Brian Simmers appointed President of PHC Ventures

​I am very pleased to announce that in addition to his role as Chief Financial Officer & VP Health Informatics, Brian Simmers has been formally appointed by the Board of Providence Ventures to the role of President, Providence Health Care Ventures (PHC Ventures).  

This appointment formalizes the leadership role that Brian has played for PHC Ventures for the past several years and we are thrilled to be able to benefit from Brian’s experience in technology, startups and venture capital-backed companies to help Ventures be the commercialization arm and technology enablement platform for Providence as a whole.

When PHC Ventures was established in 2019, the objective was to create a self-sustaining for-profit subsidiary of Providence, that could access funds that PHC cannot access (such as the additional industry funds), enhance our ability to work with commercial partners, and support the commercialization of ideas and projects that come out of PHC. Ultimately, we envisage PHC Ventures as providing a new source of funds back to PHC for research and innovation initiatives.

These initial objectives have been very successfully achieved, with PHC Ventures having already brought in over $3 million of additional revenue to the Providence family, and with signed contracts for an additional $5 million of additional funds in the next two years.

In addition, PHC Ventures has already been able to provide support to commercialization, including protecting intellectual property, has invested in seven early-stage ventures, including spin out companies from PHC and has provided advisory and consultancy services.

But this is just the beginning! PHC Ventures has ambitious plans to continue its rapid growth and be a health commercialization and technology enablement organization, which competes with the best in the world. 

Before Brian joined PHC in 2019, he spent 25 years dedicated to roles that allowed him to leverage technology and applying innovative solutions to improve and transform organizations. Previously, Brian served as CFO & VP Client Experience at Technical Safety BC, where he played a pivotal role in transforming the organization into an AI-enabled regulatory authority. He also served as CFO of Aegis Mobility, a start-up provider of patented, distracted driving software for mobile devices. He was CFO & GM for Cityfone Telecommunications and oversaw its five-fold growth and eventual acquisition by Rogers Communications.  

Brian holds a CPA (CA) from the Certified Public Accountants of BC, a CPA from the University of Illinois, and a BA in Business Administration from Simon Fraser University.

Please join me in congratulating Brian on the new appointment.

Fiona​ Dalton, President and Chief Executive Officer, Providence Health Care