KCA Annual Conference 2023

Patricia Adjei

Patricia is a Wuthathi, Mabuiag Islander and Ghanaian woman from Sydney and strong advocate and writer. She has a Bachelor of Arts and Law from UNSW and is the Head of First Nations arts and culture at the Australia Council for the Arts. Patricia previously was the Indigenous engagement manager at the Copyright Agency l Viscopy. She is the 2022 UNSW Alumni award recipient for her contribution to art and culture.

She was the 2018 Churchill fellowship recipient, investigating the practical application of laws in the USA and Panama that protect Indigenous cultural rights. Patricia has served on several arts and Indigenous advisory boards and has worked across legal organisations like WIPO, the Arts Law Centre of Australia and National Indigenous television.

Katrina Avery

Katrina Avery is a Lawyer and senior commercialisation, innovation and partnerships professional with over 20 years commercial, legal and consulting experience in the legal, commercial and higher education sectors in Australia, Europe and the United Kingdom.

Currently Director of Partnerships with Macquarie University and part of their Research, Innovation and Enterprise leadership team, Katrina steers the strategic and operational direction of partnerships for the University, with a focus on building strategic and high value multi-dimensional, multi-disciplinary and ‘whole of university’ partnerships. She leads the university Partnerships team, which includes the Research Partnerships and Corporate Engagement teams of the university - and helps to educate, inform and enable University Executive, academic and professional colleagues to make partnerships happen across research and innovation, education and employability, and corporate dimensions.

Anne Bannister

Anne Bannister is the Head of Social & Behavioural Sciences at UniQuest. She specialises in commercialising UQ’s evidence-based technologies and programs which transform the way global communities tackle mental health and wellbeing, chronic disease, public health, education, and ageing, leveraging technology for enabling sustainable delivery at scale.With previous executive management roles in commercial and non-government organisations, her expertise in building businesses based on commercialising IP was developed in her own start-up.

Shona Blair

Shona holds a PhD in microbiology, and is an adjunct associate professor at UNSW. Her career has moved from research-focused to executive roles, particularly within the university and hospital sectors of Australia and the UK. Shona currently holds the role of inaugural Director of the St Vincent’s Sydney Health Innovation Precinct, which includes the cornerstone partners St Vincent’s Sydney (Public and Private Hospitals, and Clinic), the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, and the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, as well as a broader set of university and other partners, including UNSW. Here she is the first person whose “day job” it is to focus on helping the organisations to make even more of their shared history, proximity, research strengths and visions for the future. Although research has not been the primary focus of her career, Shona still collaborates with colleagues in her areas of academic expertise, and continues to provide advice to apicultural and agricultural industries.

Alezeia Brown

Alezeia is a deep tech investor with a background as a product builder & strategist.
As an investor at Main Sequence - a $500m deeptech VC - Alezeia looks for early stage companies who combine science/tech discoveries with the world's biggest challenges to build the next generation of global companies with an emerging focus on decarbonisation. Alezeia sits as a board observer for various deep tech companies such as Endua, Advanced Navigation and FiveCast, and is a member of Greenpeace Australian Pacific General Assembly.

Before Main Sequence, Alezeia held a number of senior product roles, including Head of Product for CSIRO’s Data61 and Executive Manager for Retail Wealth Product for GBST.

Julian Clark

Julian Clark has 40 years of international experience in technology transfer of biomedical and health innovations, from both academic and private research. He is currently a Director of UniQuest, Currus Biologics and biomedical consulting company Squizzical. Most recently he was Head of Business Development at WEHI.

Miranda Einstein

Miranda is a Business Development Manager at the University of New South Wales where she responsible for translation of research and commercialisation in Art Design & Architecture (ADA). Her recent adventures in ADA include the Value Australia spinout, one of the highest value spin outs to come from HASS disciplines at UNSW. Miranda is a passionate advocate for the value of humanities and art based disciplines in helping to answer complex questions and solve real world problems. Prior to joining the Industry & Innovation team, Miranda was a senior legal counsel at UNSW working across a range of HASS and STEM portfolios and projects including the establishment UNSW spinout Silicon Quantum Computing and management of the UNSW’s photovaltics licensing portfolio.

