Management Team

Dr. Hunter has been a member of Cardiome's Board of Directors since 2007 and became the Company's Interim President and CEO in July, 2012. Prior to Cardiome, Dr. Hunter co-founded Angiotech Pharmaceuticals in 1992 and assumed the position of Chief Executive Officer in 1997 when Angiotech was a venture-stage, private, pre-clinical company with less than 50 employees.  He led Angiotech through 3 rounds of private equity financing, the Company’s IPO and listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange and NASDAQ, over $1B in equity and debt financings, a debt restructuring and 8 separate corporate acquisitions.  During that time, Angiotech grew to become a profitable, diversified, healthcare company with over 1,400 employees, several thousand commercially available products, 12 facilities in 5 countries and worldwide annual revenues exceeding $250M.  Dr. Hunter has over 200 patents and patent applications to his name and products in which he was an inventor or co-inventor include the TAXUS® Drug-Eluting Coronary Stent, the Zilver PTX Peripheral Drug-Eluting Stent, the Quill barbed wound closure device and the 5-FU Anti-Infective Catheter; combined these products have been used in over 6 million patients and recorded revenues of over $12 billion worldwide. Dr. Hunter currently serves a director of  Zalicus Inc (NASDAQ: ZLCS) and Union Medtech and selected awards he has received include the 2006 Principal Award from the Manning Foundation (one of Canada’s highest awards for innovation); BC Innovation Council’s Cecil Green Award for Science and Technology Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneur of the Year from the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association; and Canada’s 40 Under 40.  Dr. Hunter served as a practicing physician in British Columbia for 5 years.

Ms. Archibald is Cardiome’s Chief Financial Officer, with responsibility for overseeing our financial operations.  She joined Cardiome in 2006 and served as Cardiome’s Director of Finance until her appointment as Chief Financial Officer in September 2012.  Ms. Archibald has extensive accounting and finance experience, dealing with the complexities of both public and private corporations.  Prior to joining Cardiome, Ms. Archibald managed the accounting operations at the corporate office of The Jim Pattison Group.  Ms. Archibald began her career as a corporate auditor with KPMG performing audit, tax and accounting work.  She is a Chartered Accountant and earned a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from the University of British Columbia. 

Karim Lalji is Cardiome’s Chief Commercial Officer. Bringing over 16 years of experience in pharmaceutical business strategy, product commercialization and marketing to Cardiome, Mr. Lalji was previously Vice President of Business Strategy and New Product Commercialization at Sepracor, Inc. At Sepracor, Inc., he was responsible for the commercial success of their pipeline of drug candidates, including identifying which products to take into development and ensuring that the development program and marketing strategy resulted in successful product launches. One of the key achievements for Mr. Lalji at Sepracor, Inc. was his leadership in the development and launch of Lunesta (eszopiclone) for the treatment of insomnia. Mr. Lalji’s earlier experience includes ten years with Merck & Company, where he led several successful product launches. Mr. Lalji also has cardiovascular experience from Merck & Company as the Director of Business Strategy for the cholesterol reducers and hypertension/heart failure franchises. Mr. Lalji is currently a member of the Board of Overseers at the Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, an academic teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School. Mr. Lalji holds a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration from Simon Fraser University and a Science Masters in Health Policy and Management from Harvard University. He was awarded the Wilinsky Prize for Academic Excellence while at Harvard.

Ms. Sheila Grant is Cardiome’s Chief Operating Officer.  Ms. Grant was most recently Cardiome’s VP of Product Development, with responsibility for the overall management of the vernakalant IV and oral programs. She has overseen the development of vernakalant from its initial pre-clinical studies through to commercialization. Ms. Grant’s past roles at Cardiome have included Vice President, Commercial Affairs and Director of Business & Clinical Development. Prior to joining Cardiome, Ms. Grant acted as business consultant to De Novo Enzyme Corporation and Coopers & Lybrand. Ms. Grant also worked in research and development, production, and quality assurance with Schering Agrochemicals U.K., Wellcome Biotechnologies U.K. and Serono Diagnostics U.K. respectively. Ms. Grant holds an MBA degree from Simon Fraser University.