Julia Levy
PhD, Director
Dr. Levy was a co-founder of QLT Inc. and served in several key senior positions at QLT including Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President as well as President and CEO from 1995 to February 2002. Under her leadership, QLT experienced its strongest period of growth and raised over $386 million cumulatively before marketing its lead product, Visudyne, an intravenous photodynamic therapy product to treat age related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of blindness in the elderly. Following her doctorate degree in immunology from the University of London, Dr. Levy was awarded an Industrial Professorship in the Department of Microbiology from the University of British Columbia and is the recipient of several honorary degrees. A fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and former President of the Canadian Federation of Biological Sciences, Dr. Levy has earned numerous awards and honors including an appointment as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2001, the Female Entrepreneur of the Year for International Business in 1998, Pacific Canada Entrepreneur of the Year in 2000 and the Future of Vision Award from the Foundation Fighting Blindness in 2001. In 2002 she received, along with Dr. David Dolphin, the Friesen-Rygiel prize for medical research and the Prix Galien Canada research award. Along with Dr. Gustav Huber of Novartis, she was presented with the 2003 Helen Keller Prize for Innovation in Eye Care. In her honor, the Julia G. Levy Professorship in Ophthalmology Chair was created at Johns Hopkins Hospital Wilmer Eye Institute in 2004, the same year she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the British Columbia Biotechnology Association. She is the author of many published scientific articles, a director of the Working Opportunity Fund (a Canada-based venture capital firm), and serves as a director with a number of public and private biotechnology companies.
