Founder & CEO

Jessica Hu

Built through reinvention.

Jessica Hu’s journey spans molecular diagnostics, biotechnology operations, commercialization and international market development. Each chapter has strengthened the practical insight behind GBM Health Group: promising health innovation needs connected pathways from research to real-world use.

Scientific foundation

Science before entrepreneurship

With dual education in molecular biology and pharmacy, Jessica began her career in biopharmaceutical engineering, diagnostics and infectious-disease research. In 2005, she was part of an early research and development team in China working on diagnostic kits for the SARS virus, and she later participated in research involving HIV, hepatitis and respiratory pathogens.

That foundation shaped a lasting belief: scientific quality matters most when it can be translated into products, systems and decisions that work in real settings. Long before she founded a company, she was learning to see both the laboratory problem and the path beyond it.

Reinvention

Starting again in Canada

Jessica came to Canada in 2007 and rebuilt her professional path across a new market, regulatory environment and business culture. The expertise travelled with her; the network, language of business and routes to opportunity had to be built again.

That experience developed more than personal resilience. It created a working understanding of how research institutions, regulation, distribution and commercialization must connect before a health product can create sustained value.

Operating experience

Building under pressure

Jessica founded Gene Bio Medical in 2021 during a period of extraordinary pressure on health systems and supply chains. The company had to learn quickly across product development, sourcing, quality, regulation, distribution and changing customer needs. At its pandemic peak, the operating team grew to 132 full-time employees.

SwiftSwab® became an early operating and brand platform. When the immediate public-health cycle changed, Jessica reconfigured the business around a smaller core team focused on innovation and export development. The larger lesson was not to remain defined by one product or one moment, but to preserve the capabilities built through it.

Platform evolution

Beyond a single product

The operating business expanded into a broader set of health activities, including university research collaboration, molecular diagnostics, consumer health and AI-enabled development. These were not separate ideas added for scale; together, they revealed the need for a platform that could connect scientific work with commercial execution.

Jessica is currently pursuing a Doctor of Business Administration at Golden Gate University, specializing in Emerging Technologies: AI & Digital Transformation. Her research focuses on AI-enabled healthcare systems, technology adoption and the implementation of emerging technologies in health innovation.

Through Geno10X Biosciences, Gene Bio Medical and Simon Fraser University collaborators, a C$300,000 Innovate BC Ignite project supports an AI-enhanced HPV point-of-care diagnostic platform. The project brings together rapid nucleic-acid detection, microchip sensing, AI models, biomanufacturing and distribution expertise.

Jessica Hu speaking on stage at a biotechnology industry conference — Jessica Hu speaking at a biotechnology industry conference, 2026.

International learning

Learning markets from the ground

International positioning grew from direct market exposure rather than an abstract global claim. Through Team Canada trade missions, industry conferences and meetings with local partners, Jessica studied how research, production, regulation, software, distribution and e-commerce capabilities differ across markets.

A 2024 mission to Vietnam led to a joint-venture memorandum of understanding with Bidiphar and a practical division of strengths: local facilities, equipment and investment on one side; intellectual property, materials, training and sales channels on the other. GBM’s broader approach is to retain responsibility for core IP, brands, quality requirements and market relationships while working with qualified production partners and trusted local routes to market.

Jessica Hu discussing health products and cross-border market development with a business participant — A cross-border health-product and market-development discussion.

Women in leadership

The resilience to keep building

For a woman leading a founder-driven health business, progress has required persistence, adaptation and the willingness to keep learning in public. Jessica’s story is not a straight line from science to scale; it is a sequence of rebuilding, testing assumptions and continuing when the next step was not yet obvious.

Participation in CanWIN and the EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women™ North America network has created relationships with other women leaders while GBM strengthens its priorities, governance and readiness for its next stage.

Jessica Hu participating in a leadership discussion at the CanWIN Global Summit 2026 in Toronto — CanWIN Global Summit 2026, Toronto.

The next chapter

Still building

GBM Health Group is not presented as a finished global enterprise. It is a growing platform shaped by operating experience and a clear view of the connections health innovation needs—from research and regulatory strategy to resilient supply, distribution and AI-enabled development.

The next chapter is about building the team, governance, partnerships and capital capacity required to select the right opportunities and turn them into durable real-world impact. The ambition is global; the work remains disciplined, staged and grounded in evidence.

Jessica Hu at the Asia Business Leaders Advisory Council meeting in Singapore in 2026 — Asia Business Leaders Advisory Council meeting, Singapore, 2026.

Recognition

Recognition is a milestone, not the destination.

Jessica was selected for the 2025 EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women™ North America program and named a 2026 EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® Pacific finalist. For GBM, these recognitions create a public reference point while the company continues to build.

Jessica Hu on the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2026 Pacific finalist editorial cover — EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2026 Pacific finalist.

Source record

Selected official references

Trade Commissioner ServiceReaching new markets: Gene Bio Medical brings Canadian innovation to the Indo-Pacific Asia Pacific Foundation of CanadaJessica Hu profile Innovate BCInnovate BC awards C$1.5 million across five R&D projects EYEY Entrepreneurial Winning Women North America class of 2025 EY CanadaEY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2026 Pacific finalists