Rachelle MacSweeney, B.Sc., MBA
Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer
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
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.