Erin Evans

Erin is the Chief Executive Officer of Life Sciences Queensland. She is an experienced organisational and entrepreneurial leader with a strong focus on strategic partnership and innovation spanning industries including biotech, health, digital technology, defence and higher education. She started her career in commercialisation and worked internationally in the Pharma and Biotech sector with Allergan, Sanofi-Genzyme and IQVIA. Erin is a digital start-up founder and experienced board director in the healthcare sector.

Fernando Felquer

Dr Fernando Felquer is Head of Business Development for the Grains Research and Development Corporation and Investment Committee member of the Agtech venture capital fund GrainInnovate, a collaboration between GRDC and Artesian Investments. Fernando joined GRDC in December 2017 after 5 years as the founder and director of INNOVATE, a boutique advisory firm working with startups and SMEs in areas including product development, business development, investment attraction, IP and R&D strategy across a number of verticals including medtech, biotech, climate and remote sensing. Prior to this Fernando was executive VP, Business Development with oncology drug-development CRO vivoPharm where he drove a phase of significant growth and international expansion. Early on his career, Fernando was a post-doctoral researcher at The University of Adelaide working in stem cell biology and developmental genetics.

Stephen Flint

Stephen Flint joined UniServices, the commercialisation company of the University of Auckland, in 2009 as Commercialisation Manager for Physical Sciences and Digital Technology. Currently as a Director - Investments his focus is on the utilisation and management of the University of Auckland Inventors’ Fund which was established in 2016 as a pre-seed and seed stage investment fund positioned to transform university research, intellectual property and student ventures into high-growth global companies.
Previous to UniServices, Stephen was a Business Manager at the Foundation for Research Science and Technology working with New Zealand businesses seeking R&D funding support from the government. Other roles have included Finance Analyst for NZ Post’s Auckland Mail Centres as well as 4 years working in various financial roles in London.
Qualifications: BSc (Tech) - Earth Sciences, University of Waikato; MSc - Earth Science and Oceanography, University of Waikato.

Chris Gillings

Chris joined the venture capital team at Five V Capital in 2022. Five V invests in enterprise and business software opportunities, focused on the Series A and B stages. Prior to Five V, Chris spent a decade in New York, where he held various operating roles at OnDeck, and led Mastercard's startup accelerator for North America. Before moving to the US, he was an investor at TDM Growth Partners and part of KPMG's M&A team in Sydney. Chris is the founder of startup ecosystem publication Cut Through Venture, a partner at investment syndicate Cut Through Angels, and the co-publisher of The State of Australian Startup Funding report.

Chris holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Sydney and an MBA from Yale University.

Bronwyn Harch

Professor Bronwyn Harch is a leader in research, innovation and partnership strategy with a passion for brokering transdisciplinary collaboration through private-public alliances. She recently started in the role of Vice President of Industry and External Engagement at Griffith University (October 3rd, 2023). Professor Bronwyn Harch has had a long and distinguished career working as an applied statistician and data scientist focused on the monitoring and modelling of environmental systems – within Queensland, across Australia and globally. She has significant research, innovation and partnership leadership experience, including, most recently, in the roles of Interim Queensland Chief Scientist and Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Research and Innovation) for The University of Queensland.

Professor Mark Harvey

Mark is the Vice-President (Business Development) at Queensland University of Technology, Vice-President of Business Chamber Queensland, Chair of QUT Enterprise Holdings, and a member of the Board of QUT Advisory and Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Hub. Mark has played a key role in the formation and growth of over 20 organisations, which has included managing research & development, operations, finances, fund raising, and intellectual property commercialisation. Mark has been on the Board of Directors of ASX and NASDAQ listed public companies, CEO and Partner of two venture capital companies, a member of the Investment Committee of several venture funds and was on the board of superannuation fund Sunsuper prior to its merger to form Australian Retirement Trust.

Gillian Hewlett

Gillian Hewlett serves as the Chief of Staff to the esteemed Chief Scientist for South Australia, Professor Caroline McMillen AO. With a proven track record of visionary leadership and exceptional expertise, she leads a dynamic team responsible for shaping and driving SA's research and innovation value chain.

Gillian holds a Business Management Degree from the University of South Australia and possesses a wealth of knowledge and experience, spanning over two decades in various policy and strategy settings within government. Her extensive background uniquely positions her to navigate the complexities of the ever-evolving landscape of research and innovation.

Paul Hodgson

Paul Hodgson has over 30 years’ experience in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors achieving positive change and growth through leadership, strategy, innovation and collaboration. He is currently Chief Executive Officer of the Scaling Green Hydrogen Cooperative Research Centre and Chair of the Queensland Manufacturing Institute.

