Dr. Alastair Glass, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Research and Innovation, Government of Ontario, asked poignant questions: “How did Rimon Therapeutics start? How does the technology work? What are the challenges the team faces? How does it participate in the sector? Does the company intend to stay in Ontario?” Rimon's President and COO, Michael May, responded frankly about the company, its accomplishments and plans.  
 
Dr. Glass served as the first Director of Information and Communications Technology for Science Foundation Ireland, a board responsible for making science and technology funding decisions for the Irish government. In this role he helped establish programs to fund the best Irish scientists and engineers, to attract outstanding researchers from universities and industry to Ireland and to brand Ireland as a premier research location. Dr. Glass then came to Ontario to join the newly established Ministry of Research and Innovation as its first deputy minister. In this capacity he will help develop and lead an integrated and coherent innovation agenda to foster a culture of innovation excellence and showcase Ontario nationally and internationally as an innovation-based economy and society.
 
Mark Romoff, President and CEO, Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE), brought Alastair to Rimon to see first-hand how the company is engineering its success and contributing to the Ontario biotechnology sector. The OCE, a not-for-profit corporation, delivers the “Ontario Centres of Excellence” program, which is funded by the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation. The OCE supports the commercialization of research, industrial and academic collaboration, and technology transfer. It also facilitates the research and education of Ontario’s best and brightest students at universities, colleges and research hospitals.
 
Rimon and the OCE have had a long relationship, starting with research grants and continuing with networking and training. Dr. Michael V. Sefton, ScD, Rimon’s Chief Scientific Officer and one of its directors, spoke recently at a major OCE conference on the company’s entrepreneurial trajectory. At the conclusion of the meeting, Michael May pointed out the importance of home-grown biotechnology jobs to the growth of the sector in Ontario. University graduates who get their first jobs in Ontario, he said, will be more likely to stay, set down roots, grow businesses and contribute to biotechnology here.  The OCE, Michael said, helped him do just that—and Rimon, he added, will continue to work with the OCE to make that same opportunity possible for others in the Ontario biotechnology sector.  
 
For more on information on Alastair’s work at the Ministry of Research and Innovation see http://www.mri.gov.on.ca/english/about/DMBio.asp
 
For more information on Mark’s work at the Ontario Centres of Excellence see  http://www.oce-ontario.org/
 In attendance from right to left:
Howard Oliver - Principal, What If What Next™ - PR
Mark Romoff - President and CEO, Ontario Centres of Excellence
Michael May - President, and Director, Rimon Therapeutics
Steve Johnston - Director Business Development, Rimon Therapeutics
Alastair Glass - Deputy Minister, Ministry of Research and Innovation, Government of Ontario
Gary Skarja - Director, Research & Development, Rimon Therapeutic
Allison Brown - Senior Scientist, Rimon Therapeutics
Kerry Cathers - Office Manager, Rimon Therapeutics