Our Story

An entrepreneur, engineer, inventor, Tamer currently serves as our President and Chief Executive Officer. Tamer co-founded Aspect in 2013 and has played a leading role in our overall corporate, business, and technology development. Under his leadership, we have secured significant funding, entered strategic collaborations with best-in-class pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and developed our commercial products. In his previous appointment as Chief Technology Officer of the company, Tamer drove the innovation and development of the company’s core technologies and intellectual property. 

As a leader in the field of 3D bioprinting, he has been invited to speak on this topic at venues ranging from TEDx to industry, scientific, and executive conferences. In 2017, he was awarded BC's Top 40 under 40 award for demonstrating excellence in business, judgement, leadership, and community contribution. Tamer serves on the Board of Directors for The Stem Cell Network, an organization focused on building Canada’s stem cell and regenerative medicine research sector, and is an Advisory Board Member for the Knowledge Society (TKS), a 10-month accelerator program to train young people to solve the world's biggest problems using emerging technologies.

Tamer holds a B.A.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering and M.A.Sc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of British Columbia.

Sam is the Chief Scientific Officer at Aspect and is responsible for our scientific innovation and development. He has over 10 years of experience leading world-class tissue engineering R&D and currently leads our technical efforts in developing bioprinted tissue applications, both internally and externally. He is a recognized leader in the field of airway tissue engineering and has numerous publications in this area. 

As a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the UBC Institute for Heart and Lung Innovation at St. Paul’s Hospital, he spearheaded the BioAirway Research Offering New Concepts in Health (BRONCH) partnership, an interdisciplinary, cross-Canada research initiative to develop in vitro 3D human airway tissues. 

Sam holds a Ph.D. in respiratory cell biology from the University of Nottingham.

Simon is the Chief Technology Officer at Aspect and oversees the advancement of our biomanufacturing technologies. He leads our engineering teams and the development of our core technologies, including bioprinting systems, microfluidic printheads, biomanufacturing automation, tissue design software, and machine learning. Simon is a principal inventor of Aspect's microfluidic bioprinting technology with broad expertise developing advanced printing systems for applications including printed electronics, self-assembling nanomaterials, and biological tissue.

Simon holds a B.A.Sc. and M.A.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the University of British Columbia.

As Chief Business Development Officer, Eric leads the expansion of our global partnerships with biopharmaceutical innovators. He has over 30 years of experience in the development of biopharmaceuticals, cell therapies, and regenerative medicine products. His leadership roles in the cell therapy industry spanned a multitude of responsibilities including leading early phase development, process optimization, clinical trial execution, and business development. Most recently during his decade-long tenure at Thermo Fisher Scientific, he was responsible for building global strategic alliances and expanding their Cell & Gene Therapy Business Unit. 

As Chief Financial Officer, Ray is responsible for the company's financial management and business operations. Ray is a seasoned financial executive with over 25 years of experience leading finance teams in rapidly growing businesses. After completing his studies in Mathematics and Computation from Loughborough University in the UK, he started his career at Ernst & Young (EY), where he was qualified as a Chartered Accountant. After his time at EY, he joined Eurand, a global specialty pharmaceutical company. As VP, Finance at Eurand, he helped grow the US company from 70 to 330 employees, increase annual revenue from single digits to over $100M, develop and launch Eurand’s first clinical product generating a new $100M revenue stream, and complete a $110M IPO on the NASDAQ in 2007.

Ray was later CFO at Recon Instruments, the world leader in Heads-up Display technology for sports environments that was acquired by Intel for over $175M. Most recently he was CFO of Cross Pacific Capital Partners and several of their portfolio companies in the high-tech space. During this period, he played a leading role in raising significant capital from multiple sources including Lenovo, M Ventures (the venture capital fund of Merck KGaA), and 3M while providing strong financial and operational leadership to multiple corporations across several countries.

