Allen Eaves, OBC MD PhD FRCPC, is president and CEO of STEMCELL Technologies Inc. With an average annual growth rate of 20% over the last 28 years, and 97% of its sales outside of Canada, STEMCELL is Canada’s largest biotech company. It has over 1,500 employees and a global network of sales offices and distribution centres serving thousands of customers.
Dr. Eaves was born in Ottawa (1941) and moved to Nova Scotia at age seven. He attended Acadia University (BSc in biology and mathematics, 1962), Dalhousie University (MSc in physiology, 1964 and medicine, 1969) and the University of Toronto (PhD in medical biophysics, 1974). He completed his fellowship in internal medicine and medical oncology at the Vancouver General Hospital and the British Columbia Cancer Agency (1979).
With his wife, Dr. Connie Eaves, he founded Vancouver’s Terry Fox Laboratory for Cancer Research and was its director for 25 years (1981–2006). As head of clinical hematology at the University of British Columbia for 18 years (1985–2003), he focused on building one of Canada’s first bone marrow transplant programs.
Required to retire at age 65 in 2006, Dr. Eaves became professor emeritus of hematology and devoted himself to building STEMCELL Technologies, a company he founded in 1993 to provide novel and standardized tissue culture reagents, immuno-magnetic cell separation products, instruments and tools for stem cell research, regenerative medicine, gene therapy, tissue engineering and cancer research.
Dr. Eaves has published over 200 papers in leading peer-review scientific journals. He has served as president of the International Society of Cell Therapy, president of the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation and founding treasurer of the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cell Therapy, and has been a member of Health Canada’s Expert Working Group on the Safety of Organs and Tissues for Transplantation. He has sat on the boards of MITACS, the Canadian Stem Cell Foundation, the Canadian Stem Cell Network, the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine and the Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery.
Dr. Eaves is passionate about creating rewarding employment in Canada for those who love science and business and want to make the world a better place through research.