Dr. Kenneth E. Keirstead, Chairman and Founder of The Lyceum Group
Vice President of ONG Groupe Lyceum in Guinea.
Honorary Consul for the Republic of Mali in Canada.
Vice Chairman of Soricimed Biopharma Inc.
Board Member of Intellipharmaceutics International Inc.
Chairman of the Board, Ukamba School of Business, Nairobi, Kenya.
Member of the Rotary Club of Grand Manan Island.
Address: 541 Charlotte Street, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. E3B 1M1 Phone (Office): (506) 455-4110 Phone (Cell): (506) 476-0944 Skype Video Phone: kenneth.keirstead Email:kkeirstead@lyceumresearch.com
Dr. Keirstead is of South African origin and a graduate of the Pathology Institute in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He also graduated from two United States advanced education institutions in executive management (College of William and Mary, and Columbia University). After more than four decades of senior research and management positions with multinational companies, he specialized in public health care policy, followed by human resource development in Africa, focused on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). He is widely travelled and a frequent speaker and lecturer on human infrastructure building in the developing world. His work now focuses on West Africa where he plays a key role in the development of rural human infrastructure development, and administration of programs in health care and education.
He serves on task forces and the boards of international pharmaceutical development companies. He is widely published, mentors students with interest or origins in Africa, and is a confirmed believer in self-help for the development of African people.
Mrs. Fatoumata Dabo, President of ONG Groupe Lyceum
Member and Secretary of the Rotary Club, Conakry.
Treasurer of PAMOJA in West Africa.
Address: Cameroun Corniche Nord, Conakry, Republic of Guinea. Phone: 224.60.54.93.72 or 224.64.77.10.63 Email:fatmadabo@lyceumresearch.com
Fatoumata Dabo is located in Conakry, Guinea as the President of ONG Groupe Lyceum, from where she also covers activities in other West African countries. She joined the group in November 2003 to manage the Twinning Project between the Loos Islands in Guinea, and Grand Manan Island in New Brunswick, Canada. Since then she has progressively advanced to work on corporate responsibility projects, interfacing with International Financial Institutions (IFIs) in Guinea, and managing field operations and staff training.
She completed her undergraduate studies at the West Africa Computer Sciences Institute (WACS) in Accra, Ghana and is currently taking graduate studies in business administration (IT Management) to advance her development. She has actively participated in eLearning Africa conferences in Nairobi in Kenya, Accra in Ghana, and Dakar in Senegal.
Fatoumata is an effective communicator and facilitator, with particular skill in rural social surveys and the organization of community development programs to build consensus. She is fluent in French and English, and several local languages of West Africa.
Dr. Mark v.C. de Groot, Managing Partner of Virage Capital, Chairman of Kora | Terra, and Advisory Committee Member
Dr. de Groot is a managing partner of Virage Capital in Montreal. He has extensive experience, domestically and internationally, in architecting both new private equity
funds and innovative company deal structures, and thereafter securing capital for these.
Until 2009, he was the CEO of the venture capital fund iNovia Capital, which he founded in 2002 and which has around $165 million under management. While working
at a life sciences fund with $1 billion under management, he started and ran the first seed-stage life science venture capital fund in Canada, and has been instrumental
in establishing a number of other investment funds. He has also worked extensively in the technology and the life sciences sectors at the company level.
He grew up in Africa, finishing his secondary schooling there and also attending the University of Cape Town. Thereafter he obtained an MSc from Trinity College,
University of Toronto and a PhD in Physics from Oxford University, following which he did post-doctoral research at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.
He is a keen participant in a variety of different organized sports.
Mr. Paul Gunn, Advisory Board Member
Address: 189 Alexander Avenue, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada E1E 4N6
Paul Gunn is President and CEO of Soricimed Biopharma Inc, a biotech company developing a cancer drug and diagnostic.
He is an experienced financial executive with more than 25 years of progressive management experience, leading companies through periods of accelerated growth, acquisitions, operational mergers and reorganization. He has an excellent reputation within the financing community with banks, venture capital organizations, and all levels of government having raised more than $23 million for various early stage companies. This included funding for research and development, marketing, commercialization, working capital, capital projects, and acquisitions.
Paul is a member of the boards of Tech South East, an organization supporting innovation in southeast New Brunswick, as well as the Capital Theatre Foundation.
He is the father of the late Ryan Gunn (Ryan’s Wish), and stepfather of Miss Nicole Macnab (Associate) who spend three months volunteering at Dominghia during 2010. Paul travelled to Mali to see the work of LGL in that West African country.
Bishop Albert David G. Gomez, Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Guinea and Guinea Bissau. Advisory Committee Member
Address: B.P. 1187, Conakry, Republic of Guinea. Phone: 224.64.00.93.23 Email:galbertdgomez@yahoo.fr
Bishop Gomez was born in Labé where he did his primary education before moving to Conakry. In 1969 he graduated from the Institut Polytechnique Gamal Abdel Nasser with distinction, earning a Diploma in Civil Engineering. He served his country from then until 1995 in various technical capacities, ending up as the Chief of Cabinet for the Ministry of Transport. He departed from this position following his desire to study theology in England, and was subsequently appointed as Bishop of the Diocese of Guinea on September 10, 2000. His dedicated leadership has seen the advance of the Anglican work in Guinea, and Bishop Gomez has played a key role in inter-faith activities to respect the citizens of Guinea and thus promote stability and cooperation. He is an advocate of inclusiveness and human resource development. In January 2006 Bishop Gomez was appointed Dean of the Anglican Church for the Province of West Africa.
