Investors
PRESS RELEASES
PRESENTATIONS
Board of Directors
Grant Smith
Read Bio
Executive with 20+ years experience in the global health supplements and ingredients space. Co-Founder & partner at RFI Canada, the distributor for ingredients to well- known consumer brands across North America.
J. William Asseltine
Read Bio
William Asselstine has been employed at St Marys Cement for over forty years and has held various positions within the company, including Vice President of Logistics, Sustainability and Cement Sales in Canada. Mr. Asselstine graduated from the University of Toronto and is a Professional Engineer in the Province of Ontario. He resides in Oakville.
John Farah
Read Bio
John M. Farah Jr, PhD has over 30 years of experience in health care and the biopharmaceutical industry. He is currently a senior clinical consultant with Veradigm, an Allscripts business, leveraging real-world data and real-world evidence for insights into challenges and opportunities in care of patients with chronic health conditions. He is also a member of the industry advisory board for the Coulter-Drexel Translational Research Partnership Program (Drexel University). John has advised clients in drug and biologic development and corporate partnering as Managing Director of his own consultancy and in market access and market research with agencies like rjSynergy. John began advising small to mid-sized firms after 19 years at Cephalon (now Teva) where he became Vice President of international pharmaceutical operations. John has broad expertise in R&D, business development, and ex-US commercialization with specialization in Asia Pacific and Latin American markets. He had focused on products for neurosciences & pain, hematology & oncology, and infectious & inflammatory disorders for Cephalon. John led the company’s headquarter team with P&L responsibilities and oversight of strategic product registrations, operations, market access and revenue development abroad. He joined Cephalon in 1992 to manage scientific affairs to enhance the company’s R&D initiatives through academic and federal partnerships followed by senior roles in worldwide business development to promote, negotiate and close R&D and commercial deals with multinational and regional pharmaceutical companies. In addition, John co-led successful intellectual property litigation efforts in Europe and Latin America and was Treasurer and director of Cephalon’s political action committee. John has over 10 years of experience as an independent director on the boards of public US companies including service on audit, compensation, and governance committees. John is author and inventor on over 40 publications, whitepapers, and patents. He started his industry career as a research investigator in neurosciences and immune-inflammatory programs at G.D. Searle & Co. (now Pfizer) after earning his doctorate in physiology from the Uniformed Services University and conducting post-doctoral studies in the Neurological Disorders and Stroke division of the National Institutes of Health. He has been a guest lecturer in graduate programs at Drexel University, Penn State University, St. Joseph’s University, and St. Louis University.
Jacob Gamble
Read Bio
Jacob Gamble has more than 20 years of combined global experience in management consulting, investment banking, growth initiatives, and corporate communications. Jacob rose to the level of Vice President of Fisher Investments, overseeing a $3.3-billion-dollar business line during his 13-year period with the company. He then worked as a Managing Director at Paulson Investment Company, a highly esteemed investment bank focused on the small to mid-cap markets, and as Paulson’s top executive of an affiliated bridge loan hedge fund, he successfully merged with a structured debt hedge fund.
After Mr. Gamble’s successes at Paulson, he moved into the CEO position at BLVD Corporation, a publicly-traded, multi-state drug rehabilitation franchise in which he completed a full-scale corporate reorganization transforming BLVD into Ventura Cannabis and Wellness Corporation while increasing shareholder value by nearly 300% before moving to Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Jacob has in-depth knowledge, contacts, and experience within the financial industries and specializes in the process of licensing, buildouts, and development of vertically integrated operations. Jacob also has experience in acquisitions of small private companies and operational integration of disparate businesses.
Jacob graduated from Oregon State University with a B.S. in Pre-Medicine/Biology and from Florida Institute of Technology with an M.S. in Management. Jacob is an occasional lecturer at the University of Oregon’s Charles H. Lundquist College of Business in portfolio management, and environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) investing for the Chartered Financial Analyst Society in Portland, Oregon. Jacob has also authored papers on the United States federal debt, corporate debt, and the United States Social Security Administration.
Thomas Masney
Chief Financial Officer
Thomas has worked with Goldman Sachs & GE in venture capital, mergers & acquisitions, and for both Ernst & Young and Price Waterhouse in audit and corporate recovery. Thomas brings with him a strong understanding of the mining, construction, manufacturing, technology, and e-commerce industries.
Steven Martin
TECHNICAL ADVISOR
Steven is also past Director of the Jeffrey Skoll MBA Program offered through the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto to gifted young engineers, and was is a former Director of the Professional Development Centre in the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto. He has also held the position of Director of the Centre for Advanced Microelectronics and was the founding Director of the Centre for Advanced Engineering Technologies at George Brown College.
Steven holds an H.B.Sc. in Chemical Physics and a B.A.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering, both from the University of Toronto.
Kevin Andrade
Chief Operating Officer
Kevin joined Pond as a strategic advisor in 2017 before assuming the role of Chief Operating Officer in early 2018. Before joining Pond, Kevin was a senior executive with SNC-Lavalin where he lead an emissions solutions business unit that executed projects globally in the mining and fertilizer industries. He holds a law degree from the University of Manitoba and practiced corporate and commercial law in Toronto and New York before joining SNC in 2006.
Robert Mcleese
Chair
Read Bio
Mr. McLeese, is the Founder and President of Access Capital Corp….“Access” is a Toronto based Financial Advisory firm specializing in the independent power industry for over 30 years. Access has been involved in over $2.8B of independent power production project financing including gas fired cogeneration, hydraulic, biomass, waste coal, wind, other renewables and district heating and cooling.
Rob is the Chairman of ACI Energy, Inc., a US based company, that has developed and built or acquired 4 independent solid fueled power plants totaling 171 MW, all focused on clean, efficient, reliable base load generation.
A former Director, Treasurer and Past President of APPrO, Rob is also a past Director of Creststreet Power and Income Fund, a co-developer of wind projects in Quebec, Nova Scotia, and Alberta. Rob also sat on the Boards of Pristine Power and Fengate Infrastructure Fund and is an ex Board member of the Ontario Centre of Excellence – Energy and a former member and Chair of the Toronto Board of Trade Electricity Task Force.
Rob received APPrO’s 2017 Hedley Palmer Award, the 2011 Probyn Prize for innovation in sustainable energy finance and the 2012 Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.
Rob currently serves on the Board of Export Development Canada and is the Chair of its Audit Committee. He is also Chair of Pond Technologies Inc., an Ontario technology company with a highly innovative CO2 capture technology and algae growing expertise.