Intro to Raising: Fireside Chat with Bloom Burton, Tealbook, Acorn Biolabs and Toothpod

Brian Bloom is a co-founder of Bloom Burton & Co. and serves as the firm’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. By forging unique relationships with international healthcare-specialized investors, Brian raises capital for healthcare companies while helping investors realize returns. 

Brian serves on the Board of Directors of Satellos Bioscience and Appili Therapeutics. Brian was formerly the Chairman of the Board of Grey Wolf Animal Health and Triumvira Immunologics, a member of the Life Sciences Advisory Board at the National Research Council of Canada, the Dean’s Advisory Board at McMaster University and on the Board of Directors of BIOTECanada, the Baycrest Foundation and Qing Bile Therapeutics.

Before co-founding Bloom Burton in 2008, Brian spent six years at an independent investment dealer in the healthcare and biotechnology institutional sales and equity research groups. Brian started his career at New York-based investment banking firms SCO Financial Group and Molecular Securities. Brian received an Honours Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from McMaster University and subsequently studied at the Mount Sinai Graduate School for Biological Sciences of New York University, with a focus in molecular endocrinology and biophysics.

Brian is the proud recipient of the McMaster University 2017 Distinguished Alumni Award in Science and the co-recipient of the 2023 Life Sciences Ontario Community Service Award. In 2023, Bloom Burton celebrated its 15-year anniversary with an Ecosystem Builder Award from BIOTECanada.

Stephany Lapierre is the Founder and CEO of Tealbook. A lifelong entrepreneur, Stephany spent 10 years building a successful strategic sourcing and procurement consulting firm and it sparked her desire to solve the supplier data problem. Stephany is passionate about establishing the gold standard for supplier data and making it accessible to every large organization, which is why TealBook’s Supplier Data Platform automates the collection, verification, and enrichment of supplier data across any data lake or enterprise system. TealBook is a leader in procurement technology and has been chosen by Spend Matters as one of their “50 Vendors to Know,” named a top 100 solution by ProcureTech and recognized as a “Cool Vendor” by Gartner.

A highly-coveted supply chain thought leader, Stephany has been recognized as one of the Top 100 Most Influential Women in Supply Chain. Outside of work, you can find Stephany spending time with her husband and three daughters, and keeping active on the ski hill or in a pilates studio.

Dr. Taylor is the CEO and co-founder of Acorn Biolabs, a personalized regenerative medicine company with offices in Toronto and Los Angeles. Dr. Taylor holds an undergraduate and Master’s degree in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology from the University of Michigan, and a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Toronto. While at Michigan, he captained the Wolverines Baseball Team and went on to play professionally with the Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies. He is the author of dozens of peer-reviewed publications and international patents. He was part of Mount Sinai Hospital’s BioEngineering of Skeletal Tissues Team, and also served as Chief Science Officer for Toronto-based venture capital firm Epic Capital Management.

Salvatore (Sam) Tarantino has 25+ years of experience in the LifeSciences Industry. He is currently leading an industry best team at BioScript Logistics and is a senior advisor to Accelera Pharma Canada. Over his career, Sam has helped some of the most innovative Life Science companies in the world launch new therapies in Canada. An expert in developing and implementing distribution strategies for orphan and specialty drugs in Canada.

Podcast host to The Pharma Podcast, where he speaks with industry experts and business leaders about the current topics in the Canadian Life Sciences Industry. Sam is an Entrepreneur & financier of young healthcare focused technology companies making an impact.