Board
- IAN NISBET, PhD
Non Executive Chair
- Dr. Ian Nisbet is currently a partner at Afandin Pty Ltd. Ian has more than 2 decades of pharmaceutical industry experience, including roles as CEO of Xenome Ltd.; CEO of Meditech Research Ltd.; Senior Director, Business Development and Oncology Alliance Management at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, and more than 17 years at CSL Ltd. Ian was Board Chair for Adipogen Pharmaceuticals Pty Ltd. and currently sits on the Boards of Ambri Ltd. and Velacor Pty Ltd.
- ANDREW BAKER, PhD
Non Executive Director
- Dr. Andrew Baker is a Partner at GBS Venture Partners, Ltd. Andrew has over 18 years experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, including 14 years working with Genetech, Bayer and as Deputy Director of Johnson & Johnson Research in Sydney. Andrew was a non-executive director for Adipogen Pharmaceuticals Pty Ltd. and currently sits on the Boards of Cryptopharma Pty ltd., Hatchtech Pty Ltd. and Spinifex Pty Ltd.
- MICHAEL A. COWLEY, PhD
Non-Executive Director
- Professor. Michael A. Cowley is the Director of the Monash Obesity & Diabetes Institute. Michael is a physiologist and bioentrepreneur with a strong focus on obesity, diabetes, and metabolic disorders with extensive experience in the discovery and development of therapies to treat metabolic diseases and the repurposing of existing medicines as therapies for obesity and diabetes. Prior to Monash Michael was a founder and Chief Scientific Officer of California-based Orexigen® Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: OREX) and a scientist in the Division of Neuroscience at the Oregon National Primate Research Center of the Oregon Health & Science University. During Michael’s tenure at Orexigen® the company advanced a combination product (Contrave®) to successful phase 3 clinical testing as an obesity therapy. Michael is a Victorian Endowment for Science, Knowledge and Innovation (VESKI) Innovation Fellow and a Pfizer Senior Research Fellow for 2009. He was recently awarded the prestigious Commonwealth Science Minister’s Prize for Life Scientist of the Year.
- PETER DEVINE, PhD, MBA, FAICD
Non-Executive Director
- Dr Peter Devine is currently the Chief Executive Officer for Uniseed, a $60 million pre-seed venture capital fund operating out of the Universities of Melbourne, New South Wales and Queensland. In this role, Peter is responsible for implementing Uniseed strategy and managing the company’s investment activities with a team of three Investment Managers. Peter has extensive experience at board and executive management levels in early stage technology start up companies. He has held senior R&D, business development and commercialisation positions in a number of Australian companies, as well as Australian universities. Before joining Uniseed, Peter was Vice President of Business Development at Progen Industries Ltd. He was Research, Development and Commercialisation Manager at Brisbane-based PanBio Pty Ltd from 1996 to 2000 and also worked in Business Development at UniQuest Pty Ltd, the commercialisation arm of University of Queensland.
- KATHY NIELSEN, PhD, M.Intell. Prop. Law, M.Pharm., GAICD
Non Executive Director
- Dr. Kathy Nielsen is the Senior Investment Manager at Queensland Biocapital Fund. Kathy has over 20 years in medical research, technology transfer and commercialisation - developing early stage technologies in the life sciences sector, with a focus on new therapeutics. She has identified and developed new products over diverse fileds including biotechnology, medicinal chemistry, peptide technologies, natural products, stem cell technology, cleantech and nanotechnology. With expertise in intellectual property, a solid scientific background derived from several years in academia and significant industry experience (pharmaceutical and biotechnology), Kathy has driven inventive concepts through to high quality investment ready propositions and has played key roles in the establishment, fund raising and early stage operations for several start-up companies. Kathy’s recent roles include Director of Intellectual Property (Xenome Ltd), Executive Officer and Director (ElaCor Pty Ltd) and Manager, Intellectural Property and Development (IMBcom Pty Ltd).
