Trained as a medical technologist and with a background in blood banking and hematology, Joan immigrated from Ireland to North America in 1989. Joan held positions at the New England Deaconess Hospital (Brookline, MA), the American Red Cross (Cleveland, OH), and the Markham Stouffville Hospital (Markham, Ontario) before settling in Vancouver, Canada in 1993. In July of 1993, Joan took a position at STEMCELL Technologies Inc., a small startup that was producing a single product line of cell culture media for growing hematopoietic cells out of a dedicated clean room at the Terry Fox Laboratories. Recently immigrated and unemployed at the time, Joan was just excited to have a job.Over the next decade, rooted by CEO Allen Eaves’ unrelenting pursuit of scientific knowledge and dedication to quality, STEMCELL saw annual growth of 15-30%. Joan played a key role in driving this growth through various roles in Technical Support, Education, Marketing, Customer Service, and Distribution & Logistics. She took on her current title as VP Sales in 2004. Today, STEMCELL employs 750 people, sells more than 2000 products globally, maintains offices in several countries, and has never seen an unprofitable year. Working from STEMCELL’s Vancouver head office, Joan is responsible for driving global top line initiatives supporting STEMCELL’s ongoing growth. Her current focus is the expansion of STEMCELL’s presence in international biotechnology markets, particularly Asia and Europe. Managing a team of highly trained, scientifically qualified sales managers and representatives, two thirds of whom hold PhDs or MScs, Joan claims that one of her best qualities is her ability to empower people that are smarter than her.