David Hutchison

David is a Departmental Science Advisor in the Science Leadership Team at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment in New Zealand. This is a half-time secondment from his day job as a Professor of Physics at the University of Otago. Over a ten year period, David established and ran the Dodd-Walls Centre for Photonic and Quantum Technologies as a Centre of Research Excellence (akin to an ARC Centre of Excellence). As Director, he was heavily involved in the Centre's engagement and knowledge transfer activities. He stepped down as Director in April of this year, but remains a member of the Centre. David is also the Chair of the Board of the Otago Museum, one of New Zealand's four major municipal museums.

Tui Kaumoana

Tui comes from the Tainui Waka in the Waikato region of Aotearoa, NZ, and is fortunate to be raised with the influence of her Waikato elders with inherited mātauranga or knowledge passed through generations. Her early career years were spent working for her tribe at Waikato Tainui and furthermore seconded to the office of the Māori King, Te Tari o te Kiingitanga. This experience helps when making recommendations for the protection of kaupapa Māori research, Māori data usage and Intellectual Property protection to appropriately guide an intersection to commercialisation and investment.

When Tui completed her MBA at the University of Auckland, she took a role as Kaiārahi at Auckland UniServices Ltd, (a position which translates to Navigator, Pathfinder, and Senior Māori Lead). Part of her role is to be appointed as a Māori ethicist on boards and committees connected to the University of Auckland to utilise her expertise for Māori advocacy and Māori data sovereignty.

Professor Marek Kowalkiewicz

Marek is a Professor and Chair in Digital Economy at QUT Business School. He joined QUT from Silicon Valley, where he led global innovation teams as a Senior Director at SAP. Before Silicon Valley, Marek worked in Singapore as a Research Manager of the largest SAP Research lab in Asia, focusing on Machine Learning. Prior to that, Marek was a Global Research Program Lead of one of SAP’s main research programs, as well as a Research Fellow at Microsoft Research Asia. He holds fifteen patents describing his contributions to enterprise software systems. He is a keen long-distance trail runner.

Peter Laurie

Peter participates heavily in the Australian innovation ecosystem. He has been an entrepreneur in residence for over a dozen accelerator programs both commercially and at QUT, UQ, and Monash University. He presents regularly on all aspects of entrepreneurship and innovation to a broad range of audiences.
Peter is an electrical engineer by training, has an MBA from QUT, and has been doing software development for the last thirty years. He is a visiting fellow at the Australian Centre of Entrepreneurship Research, and won the Queensland Pearcey Entrepreneur Award for 2018.

Hebbat Manhy

Hebbat has over 20+ years experience in innovation and business transformation. As a highly effective leader, Hebbat has a proven track record in successfully implementing large-scale complex engineering, marketing, commercial and digital strategies to deliver value and growth with strength in stakeholder alignment.

As Head of Deep Technology leading AgTech, Climate & Industry Tech at Australia’s flagship Deep Tech Incubator, Cicada Innovations, Hebbat is passionate about helping founders and their teams discover novel business models and launching their ventures to market, from LEAN to Scale Up and beyond. With an outside-of-the-box mindset, she infuses innovative thinking and disruptive go-to-market tactics that lead startups through their growth challenges until reaching their highest potential.

Ian Mason

Ian Mason is an experienced company founder, having built multiple brands that affect change in communities across the world.

His portfolio of companies includes, most notably, an education technology company that teaches children to learn to read and a company that provides leadership development programs to individuals and corporate clients, that include the likes of AstraZeneca and the U.K. Government.

In 2013, Ian played a key role in the creation of a company and a proposition that could deliver business support to entrepreneurs and SMEs at scale, on behalf of Sir Richard Branson. The result of this work, Virgin StartUp, was a collection of programs and funding opportunities, delivered by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs looking to start, fund and scale their business. Within 5 years of founding, Virgin StartUp had delivered support to thousands of U.K.–based start-ups and SMEs, making it one of the largest such organisations in the country.

Tori McNoe

Tori currently works as the Investment Development Lead at Auckland UniServices focussed on Māori/Indigenous pathways. This role provides assistance and support with UniServices to the indigenisation of Commercialisation and Investment and to better allow Indigenous IP to be owned, innovated, and developed. Tori is a young Māori leader with a Bachelor of Criminal Justice and a Bachelor of Arts (Sociology & Psychology) from the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, Aotearoa (New Zealand).

