WELL has assembled a unique and compelling Strategic Advisory Team that includes various leaders from WELL’s own board of directors, management team and business unit operating teams. While the Strategic Advisory Team contributes in many ways including opportunity origination, they are unique because a big part of their focus is to help WELL’s portfolio companies as part of their post investment journey. They are committed to providing strategic advice and connecting them with other WELL Health businesses, external partners and other opportunities. They are there to help unlock the value of our investees by leveraging WELL Health’s size and scale, nurturing them and expediting their growth.
Listed in alphabetical order by last name.
Hamed has 20+ years of experience as a technology focused operator. In 1997, he founded TIO Networks (TSXV:TNC) a kiosk solution provider and transitioned it into a multi-channel payment solution provider, specializing in bill payment and other financial services. In July of 2017, TIO Networks was acquired by PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) for CAD$304 million. Over his career, Hamed has gained extensive experience in strategic mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures, both as an operator (eg. TIO) and board member (eg. BBTV, WELL) with more than 40 successful transactions.
Brian Levinkind is the Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at WELL Health Technologies. Brian joined WELL in 2015, and has previously served as WELL’s CFO. Brian has 20+ years of both public and private experience as a CPA. Brian has been involved in planning, structuring, and implementation of numerous financings, mergers, acquisitions, and corporate reorganizations. In addition to his M&A experience, Brian brings a significant amount of tax expertise to the team. He was a former equity partner at Grant Thornton LLP in Canada, specializing in tax and mergers and acquisitions, and has also held management positions at HSBC and KPMG. Brian has extensive experience as a chief financial officer in both the healthcare and clean energy sectors.
Ammar Shah is the Vice President of Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) at WELL Health Technologies. Ammar joined WELL in 2020 as Director of M&A, having previously served as a Research Analyst at Eight Capital covering small cap healthcare and special situations stocks. Ammar has nearly a decade of experience in equity research, portfolio management and capital market, having worked at leading financial institutions such as National Bank Financial and Cidel. Ammar is a graduate of The Lazaridis School of Business and Economics and is a CFA Charterholder.
Erik Danudjaja holds the title of Associate, Corporate Development at WELL Health Technologies. Erik joined WELL in 2021 and assists Brian, Ammar, and Hamed with WELL’s robust capital allocation program. Prior to joining WELL, Erik was an Investment Analyst with Burgundy Asset Management, one of Canada’s premier money managers. At Burgundy, Erik covered small and mid-cap equities in the United States. Erik is a graduate of the Lazaridis School of Business at Economics.
Nicholas Sharma is an Analyst, Corporate Development at WELL Health Technologies. Nicholas joined WELL in 2021 and assists the Corporate Development team and Hamed with WELL’s venture investment / capital allocation program. Prior to joining WELL, Nicholas was an Investment Banking Associate with CCC Investment Banking, a leading Canadian mid-market boutique investment bank. At CCC, Nicholas led and assisted on M&A and equity raising deals in a diversified set of industries. Nicholas is a graduate of the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics and is a CFA Charterholder.
Shervin has over 20 years of experience spanning senior business and technology commercialization roles at both startups and Fortune 500 companies in Canada and Silicon Valley. He has been involved in the full innovation commercialization cycle from market & product strategy, Sales & Business Development, strategic partnerships, technology scouting and Investment/M&A across various verticals, including Digital Health. Shervin previously held senior positions at Dialogic, Actel Consulting, iMediHome, Avaya, Ubiquity Software, & Cisco Systems. He holds both a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree of Engineering from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada
Sara has 10+ years of management and product direction experience, both as co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of KAI Innovations. Her experience as a medical office assistant contributed to her expertise in both clinical workflows and relationship management between clinics and technical staff. As a project manager at KAI, she helped to grow the company’s profile, and in 2015, KAI received the Business Excellence Award from the Toronto Region Board of Trade and was named Start-Up of the Year from Canadian Business Magazine. Sara graduated from Ryerson University, Durham College, and Fanshawe College for business and healthcare related disciplines.
