Ali Tehrani

Partner, Amplitude Ventures

Ali Tehrani is a venture partner at Amplitude VC and was recently named one of British Columbia’s Top 500 Influential Business Leaders by Business in Vancouver. He encourages innovation through risk-taking and is a passionate advocate for the development of Canada’s biotech sector.

In 2003, Ali co-founded Zymeworks and set the company’s vision and growth strategy to become a leader in Canadian biotechnology. With an emphasis on a corporate culture of caring, diversity and inclusiveness, he led the company through many key corporate achievements, including the development of multiple protein engineering platforms and the advancement of two internal multi-specific antibody therapeutics into clinical trials. With an initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange, he established nine partnerships with major pharma and biotech companies and initiated a global Phase 3 study for the lead program. Since stepping down from the role of president and CEO, he continues to serve as an advisor to Zymeworks, and he recently joined Amplitude VC. With his wealth of experience, he has also served as a board member at seven Canadian bioscience and industrial research organizations and was a member of British Columbia’s Premier’s Technology Council from 2016 to 2018.

Ali holds a doctoral degree in microbiology and immunology from the University of British Columbia and an master’s and bachelor’s in biochemistry from the University of Massachusetts.