JLL has appointed an industry veteran to lead its life science operations in Canada as the real estate services firm fortifies its global position in the sector.
The Chicago-based company said it hired Mark Seliskar, a licensed engineer based in Montreal, as its life sciences regional lead for Canada. He joined JLL from Sodexo Quebec, where he served as the subject matter expert for the French food services and facilities management giant's pharma-life science operations.
In his new role, Seliskar is tasked with delivering “integrated facilities management solutions for pharmaceutical and life sciences clients with sites in Canada,” JLL said in a statement. He has experience with good manufacturing practice, or GMP, facilities that control quality, purity and safety during the making of pharmaceuticals and medical devices. He also has experience in capital project management, validation and compliance remediation.
Seliskar’s "addition reflects our continued investment in building JLL’s Life Sciences brand globally,” said Kevin Wayer, JLL’s division president of global life sciences, in a statement. “By attracting top-tier talent with vast industry expertise in key markets like Canada, we demonstrate our commitment to establishing JLL as the partner of choice for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies seeking trusted expertise worldwide.”
The life science sector has had trouble breaking into Canada, despite the country having several world-renowned post-secondary educational institutions, because of the public health sector’s largesse, Morguard Senior Director of Research Keith Reading told CoStar News. Due to recent global events exposing Canada’s preparedness level in dealing with major and global crises, Reading said developing homegrown infrastructure is now regarded as an imperative.
“As we saw during COVID, not having our own manufacturing base for vaccines became an issue,” Reading said. “Now, with Canada’s fractured trade relationship with the U.S., we’re realizing that we can’t rely on outsiders and that we have to build out more domestic facilities in the health and biotech space.”
Moreover, Reading said, the pandemic’s strain on the international supply chain revealed vulnerabilities that, amid the current war in the Middle East that’s already upending the global economy, could prove more calamitous this time should it protract.
“The U.S.-Iran war is another supply-chain shock, and it isn’t just oil; a lot of essentials come through the Strait of Hormuz and now there’s a bottleneck that will inflate prices, but that’s also going to affect our ability to export and import goods.”
That’s pertinent, Reading added, because “What’s happening in Canada’s life sciences sector is part of a longer process of trying to build out infrastructure so we can deal with issues going forward.”
As for JLL's new Canada life science lead, Seliskar said he looks forward to taking the reins "at a time when the Life Sciences sector continues to grow and evolve across Canada."