Tori is passionate about how young Indigenous People fit into the innovation ecosystem, with experience bringing rangatahi (young people) to this space. She served as the Chair of the Canterbury Momentum Investment Committee, on the Ministry for Business, Innovation & Employment Canterbury Regional Skills Leadership Group, was the first Māori Chair/President of the University of Canterbury Students Association, Chairs the Arowhenua Māori School Board and helps to create pathways for youth in STEAM as a Trustee of the Science Alive! Board.

Dr Andrew Nash

Andrew Nash, PhD is the Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Vice President, Research at CSL Limited and is an Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne. He completed his PhD in immunology at The University of Melbourne in 1988 and, after moving to the Centre for Animal Biotechnology in the Faculty of Veterinary Science, developed and led a research group focused on basic and applied aspects of cytokine biology.

In 1996 he joined the ASX listed biotechnology company Zenyth Therapeutics (then Amrad Corporation) as a senior scientist and subsequently held a number of positions including Director of Biologicals Research and Chief Scientific Officer. In July of 2005 he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Zenyth, a position which he held up until the acquisition of Zenyth by CSL Limited in November 2006. Following the acquisition he was appointed as CSL’s SVP, Research and is currently based at the Bio21 Institute where he leads a large global effort focused on the discovery and development of new protein, cell and gene-based medicines to treat serious human disease. He was appointed as CSL’s Chief Scientific Officer in 2020.

Katherine Nielsen

Kathy is a senior executive with a robust career spanning over 30 years in technology commercialization, from inventor to deal making, creating and investing in spin outs and fund development. Her career experience is diverse, with leadership positions in technology transfer, venture capital, academia, the not-for-profit sector and industry. She heads Monash University’s technology transfer office within Monash Innovation, responsible for the commercialization team and the asset portfolios (Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Medtech & HASS), managing the suite of activities from invention disclosure to securing deals (licences and spin outs) and post deal management. She has led or directly participated in over 100 commercial deals worth over $1.5B comprising aggregate investments of $496M and LOAs with a total deal value of >$1B (+ royalties). In the last 6 years at Monash, she has overseen the creation of 23 Monash spin outs. Kathy’s goal is to motivate and transfer knowledge to the next generation of technology transfer professionals.

Natasha Rawlings

Natasha Rawlings is the Chief Operating Officer at Quasar Satellite Communications – a satellite communications company spun out from CSIRO. Before joining Quasar, Natasha was a deep-tech early-stage investor at Uniseed, the oldest running investment fund in Australia and held several board positions in early-stage start-ups. Before Uniseed Natasha was a tech entrepreneur who led, founded and mentored early and mid-stage tech start-ups, with a particular focus on creating revenue through sales and marketing. Before start-ups, Natasha had a successful career as a marketer and product developer holding top management positions in Australian and UK companies including Marketing Director of International Masters Publishers (publishing), Guthy-Renker (cosmetics and fitness), and was a Senior Manager in corporate innovation/ new revenue streams at News Corporation in the UK. Natasha holds a Bachelor of Business from the University of Technology, Sydney and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Erin Rayment RTTP

Erin is a leader in commercialisation, passionate about creating impact with research and is currently the Executive Director, Industry Engagement at the Queensland University of Technology. Prior to joining QUT, Erin has led industry engagement and research development for several universities and has worked across Australia and the United Kingdom. She has a PhD in tissue engineering, is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, is a Registered Technology Transfer Professional and a Superstar of STEM. Erin contributes to the commercialisation policy discussion through her role as Director of Knowledge Commercialisation Australasia. She is also Chair of QUT Bluebox and a Director of CelluAir.

Adam Robinson

Adam is a proud member of the Quandamooka/Kabi Kabi/Turrbul/Yuggera nations in South-east Queensland and is a passionate professional with over 15 years working in business development in both the Higher Education and Public Service sectors. With a current focus on First Nations land and sea country Industry Development and value creation, Adam has a natural sense of curiosity pushing the wheelbarrow of possibilities associated with what if? He also humbly and respectfully acknowledges standing on the shoulders of giants from those who have gone before, walking through doors like an ancestor opened it for him.

