Dedicated to Sleep Technology and Its Application
Senior Leadership Team
Dr. Magdy Younes, MD, FRCPC, PhD – Scientific Founder
Dr. Younes is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba. He has been a Clinician Scientist/University Professor at McGill University (1973-1976), University of Texas Medical Branch (1976-1982), and finally, University of Manitoba (1982-present) where he served as Head of Respiratory Medicine (1988-1997) at the sleep laboratory at the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg (1991-2001), Dr. Younes’s research in respirology, critical care medicine and sleep medicine has resulted in 162 original peer-reviewed papers and 22 book chapters and reviews and numerous patents; more recently, he has authored or co-authored 25 influential peer-reviewed publications on the pathogenesis of sleep apnea, including the chapter in the authoritative Comprehensive Physiology, published by the American Physiological Society. Dr. Younes is the inventor of Michele Sleep Scoring, the Prodigy Sleep Monitor, Proportional Assist Ventilation (PAV), the Winnipeg Ventilator, and ORP continuous sleep depth index, and several methods for non-invasive determination of respiratory mechanics.
Patrick Crampton – President and Chief Operating Officer
Joining Cerebra in April 2019, Patrick brings a passion for commercializing innovation and building customer-focused organizations. Patrick previously served as Chief Operating Officer for Farmers Edge, a global leader in the Ag Tech sector and Vice President of Business & Product Development at Agrisoma Biosciences, a pioneer in the development sustainable biojet fuels. Patrick brings significant global business & product management experience having served in numerous senior roles at Syngenta AG including Global Business Manager and Head of Marketing for the Canadian business unit. Patrick holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Guelph and a Masters in Business Administration from the Queen’s School of Business. Patrick also serves as a board member for the Biosciences Association of Manitoba.
Lorna McLeod – Chief Financial Officer
Lorna joined the Cerebra team in June 2018. Prior to this she was Senior Vice President, Finance at Postmedia Network Inc., a Canadian newsmedia company representing more than 140 brands across multiple print, online, and mobile platforms. She held senior finance positions in Postmedia’s predecessor companies, Canwest Limited Partnership and Canwest Media. Prior to joining Canwest, she was Vice President, Finance at TruServ Canada. Lorna holds a CPA, CA designation as well as a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) degree from the University of Manitoba.
Darren DeCock – Vice President, Product
Darren joined Cerebra as Director of Operations at the beginning of 2016. In 2018, Darren was promoted to Vice President of Operations and Manufacturing and was instrumental in the development and Health Canada approval of the Prodigy Sleep System. In 2019 Darren became the Vice President of Customer Success. Prior to joining Cerebra, Darren spent nine years working for Careica Health and was influential in the growth of their sleep program. Darren holds a B.A. from the University of Manitoba as well as a certificate in Applied Management and Leadership Development Specialization from the University of Manitoba. Darren is currently enrolled at the Jack Welch Management Institute pursuing his MBA with Healthcare Concentration.
Guy Duke – Vice President, Technology
Guy joined Cerebra in February 2022 bringing extensive software development experience. Guy co-founded GranDuke Geomatics in 2012, a software services company that was later acquired by Farmers Edge in 2015. At Farmers Edge Guy served as the Vice President of Analytics and built several modeling and data science teams that created digital tools for growers to maximize their farm's profitability. Guy has a passion for enabling high-velocity software development in a fast-growing start-up environment and a deep understanding of how to apply decision science to build value for businesses. Guy holds a Bachelor of Environmental Science and a Master’s in Geography from the University of Lethbridge.
Glenna Labelle – Director, Sales and Marketing
Glenna brings over 30 years of sleep and respiratory experience to Cerebra, crossing many industry segments from consulting, homecare, and manufacturing. Prior to joining Cerebra in September 2022, Glenna was Principal at Labelle Consulting which specializes in developing strategic business, marketing, and clinical pathway plans for sleep and respiratory homecare companies. She also designed and delivered an industry-specific customer-focused sales training module. Glenna led regional and national teams at Praxair/Medigas and Philips Respironics where she consistently led her teams to exceed company sales and growth targets. Her last position in the industry prior to starting her consulting business was Director of Sales and Marketing with Philips Respironics, Canada. Glenna holds a diploma in Respiratory Therapy from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. Her clinical background as a Respiratory Therapist has been an asset throughout her career in the sleep and respiratory field.
Amy Bender – Director, Clinical Sleep Science
Dr. Bender is Director of Clinical Sleep Science at Cerebra Medical and an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Kinesiology at the University of Calgary. She received her PhD and Master of Science degrees in Experimental Psychology from Washington State University specializing in sleep EEG. She has helped develop the only validated sleep screening tool for athletes and has implemented sleep optimization strategies for numerous Canadian Olympic and professional teams. Her current interests focus on how to help people sleep better by improving sleep disorder treatments with more precise digital sleep metrics.
