Ilse Treurnicht

Ilse Treurnicht is the CEO of MaRS Discovery District, a leading innovation

centre located in Toronto. She oversees both the development and operations

of the MaRS Centre and its broad suite of entrepreneurship and innovation

programs.

MaRS offers advisory services, market intelligence and entrepreneurship

education to emerging companies in health care/life sciences, digital

media/ICT, cleantech and social purpose businesses across Ontario.

Ilse has worked closely with the leadership of Toronto's academic institutions

and teaching hospitals to create MaRS Innovation, an integrated

commercialization platform for 14 Toronto Institutions and served as the

interim Managing Director for a year following its formal launch in early 2008.

Ilse joined MaRS in early 2005 from her role as President & CEO of Primaxis

Technology Ventures, a start-up stage venture capital fund focused on the

advanced technologies sector. Prior to Primaxis, Ilse was an entrepreneur with

senior management roles in a number of emerging technology companies

She is an active member of Canada's innovation community, and has served on

the boards of private companies, industry associations and research

organizations, and has been a member of several government advisory panels.

Ilse holds a DPhil in chemistry from Oxford University, which she attended as a

Rhodes scholar.