Nova Scotia industry group BioNova has appointed Doris Grant, formerly a high-ranking Nova Scotia Health Authority civil servant, as its vice president of business development and strategy.

At the NSHA, Grant was senior director of innovation, overseeing the Health Innovation Hub that often collaborates with healthtech and biotech startups. Before that, she spent more than 14 years running industry liaison and innovation programming for Dalhousie University.

Grant’s appointment comes less than six months after Sean Awalt, a longtime biopharma exec who last worked at St. John’s-based Sequence Bio, was named CEO.

“Nova Scotia has tremendous assets and unparalleled opportunity in this sector and now is the time to maximize our growth potential,” said Awalt in a statement.

“BioNova is ready to contribute to this important provincial mandate and the addition of Doris Grant signals our commitment to bring deep experience and a partnership mentality to the table”.

Grant, whose first day will be March 6, holds a bachelor’s degree in agricultural science from Nova Scotia Agricultural College and a master’s of agriculture from Dalhousie.