Raphael (Rafi) Hofstein

Dr. Raphael (Rafi) Hofstein joined MaRS Innovation (now TIAP-Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners) as President and CEO in June 2009. Dr. Hofstein retired from that position in 2020 and since then functions as an independent Life-Science executive and consultant.

Dr. Hofstein received his Bachelor in chemistry and physics from the Hebrew Universirty, Jerusalem. His PhD is in Life Sciences and Chemistry received from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.

Awards he received as post-doctoral trainee at the Harvard Medical School in Boston in the Departments of Biological Chemistry and Neurobiology include the Chaim Weizmann Postdoctoral Fellowship in 1980-82 the Hereditary Disease Foundation Fellowship in 1982-83,.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Dr. Hofstein assumed executive positions in Israel and the US with focus on early stage biotechnology product development including Ag-biotech, medical diagnostics and drug development. Among the various roles he served as VP Marketing at Ecogen (a PA subsidiary of Monsabnto).

In 1999 Dr. Hofstein founded Hadasit BioHolding (a holding company listed on the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange) and served as its chairman since 2005. Other directorship roles include BiolineRx (NASDAQ), Scopus Biopharma (NASDAQ), Fibrocor (Toronto), Inteligex (Toronto), CTO (Toronto), CQDM (Montreal), Exactis (Montreal), Excite (International).

Dr. Hofstein served as chairman of BIOMED, Israel’s annual biomedical conference, from 2005 to 2007 and in addition was the co-founder and board member of ILSI, the Israeli Life Science Industry Organization, and the co-founder and board member of ITTN, Israel’s Tech Transfer Network.

Dr. Hofstein is currently member of the board of directors and the executive committee of Life Science Ontario.