Brenda Irwin
Role: Associate
Site: CDL-Vancouver
Stream: Biomedical Engineering
Brenda Irwin is an investor, seasoned board director, and managing partner of the Relentless Venture Fund. Relentless is a health technology venture capital fund that invests in companies backed by leading-edge clinical research and technologies that deliver preventive health solutions and manage chronic conditions. Brenda is a former life science venture capitalist for the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC). As a strategic advisor and investor, Brenda specializes in both assessing and top-grading the investment potential of early-stage companies. She has considerable expertise through all stages of a company’s lifecycle, having been a board director for more than two dozen private and public life sciences and biotechnology corporations. Brenda is a director for MEDTEQ+ and previously a director for TiiP (the Table of Impact Investment Professionals).
Brenda’s not-for-profit commitments have included membership on the Providence Health Care Board of Directors, a provincial healthcare organization governing 16 sites and 9,000 employees. She was chair of the Providence Innovation, Academics & Research Committee. She is also the former vice president and board director for Take A Hike, Youth at Risk Foundation, an organization enabling at-risk youth to change their lives positively. As an active tech and health community mentor, Brenda is committed to inspiring young women to pursue careers in science and technology. She is a ‘Business in Vancouver 40 Under 40 Award’ recipient and has been declared one of the 500 Most Influential Business Leaders in British Columbia in 2021 and 2022. She holds a combined MBA in Information Technology from the Sauder School of Business and the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, as well as bachelor’s degrees in Human Biology (with a specialization in Biomedical Science) and in English from the University of Guelph. She also earned a bachelor’s in education at Queen’s University.