Dr. Hans S. Keirstead, Advisory Committee Member
Professor, Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology, University of California Irvine.
Professor, Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California Irvine.
Director, UCI-Africa Initiative, University of California Irvine.
Founder of the Stem Cell Research Center, University of California Irvine.
Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of California Stem Cell.
Address: Reeve-Irvine Research Center, 845 Health Sciences Road, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, California 92697 Phone: (949) 824-6213 Email: hansk@uci.edu
Dr. Hans Keirstead is a Canadian born neuroscientist who completed his Ph.D at the University of British Columbia, followed by post-doctoral studies at Cambridge University in England. His academic work constituted the first demonstration of functional regeneration of the injured adult spinal cord. He directs a research team investigating the cellular biology and treatment of spinal cord trauma, research that also has significance for other diseases of the nervous system. His laboratory utilizes a broad number of investigative techniques, including molecular and histological analyses, complex tissue culture, and in vivo experimentation. He developed a treatment that is in Phase 3 clinical trials, and another in Phase 1 clinical trials – the first human embryonic stem cell based treatment in the world in the clinic.
On multiple occasions, he has testified at federal Senate and the House of Representatives regarding stem cell research and policy.
Hans and his neuroscientist wife Dr. Niki Berchtold have visited the work of LGL in Guinea, and he has led several initiatives to sponsor health care capability in rural and urban centers of Guinea. Since 2006 Hans has been a champion of LGL’s progress and growth.
Mr. Thomas T. Tierney, President of Vita-Tech and Advisory Member
Address:Vita Tech International Inc, 2802 Dow Ave Tustin, CA 92780 Phone: (714) 832-9700 Email: triplet@vitatech.com
Thomas T. (Tom) Tierney is a trustee of the University of California, Irvine Foundation. He and his wife Elizabeth have endowed a lifetime Chair in Peace Studies, the first in the history of the University of California System, and established scholarships in the Claire Trevor School of the Arts, the School of Humanities and the Program in Nursing, as well as programs in Global Peace and Conflict Studies. He serves on the Advisory Board of the Center for Unconventional Security Affairs and is active in outreach programs which support healing in all forms. The Thomas T. and Elizabeth C. Tierney University House is the UCI Chancellor's residence. Tom is the President and CEO of VIta-Tech International, Inc in Tustin, California which, over the last two years, has donated four and a half tons of vitamins and minerals to the rural community work of Le Groupe Lyceum in Guinea, West Africa. He is also a strong supporter of the UCI Africa Initiative, St. John Chrysostom Episcopal Church, and life with four children and ten grandchildren.
Mrs. Mary Roosevelt, Community Leader, Advisory Committee Member
Address:304 Fernleaf Ave, Corona del Mar, CA 92625-2901 Phone: (949) 675-5090 Cell: (949) 283-2976 Email: mwroosev@pacbell.net
Mary Roosevelt, formerly the Coordinator for the Multiple Subject Credential Program for the Department of Education at the University of California, Irvine, received the UCI Medal in 1990. She was also an ambassador and board member of the UCI Foundation. She is a trustee of the Ecolint American Foundation, President Emeritus of the University of California Research Associates, and a Friend and Honorary Fellow of Griffith University in Queensland, Australia. She earned her teaching credentials from the National Froebel Education Institute in London and the University of London, where she worked in both public and private schools before she entered the world of international education. Mrs. Roosevelt was Principal of the Junior House at the United Nations International School in New York and also taught at the International School of Geneva, Switzerland, where she created the first draft of what is now the Elementary Curriculum for the International Baccalaureate.
May has a keen interest in the evolution of the UCI Africa Initiative, and has a unique connection to Guinea, having lived there for some months.
Ms. Lynne Celine Tompkins, Development Director and Advisory Committee Member
Throughout her career, Lynne has developed her expertise in education, communications, public relations and business development. She has consulted with SMEs (Small to Medium sized Enterprises) in the manufacturing, services and tourism sectors to help them grow their businesses and expand their export markets. In recent years this has involved assisting companies in assessing opportunities through various international banks and aid agencies. Lynne’s experience as a civil servant for the Province of New Brunswick and also as New Brunswick’s Private Sector Liaison Officer (PSLO) for the World Bank and the Inter American Development Bank, has, in addition to considerable international travel, given her a unique and valuable perspective on the global community.
Lynne has travelled to Guinea on two occasions and seen first-hand the work of LGL in that country.
Address: 541 Charlotte Street, Fredericton, New Brunswick. E3B 1M1 Phone: (506) 455-4110 Phone (Cell): (506) 476-0346 Email:ltompkins@lyceumresearch.com
