PsyFi

Yaron Conforti is an entrepreneur and the principal of EmmCap Corp., an investor in venture-stage companies. EmmCap actively participates in its early-stage investments via board and management roles. Yaron has over 20 years of venture capital investing and operating experience, including founder and CEO roles in companies across different industries. Past EmmCap investments include Abacus Health Products (acquired by Charlotte’s Web), GR Silver Mining Ltd. (TSXV:GRSL) and IM Cannabis Corp. (CSE:IMCC). Yaron previously served in senior investment banking roles at Desjardins Securities and Sandfire Securities where he focused on micro/small cap equities.

Jeremy Weate is the CEO of the Vancouver-based Universal Ibogaine, which plans to go public on the Toronto Stock Exchange shortly. Universal Ibogaine will take ibogaine through clinical trials for opioid use disorder in Canada, with a view to multi-country phase 3 trials. The company will launch ibogaine assisted therapy clinics in North America and subsequently globally this decade under the Clear Sky Recovery brand, beginning with a retreat centre in the Bahamas in Q1 2021.

In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Ted Bender, PhD, MBA, LCDC, President of UnityPoint Health - UnityPlace. Dr. Bender earned his doctorate in psychology at Florida State University. He then completed his residency at the Warren Alpert School of Medicine – Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Later in his career, he completed his MBA at Texas AandM. While at FSU, Dr. Bender did research for the Military Suicide Research Consortium, which gave him a deep understanding of suicide and a great empathy for veterans.

Dr. Bender has served in the addiction field as a clinician and in leadership roles. Dr. Bender is also a Board Member of NAMI Illinois. As President of UnityPoint Health - UnityPlace, Dr. Bender places emphasis on improving access to behavioral health services, community outreach, and integrating resources in order to provide the best outcome for each and every individual.

Dr. Carlos graduated from the School of Medicine at the University of Anahuac in Mexico, then received additional clinical training at Harvard University from 2001- 2002. Since 2001 he has led a center of integral health in Malinalco, cultivating organic medicinal plants and refining them into herbal formulas. In 2012, Carlos co-founded Sapientia, an integrative model specializing in emotional support through neurotransmission balance — with the aim of treating and preventing ailments like depression, anxiety, insomnia and dementia. His practice incorporates medical models from around the world, including Chinese medicine and shamanism. He has conducted workshops and consultations in Mexico, South Africa, Spain and Switzerland.

Dr. Jetly is senior advisor in Psychiatry for the Canadian Armed Forces and currently is the Head of the Centre of Excellence on Mental Health, Directorate of Mental Health. He is an associate professor of psychiatry at Dalhousie University (Halifax) and at the University of Ottawa. He has published numerous articles in professional journals and presents nationally and internationally on such topics as post-traumatic stress disorder and operational psychiatry. He is also the Chair for Military Mental Health with the Royal’s Institute of Mental Health Research in Ottawa. He is a strategic thinker who is committed to evolving mental health research by investigating the underlying biological underpinnings of mental health disease, by incorporating the use technology to modernize treatment and diagnostic modalities and by finding strategies to advance precision medicine.

After receiving her PhD in natural products and organic chemistry, Jackie was drawn to industries that challenged the norm. She has worked in various fields of drug discovery from neglected and tropical diseases to antibiotics to psychoactives, all of which are understudied fields with many drug discovery challenges. Her father’s diagnosis with a rare form of dementia and her family’s struggle with addiction catalyzed my interest in neurological conditions and continues to motivate her today. The goal with Psilera Bioscience is to find ways to accelerate research of mindful medicines whose purpose is to benefit patients as a whole and for the long term.

Nikolai has spent the majority of his career helping organizations solve their biggest challenges with innovative technology. His interest in the breakthrough potential of psychedelic medicine led him to start Mindleap Health a company focused on providing an advanced platform for psychedelic aftercare and other mental health services. During his time working at high-growth technology companies, he has formed multi-million-dollar partnerships, sold and led complex data analytics and cybersecurity software projects for various Fortune 500 organizations, as well as for the US and Canadian Governments. Nikolai’s mission is to positively impact society by contributing to the broad adoption of psychedelic medicine.

Dr. Witowski has devoted his career to the study of bioactive and psychoactive medicines to benefit humanity and mental health. His research has received numerous accolades and patents on marketed products while bridging corporate leadership within emerging industries. He leads Psilera Bioscience, a psychedelic-based biotechnology company developing its proprietary neuromodulator pipeline to target cognitive, mood, and addiction disorders. Psilera leverages its research strengths and pharmaceutical background to repurpose psychoactive natural products as building blocks for next generation therapies to improve mental health.

We sat down with Anders Beatty, Founder of Ibogaine Counselling Services

Anders is a qualified integrative psychotherapist and plant medicine counsellor who founded Ibogaine Counselling Services after overcoming his own 25 year battle with addiction. His groundbreaking pre-and-post-treatment program has become widely adopted as a fundamental component of professional ibogaine treatments, and his guidance and counselling services are now relied upon by most of the top ibogaine providers worldwide. Anders approach to addiction focuses on the trauma his clients have suffered and looks to address this in their recovery so that their journey becomes the narrative of empowerment. Anders regularly engages and speaks at various Psychedelic events, forums and podcasts.

We sat down with Manesh Girn, PhD Candidate in Neuroscience, McGill University

Manesh Girn is a Neuroscience PhD student at McGill University and has been lead or co-author on a dozen scientific publications and book chapters on topics including psychedelics, meditation, mind-wandering, and brain network interactions. Manesh currently has ongoing collaborations with Robin Carhart-Harris and others at the Imperial College Center for Psychedelic Research and is investigating the brain changes underlying psilocybin, LSD, and DMT. He has had a passionate interest in psychedelics and their scientific investigation since his teens and also runs a psychedelic science YouTube channel – “The Psychedelic Scientist” – that provides accessible discussions of the latest research findings.