
company culture within the co-op student body. Mina functioned as an
unofficial mentor for new students. Her natural scientific curiosity led
to spending her own time performing literature searches well beyond what
was required for her position. This initiative led to her being
extremely prepared and able to discuss aspects of hers and other
projects well beyond a student level. As more members in her group
become comfortable with her level of understanding, she was treated as a
valuable asset. Her reputation as a quiet leader was quickly identified
amongst the other students and resulted in her spending extra time
transferring the fundamentals of her skillset within her co-op cohort.
Her combined work ethic with natural skills led to her fitting in very
quickly with both student and full time employees. Within her group she
was able to communicate results effectively and developed excellent
troubleshooting skill with all technical aspects of her project. By the
end of her term, Mina had not only fit perfectly with the defined
STEMCELL culture but was able to increase the standards for what was
expected both at the student and early full-time employee levels.

Thomas Pedron
Backend Software Developer, Ample Organics

Management quickly recognized Tom’s high potential for both technical
and leadership skills. Shortly after he was hired, Tom was promoted to
Team Lead on a key project. When he took on these new responsibilities,
Tom then noticed several areas of concern with the project, realizing
that in its current state it would not properly integrate with any of
Ample Organics’ other systems. This put the project at risk and
ultimately could have delayed several other projects if it were to
continue in its current form. He brought the issue to management and at
his suggestion, the whole project including its requirements,
architecture, and purpose was re-evaluated, ending up with a decision to
reboot the project in a smaller, simpler form. Throughout this business
obstacle, Tom acted as a key strategic decision maker and ultimately
saved valuable company resources by alerting management to the flaws of
the project.

BioTalent Canada congratulates the finalists and salutes their employers
for hiring outstanding young talent.

The finalists were chosen among the many entries received and evaluated
by an independent judging committee. The winner of the 2019 Catalyst
Award will be awarded a cash prize of $1,000 and will be announced in
June.

About BioTalent Canada

BioTalent Canada™ is the HR partner of and a catalyst for growth in
Canada’s bio-economy. Our engagement with employers, associations,
post-secondary institutions, immigrant serving agencies and service
providers has built a dynamic network that is strengthening skills,
connecting job-ready talent to industry and creating opportunities.
Please visit biotalent.ca
for more information.

Contacts

Siobhan Williams
Director, Marketing and Communications
BioTalent
Canada
613-235-1402 ext. 229
[email protected]