Ex-Shopify CTO Jean-Michel Lemieux has joined the advisory board of BenchSci, a pharmaceutical research support company focused on cutting down research times with artificial intelligence.
The move comes almost ten months after Lemieux left his CTO position at Shopify. Since his departure, Lemieux has focused on writing “micro-chapters” of an online book to share his knowledge with founders and entrepreneurs looking to scale and build their companies.
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Lemieux also joined three months after BenchSci secured $63 million CAD in Series C capital. Led by backers such as Inovia Capital, TCV, and Gradient Ventures, BenchSci said the funding was meant to expedite the expansion of its AI software. Similarly, BenchSci said Lemieux’s guidance will help the company expand the impact of its software platform for biomedical research and development – specifically when it comes to growing BenchSci’s engineering team.
BenchSci uses machine learning to “target inefficiencies and unnecessary spend” in pharmaceutical research. The task of its software is to help scientists and pharmaceutical companies expedite drug discovery, with the ultimate goal to bring novel medicine to patients by 2025.
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Lemieux brings to BenchSci experience in scaling two software-based startups to IPO through his positions at Atlassian and Shopify. Lemieux began at Shopify as the senior vice president of engineering and became CTO in 2019.
Lemieux isn’t the only individual with experience scaling companies that BenchSci has brought on since it raised its Series C round. He follows Jessica Neal, who joined the advisory board at the beginning of March. Neal is credited as a “culture builder” during her time as chief talent officer at Netflix.
Other advisers on the board include Milind Kamkolkar, chief digital and data officer at Cellarity, and Richard Zemel, a professor of computer science at the University of Toronto.
Featured image courtesy Shopify