Board

Chris is an experienced Investment Manager at Brandon Capital Partners, where he is involved in conducting seed and venture capital investments for the development and international growth of Australian life science companies. Chris also has extensive experience with both the in-licensing and out-licensing of therapeutic drugs and R&D platforms, which he gained as a Business Development Manager with CSL Ltd., Australia’s largest pharmaceutical company. At CSL, Chris was also responsible for identifying and reviewing opportunities for the global R&D pipeline.

Chris has a PhD in immunology conducted at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, and an MBA specialising in innovation and entrepreneurship from the University of Cambridge.

Steve is the Director of the Collaborate Against Cancer and OceanOmics initiatives at Minderoo Foundation and the Foundation’s COVID-19 response lead. Steve has a passion for working at the intersections of technology with healthcare and conservation, being particularly focused on how to improve the way data is used for the benefit of cancer patients and to revolutionise how me understand life in the ocean. Prior to Minderoo, he was most recently at the Roche Group, the world’s largest biotech, where he has run global businesses and established a new informatics and real-world data business in oncology.

Steve’s 30+ years experience in research and business spans healthcare, biotech, fisheries science, marine ecology, television documentary production, and strategy consulting. He holds a B.Sc. with honors in Biology and a Ph.D. in Population Biology from the University of Sydney, Australia.

John is the Biotechnology Investment Manager at Uniseed, Australia’s longest running venture fund, operating at the Universities of Melbourne, Sydney, New South Wales, Queensland and the CSIRO, with investment capital provided by these research organisations and leading superannuation fund UniSuper.  He is responsible for identifying new investment opportunities from the five research partners, and also covers Uniseed’s overall biotechnology and life sciences portfolio.  He also acts as a Director on the Board of investee companies that have collectively raised over AU$300 million.  John has a PhD in Neuroscience and a Post Graduate Diploma in Drug Evaluation & Pharmaceutical Science, both from the University of Melbourne, and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors

Leigh has over 30 years’ experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry and is Head of Health Security at DMTC Ltd, is a non-executive director of Pro Medicus Ltd and a member of the Medicines Australia Limited Independent Advisory Council.

Leigh’s past appointments include: Senior Vice President, Commercial at Certara USA, Inc where he was responsible for Asia Pacific Commercial and global government engagement for the preparedness, planning and response to major health emergencies; Chairman & COO of d3 Medicine, LLC;  Vice President of Business Development at Biota Pharmaceuticals, Associate Director GBS Venture Partners, Research Manager Johnson & Johnson Research and CEO of Gene Shears. Dr Farrell is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and is a member of the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute Commercialisation Committee.

Christophe has served as the Managing Director and CEO of ENA Respiratory since the company was formed in 2020 as a spin-off of ENA Therapeutics Pty Ltd, now renamed Axelia Oncology Pty Ltd.

Passionate about building ventures and leading teams committed to translating life sciences innovations into treatments that have a meaningful impact on patients, Christophe has more than 20 years of experience spanning start-up creation, capital raising, company management, pharmaceutical product development, business development and licensing of early-stage innovations.

Christophe has a strong research and technical background. He completed his PhD in immunology at the Pasteur Institute (Paris, France) before moving to Great Ormond Street Hospital (London, UK) where his research led in 2002 to Britain’s first successful gene therapy clinical trial for the treatment of immune deficiencies in children.