As co-inventor of Visudyne and co-founder of QLT, Dr. Levy served in several key senior positions at the company including Chief Scientific Officer as well as President and CEO. Under Dr. Levy’s leadership, QLT recorded the strongest period of growth in the company’s history and earned a reputation for achieving milestones, including FDA approval for Visudyne to treat age-related macular degeneration, the commonest cause of severe vision loss in the elderly. Dr. Levy has earned numerous awards and honours including an appointment as an Officer of the Order of Canada, the Female Entrepreneur of the Year for International Business, Pacific Canada Entrepreneur of the Year and the Future of Vision Award from the Foundation Fighting Blindness.

In 2002 she received, along with Dr. David Dolphin, the Friesen-Rygiel prize for medical research and the Prix Galien Canada research award. In her honour, the Julia G. Levy Professorship in Ophthalmology Chair was created at Johns Hopkins Hospital Wilmer Eye Institute in 2004, the same year she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the BC Biotechnology Association. In 2009, the province of British Columbia permanently endowed the Julia Levy B.C. Leadership Chair in Macular Research at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in partnership with UBC and QLT.

Dr. Levy’s success and experience as founder/CEO of Canada’s first billion-dollar biotechnology company, QLT, her successful extensive experience in drug development from preclinical through to drug approval, and her experience as a pharmaceutical executive, have been invaluable in guiding Qu’s governance and strategy. Dr. Levy serves on Qu’s Governance and Nomination Committee and Qu’s Compensation Committee.