Our Mission

Cerebra was founded with a single purpose: to help people achieve their best sleep possible by understanding sleep where it happens, in the brain.

Earl founded Cerebra in 2015, establishing the company to serve sleep care needs he had seen in his experience building and leading Careica Health (formerly RANA), a provider of respiratory care to western Canadians with sleep disordered breathing (SDB) and respiratory disease. Earl began his career as a healthcare system accountant and progressed to serve as CEO of the Tri-Lake Health Region. Earl is driven by delivering the highest quality, accessible care for patients. He is also committed to building the medical device industry, and his prior roles include past Chair of Life Science Association of Manitoba (LSAM). Earl holds a Certificate in Health Care Administration (1982) from the University of Saskatchewan.

Dr. Younes is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba. He established the sleep laboratory at the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg in 1991, directing it for ten years. Dr. Younes’s research in respirology, critical care medicine and sleep medicine has resulted in 140 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), and several methods for non-invasive determination of respiratory mechanics.

Dawson joined Cerebra Health in July 2016. Prior to this, he served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Medicure Inc., a US-hospital focused specialty pharmaceutical company. Dawson has also worked with Genesys Venture Inc., a life science business incubator, where he supported several companies in business development, finance and product development activities. He has considerable experience serving on corporate and industry boards, including the Life Science Association of Manitoba (Chair). Dawson holds a Masters Degree in Economic Development from the University of Waterloo and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Manitoba.

Joining Cerebra in April 2019, Patrick brings a passion for commercializing innovation and building customer-focused organizations. Cerebra is Patrick’s 3rd startup having 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 sales & marketing experience having served in numerous senior roles at Syngenta AG including Global Business Manager in Basel, Switzerland, and Head of Marketing for the Canadian business unit. Patrick holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Guelph and a Master in Business Administration from the Queen’s School of Business. Patrick also serves as a board member for the Biosciences Association of Manitoba.

Lorna joined the Cerebra Health 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.

Trevor joined the Cerebra Medical team in the Spring of 2019. Prior to this, he served as Director, Product Development at 1Life Workplace Safety Solutions. His prior experience also includes over 12 years at IBM / IBM Bluemix (Austin TX), where he last served as Senior Product Manager, and Software Engineer at Varian Medical Systems. He is passionate about transforming the way product development teams work and is a proponent of Agile and DevOps. Trevor holds an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin as well as a Bachelor of Computer Engineering from the University of Manitoba.

Darren joined Cerebra Health as Director of Operations at the beginning of 2016. Darren comes with a wealth of experience having worked at RANA Respiratory Care Group for nine years. At RANA he was instrumental in the growth of their Manitoba Sleep Program, streamlining and expanding the business into new markets. 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.