John S. Gebhardt
Chairman of the Board, Director
Mr. Gebhardt has served as a money manager and financial consultant to public companies since retiring from over thirty years of experience on Wall Street, where he provided hands on management of marketing, sales, equity trading, regulatory compliance, developing annual operating plans and budgets. He has a demonstrated ability in product development, delivery, management, problem solving, and building motivated winning teams. Mr. Gebhardt has held various securities licenses, including a General Securities Principal License, and served on the NASDAQ Intermarket Committee from 1994-98. He has worked in various investment firms, including PaineWebber (now a unit of UBS Financial), from 1981-98 where he originated their NASDAQ/OTC marketing and sales department guiding them to a #1 industry ranking, created the first fully automated NASDAQ/OTC Markets Stop Order System—which still serves as the industry standard—and originated and managed their Third Market Trading Department, leaving as a Managing Director and joined Knight Capital Markets as a Managing Director where he originated and managed their Listed Block Trading Desk from 1998-2001, attaining a top industry ranking. Mr. Gebhardt currently serves as a director of The American Energy Group Ltd. (AEGG:OTC US), an oil and gas royalty company, has served on a public school board in New York State for twelve years and is still very involved in public service organizations serving children as well as currently serving as an elected public official in the State of Florida. He attended the Stern School of Business at NYU and the Lubin School of Business at Pace University.
Rachelle MacSweeney, B.Sc., MBA
Founder, President, Chief Executive Officer and Director
Mrs. MacSweeney co-founded Pivotal Therapeutics Inc. in 2010, and was instrumental in getting Pivotal listed on both the CSE and OTCQX. She has successfully raised capital through both retail and institutional sources, and was central in securing equity financing and venture capital for the Company. Mrs. MacSweeney was key in taking the company’s lead product VASCAZEN® from idea to commercialization, and is active in developing the long-term strategy for both VASCAZEN® and Pivotal. Prior to co-founding the company, Mrs. MacSweeney spent several years as a marketing and business development consultant, primarily in the biotechnology/pharmaceutical industry, as well as the healthcare and homecare products industries. In her current role, Mrs. MacSweeney is responsible for managing the commercial functions of business development, licensing, marketing and sales, as well as the internal company operations. Mrs. MacSweeney brings to Pivotal a well rounded and polished understanding of business development, project management, and operations, as well as a bright and creative talent for marketing. Mrs. MacSweeney holds a Hon. B.Sc. degree in Biomedical Science from the University of Guelph and a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from Dalhousie University, with specific focus and areas of expertise in marketing, new venture creation, product management and development, and entrepreneurial studies.
George Jackowski, Ph.D
Founder, Chief Scientific Officer and Director
Dr. Jackowski has been instrumental in the founding of 12 biotechnology companies in his career, four of which became publicly traded. Furthermore, he has contributed to the creation of 12 additional biotechnology companies. He is responsible for the creation of over 1,000 high tech jobs in a hard to fund biotech sector. He has grown companies to market caps of over $350 million, raised from public capital markets over $125 million and completed deals with Big Pharma of over $100 million USD in transactions. Dr. Jackowski is currently Chief Scientific Officer of Pivotal Therapeutics Inc. and holds Directorships in numerous biotech companies. Prior to creating Pivotal, he was founder, Chairman, CEO and CSO at SynX Pharma Inc. He has served as the Chairman of Bio Canada Connect, a Board Member of the Ontario BIO Council and on the Board of Directors for the Canadian Stroke Network. Dr. Jackowski has also served on many federal and provincial governmental biotechnology committees and is on the Scientific Board of Advisors for the Innovation Cluster, Trent University. Dr. Jackowski has been intimately involved in the enforcement of patent claims, patent litigation and patent interference proceedings. As one of the pioneers of Canadian Biotech over the past thirty years, Dr. George Jackowski was recently recognized and awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his significant contribution to the Canadian Biotech and Pharmaceutical Industries by the Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Dr. Jackowski also received the 1996 MEDEC Award for Medical Achievement for his invention of the Cardiac STATus™ CK-MB/Myoglobin / Troponin Card Test. He developed and holds the patents on the rapid format immunoassays measuring cardiac enzymes, in particularly Troponin, which aids in the early diagnosis of myocardial infarction and is commercialized worldwide in hospital emergency rooms. Dr. Jackowski, a respected cardiovascular biochemist, was trained at the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the University of San Francisco, California and at the Department of Clinical Biochemistry at the University of Toronto. Dr. Jackowski holds academic positions at the University of Toronto in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology and the Department of Surgery and the Florida Atlantic University, the Centre for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology. His scientific resume includes authoring 44 publications and 61 abstracts, holding over 153 patents filed and issued.