Dr Goslik Schepers

Dr Goslik Schepers joined Brandon Capital Partners in 2018 and has over 15 years’ experience in commercialisation and business development. Prior to joining Brandon Capital Partners, Goslik was the GM of Business Development at Queensland’s largest medical research institute, QIMR Berghofer. Goslik has also held positions as VP Business Development in ASX and LSE listed biotech companies Alchemia Limited and Summit PLC, respectively. Goslik holds a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Queensland and is an alumnus of Melbourne University and James Cook University and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Sean Simpson

Sean Simpson founded LanzaTech in 2005 in New Zealand and served as the company’s Chief Scientific Officer from 2010-2022. LanzaTech has successfully developed, scaled, and commercialized a novel industrial platform for the manufacture of sustainable fuels, chemicals and materials from waste streams. Today, multiple commercial plants produce 100’s of thousands of tons of sustainable products from waste streams via the LanzaTech process. The company as raised over US$500 million in private investment since its inception, spun out a new venture (LanzaJet) to produce sustainable aviation fuel and diesel in 2020, and publicly listed on the NASDAQ in early 2023. Dr Simpson has published over 20 journal articles and holds over 200 patents. His awards include the 2015 US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Presidential Green Chemistry Award, he holds a Ph.D. from the University of York (UK) in Biological Sciences, an M.Sc. from Nottingham University (UK) in Molecular Genetics and a B.S. in Process Biotechnology from Teesside University (UK).

Michael Steedman

Michael is of Ngāti Whātua and Te Uri o Hau tribal descent. Michael offers acknowledgements to the traditional owners of the whenua (land) hosting this conference. He is the Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor Māori at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland. He provides high level leadership and service across all aspects of university engagement with māori staff, students and communities. He provides cultural leadership for the University and has extensive forum presence within the university to ensure Māori ways of knowing and being are present. He chairs his tribal research committee and is a member of central and local government committees advising on māori engagement and commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Prior to his current role, Michael was the inaugural Kaiārahi in the Faculty of Science for 9 years. He is an active member in tribal activities and is a leader in the Whare Tū Tauā (Māori martial arts school).

Dr Thomas Ting

Dr Thomas Ting is the Executive Director for Australia’s Economic Accelerator Program (AEA). He leads the team of AEA Priority Managers who focus on opportunities for the AEA Program to enhance and accelerate commercialisation and translation of research from Australian universities with industry and investors to benefit Australia.

In addition to reviewing and assessing individual projects, the team will work with university intermediaries, researchers, businesses, and investors to identify portfolio and sector opportunities for development and collaboration in commercialisation in order to strengthen the university commercialisation ecosystem.

Dr Werner van der Merwe

Before joining Swinburne, Werner was the Executive Manager of Commercialisation at CSIRO during a period when the organisation created one of the largest equity portfolios and one of the largest licensing portfolios in Australian research.

He has previous experience in the tertiary sector at UNSW and has had an extensive career in industry, commercialising technologies in the US, UK, Europe and Africa. He has served on the board of Knowledge Commercialisation Australasia, is a Registered Technology Transfer Professional, and serves of 3 other boards in the venture space. He is passionate about translating research and technological breakthroughs into business value.

Terry Woodcroft

Terry is a hardware and software engineer with a passion to grow businesses with innovative technology products to reach the global marketplace. She has more than 30 years international experience leading small to large enterprises to major product and funding milestones and exit.Her career spans CEO and CTO roles for venture-backed startups, Global Product Manager for enterprise software companies, and leading asset management for UniQuest.

She is an Electrical Engineering graduate from the University of Queensland in the days when girls weren’t engineers and has an MBA in Technology Management. Most recently, as CEO and co-founder of Aurtra, Terry led the business to exit with significant returns to shareholders within 4 years. Aurtra’s IOT and asset management solutions now deliver critical insights for power distribution networks in 30 countries.

Harold Lomas

Currently acting Assistant Secretary, Research Commercialisation Branch, Department of Education, which is responsible for the Trailblazers University and Industry PhD programs, as well as research and data functions to support the research commercialisation policy agenda including managing the department’s input into the SCOPR partnership with KCA. Before that have led the Tertiary Policy and Research Policy Branches, a departmental taskforce supporting the Napthine Review of Regional Education, and managed the Higher Education Loans Program.Am passionate about social and public policy, particularly education, aged care, and policies to address homelessness, with extensive Australian Public Service experience across a range of departments including Industry, Health and Aged Care, and Prime Minister and Cabinet; and have also undertaken senior advisory roles in Ministers Offices for both sides of politics.

Speakers