Ferhan Bulca
Director of the Board
Maple Leaf Angels
Ferhan is an entrepreneur and intrapreneur who has built, grown, and exited four businesses, that continue to generate over $1B annual revenues for the companies he worked in. Currently, he is focused on improving Canada’s performance in innovation, primarily in medical technologies and healthcare.
Early in his career, he parlayed his PhD in Robotics from McGill University into his dream job in space applications, where he worked on inter-satellite laser communications (long before Starlink existed) and developed scientific rover missions to Mars. Before long, he was recruited by a life sciences company, which created an opportunity for him to learn new skills and deploy a brand-new business line within the company. Next, he joined a Toronto-based B2B IT company. There, working with the C-suite and the Board, he built and launched the company’s cloud business in two years.
At this juncture, Ferhan decided to return to medical technologies and started his company in 2014 to commercialize a software solution developed by two cancer researchers at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. After leading the company’s creation, development and market entry as CEO, he sold the company to Elekta, a multi-national that develops and sells devices and software for cancer care and treatment of brain disorders. Through the sale, he joined Elekta as a member of the senior leadership team and continued to build and launch two new business lines at Elekta.
Currently, Ferhan has moved onto a new stage in his career, focusing on three key areas:
– Contributions to the MedTech and life sciences start-up community in Canada as an angel investor, board director, advisor and mentor. He is an advisor to three early-stage incubators and an external reviewer at Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI).
– Time with family, friends and colleagues, nurture meaningful and fulfilling relationships, grow through social contacts.
– Remaining physically active, continue his journey to play squash and taking every opportunity to find a SCUBA diving destination.