Mr. Cawkell co-founded Cawkell Brodie LLP, a Vancouver based law firm, where he has been acting as managing partner since 1987. He has been active in the biotech industry within public, private and venture capital markets as a professional advisor and as a principal or investor for over 25 years. Mr. Cawkell is the founder and CEO of Neurodyn Life Sciences Inc., a private biotech company focused on developing natural based products to treat Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. Mr. Cawkell is also a founder and director of Alpha Cognition Inc., a Vancouver based biopharmaceutical company with a portfolio of innovative, product candidates targeting neurological diseases, including a pivotal stage Alzheimer’s therapy.
Paulo Gomes is the Business Unit Leader of WELL’s Billing and Backoffice. Prior to joining WELL, Paulo founded DoctorCare in 2011, the national category leader for ‘Billing as a Service’ outsourcing services to doctors in Canada. With WELL’s acquisition of DoctorCare, Paulo leads WELL’s Billing unit as a point of consolidation for other billing and backoffice related acquisitions, with extensive experience in mergers, acquisitions, and post-transaction integration. A graduate of Western’s HBA & MBA programs, Paulo also has extensive board experience and remains active in Canada’s healthcare tech start up landscape.
Amir has 15+ years experience as a technology and operations executive involved in 2 successful exits. Amir was most recently the COO for TIO Networks (acquired by PayPal for $304M), and previously at Avigilon where he helped scale the business from stealth mode startup to a public company with a market cap of > $1 billion (revenue grew to $100M+ in 5 years). He holds a Computer Engineering degree from the University of British Columbia.
John is a Toronto based businessman and award-winning Institutional investor for 20+ years with an extensive capital markets network. He is passionate about growing the technology ecosystem in Canada as an advisor and angel investor. John currently sits on a number of boards of public and private companies.
Arjun has 10+ years of experience in healthcare administration and technology operations. Arjun is WELL’s Chief Information Officer, as well as the Business Unit Leader of WELL EMR Group (WEG). He co-founded KAI Innovations in 2012 and led the company as Chief Executive Officer. Prior to this, he worked as a cardiac and ultrasound technician for 7+ years, and currently sits on McMaster University’s Board of Directors for OSCAR EMR. In 2017, KAI won Canada Health Informatics Association’s Award for Innovation and Care Delivery, and in 2015, won Start-Up of the Year from Canadian Business Magazine. He attended the University of Toronto, the University of Waterloo, and Ryerson University for Health, Technology, and Business disciplines.
Thomas has 15+ years of experience as a top ranked technology research analyst, working as a senior researcher for Yorkton Securities, Versant Partners, and Cantor Fitzgerald in Canada. Thomas is currently a managing partner at Difference Capital Financial, an organization that provides debt and equity growth capital to mainly late-stage private companies with a focus on technology, media, and healthcare. He also sits on the board of Mogo Finance Technology Inc. (TSX: MOGO). He served as the director for QHR Technologies Inc. (TSX-V: QHR) which was sold to Loblaw Companies Limited (TSX: L) in the fall of 2016 for +$170M.
Tara is Principal of Brighton Group, a health industries solution firm. Previously, Tara was Partner and the National Health Industries Leader for PwC Canada and served as a board member with OntarioMD, Canada’s only certification body for Electronic Medical Records companies from 2017 to 2019. Tara also previously held an executive role with Trillium Health Partners from 2013 to 2016 and as Principal/Practice Leader with TELUS Health from 2011 to 2013 where she led a number of transformational initiatives and strategies. Tara is a Board Director for two HealthTech companies, ALAViDA and Starling Minds.
Prior to joining WELL, Shane served as President, TELUS Employer Solutions & Vice President TELUS Health Public Sector Canada over a period of five years. Before that Shane was Senior Vice-President of Human Resources at The Brick where he served over 7,000 team members from over 250 storefronts. Shane also spent close to a decade in an internal HR capacity at TELUS prior to joining the Brick.
Pardeep Sangha joined WELL in April 2019 after a successful career as a top ranked Canadian technology sector analyst for three years at Haywood Securities and eight years at PI Financial Corp. Pardeep also has extensive venture capital investing experience as Vice President at Ventures West Capital from 1999 to 2006 and more recently as the President of Angad Capital, a public capital markets advisory firm with a track record of raising capital for publicly listed technology companies. Pardeep also has a keen understanding of the challenges that entrepreneurs face having been a founder of a cloud computing start-up that was sold to a communications service provider. Pardeep has an MBA and bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, both from the University of British Columbia.