Spiro is the Senior Vice President of Preclinical R&D at Aspect and manages all partnered and internal tissue engineering programs. Spiro was trained as a reproductive and developmental biologist at the University of British Columbia prior to pursuing a postdoctoral fellowship in cell biology at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, IL. At Northwestern, Spiro rose to the rank of a tenured Associate Professor of Dermatology and Director of Skin Tissue Engineering while securing federal and industrial funding for his team’s research on cell-cell adhesion and communication systems. 

In 2016, Spiro joined GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals in Collegeville, PA as a Director of Biology with a focus on delivering preclinical models for drug discovery and development.  He is an author on >60 research publications.

As Senior Vice President of Process Development and Manufacturing, Jack oversees the build-out of our clinical and commercial-scale GMP biomanufacturing for our bioprinted cell therapies. 

Jack has over 30 years of strong scientific, cell therapy development, and manufacturing experience. He has deep expertise in the development and optimization of cell-based production systems in complex regulatory environments, with a proven track record of guiding and executing organization-wide product development strategies from concept to commercialization. He most recently served as Vice President of Bioprocessing for Humacyte, Inc. and has previous held leadership roles at Lonza and other major pharma and biotech companies. 

Jack received his Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Harvard University and a Master of Public Health in Health Law from Boston University.

As Vice President of Translational Sciences, Rafal is responsible for the build, implementation, and management of Aspect's therapeutic cell strategy for our pipeline of bioprinted therapeutics.

Dr. Witek is an experienced scientific leader in the field of liver biology with a strong track record of success working in the biotech industry and research space. He has over 12 years of industry experience, including leading the R&D group for hepatic biology and advanced culture models in the Division of Cell Biology at Thermo Fisher Scientific/Life Technologies, and most recently, leading process development activities for cell-based therapies for liver disease as Director of Cell Therapy Platform at Ambys Medicines. He also has over 20 years of research experience and extensive expertise in liver molecular and cell biology, toxicology, 3D and organotypic modelling. 

 Dr. Witek received his PhD from the College of Medicine at the University of Florida where his research focused on using stem cells and gene therapy to correct liver metabolic disorders. He also holds an MBA from Duke University.

As Senior Director of People & Culture, Amanda is responsible for leading and developing Aspect’s talent acquisition and management strategy. Tech is her passion and people are front and centre of everything she does.

Prior to joining Aspect, Amanda spent 9 years in various talent acquisition positions for technology and engineering companies going through high growth periods. She is a Registered Professional Recruiter and holds a BA in International Relations from the University of British Columbia. 

Joel is the Senior Director of Licensing & Intellectual Property at Aspect, overseeing all matters related to agreements and intellectual property for the company. With more than 15 years of experience in management and commercialization of intellectual property assets, Joel has held a cross section of roles in the life science industry, providing expertise in business development and licensing, intellectual property management, technology assessment, and venture financing. Prior to joining Aspect in 2018, Joel worked for STEMCELL Technologies where he provided business development support to an emerging product diversification strategy and contributed to various senior level corporate development projects including M&A.

Joel holds a Bachelor of Cell & Developmental Biology from the University of British Columbia and a Master of Biomedical Technology from the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary.

As Head of Academic Partnerships, Erin builds and supports our partnerships with academic labs around the world. Erin originally joined the company as an Applications Scientist and brings a wealth of technical knowledge and experience in microfluidic 3D bioprinting and the bioprinting space.

Erin holds a BASc in Nanotechnology Engineering from the University of Waterloo and a PhD in Nanotechnology Engineering/Chemistry from the University of Waterloo and the Université Pierre et Marie Curie.

As Head of Marketing & Communications, Natalie manages Aspect's corporate communications, digital marketing, branding, and conference planning. As one of the first full-time hires at Aspect, Natalie has broad knowledge and experience across various business functions in the company. She is a skilled and adaptable communicator who is passionate about sharing the amazing science and technology at Aspect with a wide range of audiences.

Natalie holds a BCom in Marketing & International Business from the University of British Columbia. Outside of professional life, she is an avid hockey player and coach. In 2020, she was awarded BC Female Coach of the Year by Hockey Canada.