Ken Galbraith joined Ventures West in 2007 and leads the firm's biotech practice.
Mr. Galbraith is a well-known and active member of the North American life sciences community with 19 years of experience acting as an executive, director, investor and advisor to companies in the biotechnology, medical device, pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors.

In 2006, Mr. Galbraith served as the Chairman and Interim CEO of AnorMED, a biopharmaceutical company focused on new therapeutic products in hematology, HIV and oncology, until its sale to Genzyme Corp. in a cash transaction worth almost US$600 million.

Previously, Mr. Galbraith spent 13 years in senior management with QLT Inc., a global biopharmaceutical company specializing in developing treatments for eye diseases and oncology, retiring in 2000 from his position as Executive VP and CFO. QLT is best known for its product Visudyne, used for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in more than 75 countries around the world, with peak sales in 2005 of approximately USD $500 million.

Mr. Galbraith was a founding Director of the BC Biotechnology Alliance and served as Chairman of the Canadian Bacterial Diseases Network, one of Canada's federally-funded Networks for Centers of Excellence (NCE). He was also a Director of the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research and the Fraser Health Authority. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre, one of the world's leading aquariums.

He has served on the Board of Directors of several public and private biotechnology companies located in BC and the US, including Angiotech Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ANPI;TSX:ANP) and Cardiome Pharma (NASDAQ:CRME;TSX:COM).  He currently serves as a Director of Alder Biopharmaceuticals, Aquinox Pharmaceuticals, OncoGenex Technologies, and Presidio Pharmaceuticals.

He earned a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) degree from the University of British Columbia and is a Chartered Accountant.

Location: Vancouver

Alder Biopharmaceuticals - Alder Biopharmaceuticals uniquely identifies, develops, and manufactures novel antibody therapeutics to alleviate human suffering in the autoimmune and inflammatory disease areas. www.alderbio.com

Aquinox Pharmaceuticals - A privately-held pharmaceutical company developing targeted small molecule therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and inflammatory disease. www.aqxpharma.com

OncoGenex Technologies Inc. - Clinical-stage biotechnology company developing targeted therapeutics for cancer. www.oncogenex.ca

Presidio Pharmaceuticals - Specialty pharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing novel, small molecule compounds for the treatment of HIV-1, HCV and other chronic viral infections. www.presidiopharma.com

SemBioSys Genetics Inc. - Develops plant transgenics for production of pharmaceutical and cosmaceutical proteins. (TSX: SBS) www.sembiosys.ca

Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc. - Drug discovery using clinical genetics and functional genomics. www.xenon-pharma.com