Kausar Samli

Chair, Board of Directors, Genome British Columbia

Dr. Kausar Samli specializes in developing and commercializing applied-technologies (including bio, quantum, advanced materials, and blockchain). His experience includes building/scaling companies, securing/deploying capital, and demonstrating significant stakeholder value generation. As a thought-leader, internationalist, and entrepreneur he leads and advises executives, investors, and institutions on strategy, technology commercialization, organizational development, and building partner ecosystems. Additionally, his multi-lingual and multi-cultural global perspective is shaped by having lived in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North America.

Dr. Samli served as SVP Global Services at Learning Machine (acquired by Hyland Software). He served as COO at 1QBit, a quantum computing software company developing hardware-agnostic platforms and services for applications in machine learning, optimization, and simulation. He also served as CEO at Lectenz Bio, a biotech company developing novel biomarker detection technologies and products using high performance computing (HPC) and protein engineering. Dr. Samli’s experience includes SaaS and hardware-based intelligent automation, ranging from process-driven to data-driven automation (ML & AI). Example industries include applications in biotech/biopharma, bioprocessing, healthcare, chemicals, cleantech, energy, natural resources, manufacturing, digital credentialing, education, and tech. On the hardware-side, Dr. Samli has worked on projects leveraging robotics, HPC, quantum, and quantum-inspired devices.

In service to communities, he is an Expert for Horizon Europe (previously Horizon 2020) for the European Commission, a former member of Singularity University’s Faculty, an Associate for Creative Destruction Lab. He serves on various for-profit and non-profit boards including Genome BC. Dr. Samli has a unique blend of scientific expertise in cell-specific targeting, high-throughput screening, molecular evolution, protein engineering, and computational chemistry. He was the recipient of a Marie Curie Fellowship, an NIH awardee, and is a co-inventor on patents. He holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology (computational chemistry) from the University of Georgia, a M.S. in chemistry from Arizona State University, and a B.S. in biochemistry from the University of Texas at Austin. He attended Singularity University’s Global Solutions Program specializing in technology entrepreneurship, commercialization, and sustainable development goals and has co-founded multiple start-ups.