Tony Bugeja – Director, Operations
Joining Cerebra in April 2019. Tony is a Professional Engineer who brings over 20+ years of extensive experience in leading teams in fast-paced FDA Regulated Lean driven manufacturing environments. Prior to this, he served as Director of Operations of Celco Controls Ltd. an electrical control panel service provider. His previous experience includes over 20 years extensive experience in leading cGMP teams in fast-paced FDA Regulated Lean driven manufacturing environments. Most recently over as the Director of Manufacturing at ARxIUM producing a FDA/TGA Type 2 medical device RIVA (Robotic IV Automation) used by hospital pharmacies. Tony holds BSc. ME from the University of Manitoba, is a registered Professional Engineer with the APEGM, and holds a Lean Yellow Belt from Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters.
Sharon Cholowsky – Director, Regulatory & Compliance
Sharon joined Cerebra in March 2021 bringing decades of diverse, Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance experience from the medical device and software industries. Sharon is passionate about helping organizations improve their processes to create higher quality products with appropriate documentation. Sharon holds a Bachelor of Engineering Physics from the University of Saskatchewan and is experienced working with start-up and medium-sized medical device and stand-alone software product companies.
Ruth St. Yves – Director, Customer Success
Ruth joined Cerebra in January 2022 as Director of Customer Success. Ruth brings over 20 years of experience leading customer-focused teams in various industries including telecommunications and financial services, holding titles such as National Director of Customer Care with Shaw Communications and Vice President of Insolvency Services with Bromwich & Smith. Ruth is passionate about employee engagement and has an unwavering commitment to delivering an exceptional customer experience.
Supporting Research and Development for Ultimate Sleep Health
The Scientific Advisory Board
Clete A. Kushida, MD, PhD
Clete A. Kushida, MD, PhD is an academic physician-scientist whose major accomplishments and roles include serving as past President of the World Sleep Society, the World Sleep Federation, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM), and founding President of the California Sleep Society. Dr. Kushida has authored or edited over 200 publications, including six books, and serves as editor-in-chief of the journal Sleep Science and Practice.
Areas of focus: Sleep apnea, sleep technology, narcolepsy/hypersomnias, and countermeasures for sleep loss
Dr. Richard Berry, MD
Dr. Richard Berry, MD, is Professor of Medicine at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Medical Director of the UF Health Sleep Center and Director of the UF Sleep Medicine Fellowship. His major accomplishments and roles include serving as Deputy Editor of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, Past President of the AASM Foundation, and serving on the AASM Board of Directors. Dr. Berry was chair of the AASM Scoring Manual Committee for 10 years and lead author on a publication of the AASM Sleep Apnea Definitions task force. He has written two popular sleep textbooks: The Fundamentals of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Medicine Pearls.
Areas of focus: Home sleep apnea testing, treatments for obstructive sleep apnea, EEG arousals, technology advances in polysomnography
Thomas Penzel, PhD
Professor Thomas Penzel currently serves as Scientific Chair of the Interdisciplinary Center of Sleep Medicine and is also the Director of Research of the Interdisciplinary Sleep Medicine Center at the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Germany). His major accomplishments include serving as President of the German Sleep Society and Adcom member of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, an IEEE group dedicated to the study of Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Penzel is editor-in-chief of the journal Sleep and Breathing and has published more than 300 journal papers.
Areas of focus: sleep medicine, biomedical signals, wearables, the cardiovascular and the neural system related to the sleep-wake regulation, and pathophysiology of sleep disordered breathing.
Célyne Bastien PhD
Dr. Célyne Bastien PhD, is a Full Professor in the School of Psychology at Laval University and Researcher at the Cervo Brain Research Centre. Dr. Bastien currently serves as the President for the Canadian Sleep Society where she has been an active advocate for over 15 years. She studies the psychological and physiological aspects of insomnia to understand its effects on people and to find ways of treating them. Dr. Bastien has conducted studies showing that the brains of insomniacs remain in a state of hypervigilance during sleep, and that these people respond differently to stimuli (sound or visual) during sleep, but also while awake. She is the director of the Human Neurosciences and Sleep Laboratory and has received CIHR grants to measure cortical activation in people with insomnia.
Areas of focus: Psychophysiological aspects of sleep; microstructure and quantitative analyses of sleep EEG; Insomnia and insomnia therapy; cortical activation and hyperarousal; event-related potentials in sleep and during wake; sleep perception; and sleep in the elderly.
Dr. David White, MD
Dr. David White, MD, is currently Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs at Apnimed Pharma, is Professor of Medicine, Part time, at Harvard Medical school, and was the former Chief Medical Officer at Philips Sleep & Respiratory Care. Some of his major accomplishments include being President of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, Chairing the Task Force to write the research plan addressing sleep and its disorders for the National Institutes of Health, and being the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal SLEEP. He was also on the test writing committees for the American Board of Internal Medicine for both Pulmonary Disease and Sleep Medicine.
Areas of focus: Pathophysiology of sleep breathing disorders; sleep apnea phenotyping to guide therapy; simplified methods to diagnose and monitor sleep apnea