Our Business Mentors
Ian Brown
A director on multiple company boards, Ian Brown is a highly successful Entrepreneur in Residence at INSEAD, Europe's leading business school, where he mentors MBA candidates, serves as a Co-Facilitator and Mentor on the school's Sci-Tech Entrepreneur boot camps, and is a judge of the INSEAD Venture Competition.
John Hoddinott
John Hoddinott is the Managing Director of Scintilla Consulting and was previously a partner of EY, leading a range of performance improvement projects across the health and wider public sector in WA and nationally. He moved from London to Perth in 2011, having been with EY’s London office since 2006. Mr Hoddinott has over 20 years of experience in government, healthcare and wider public sector. He is an active member of the EY foundation which helps build a better working world for our youth as the partner sponsor for the Esther Foundation in Perth. In addition to his own consulting vehicle, John has also started an international digital health advisory and venture business called Tektology internationally and TEK-V in Australia.
Dr Liz Dallimore
Liz is a research & development, innovation and commercialisation specialist. She is currently Director of the WA Data Science Innovation Hub, a newly created initiative to enable the data science ecosystem to flourish in WA. Liz works across a range of stakeholders to ensure WA is leveraging the amazing opportunities data science can bring to the State. Previously Liz was a Director at KPMG and has more than 15 years experience in research, innovation and technology across the UK and Australia.
Prof Paul Watt
After graduating from The University of Western Australia, Paul Watt completed his doctorate in Molecular Biology at Oxford University before taking up postdoctoral appointments at Harvard and Oxford and then at the Telethon Kids Institute, working primarily in genome stability, genetics and transcriptional regulation. He was appointed Adjunct Professor at UWA and is Director of Research Services and Innovation at the Telethon Kids, where he responsible for grants, technology transfer and licensing activities, having gained 20 years of experience as biotechnology executive. As an inventor on 25 patents, he founded Phylogica (now PYC Therapeutics) as well as InfaMed (acquired by Visiomed, which then merged with Clinical Cell Culture to become Avita Medical). Paul continues to enthusiastically support the WA innovation sector and holds a number of non-executive board roles, including Inspiring Holdings, Grow Impact and Avicena Systems.
Sheryl Frame
Sheryl has been a strategic business consultant for over 30 years. She has held numerous senior management and board positions in Australia and overseas. Her extensive in-depth technology, marketing, strategic planning and business skills have underpinned her success in advising, guiding and mentoring innovation and commercialisation a wide range of early-stage companies.
Sheryl is also vigorously committed to the representation of women in enterprise and government. She served on the Board of AWISE (Australian Women in IT, Science and Engineering), she has served on the committee of Women in Technology, WA (WITWA) since 2006, and is a Board Member of SBE Australia. Sheryl is also a Director of StartupWA.
Dr Simon Graindorge
Simon has spent 17 years in the healthcare industry, having significant experience as an investor, and also as an entrepreneur in leadership roles at start-up companies. He is currently a Partner in IP Group’s Life Sciences team, where he leads investments in medical and digital healthcare technologies which will significantly impact patient access, improve outcomes and save healthcare costs. Simon also recently joined local medtech company, OncoRes Medical, as COO. Over the last decade he has invested in and helped build companies such as Tissue Regenix Group plc, Creavo Medical Technologies, Oxehealth, Intelligent Ultrasound (acquired by Medaphor Group), Ibex Innovations, Pancregenesis. Simon holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Western Australia, as well as Bachelor degrees in both Mechanical Engineering and Chemistry, and is also a Chartered Engineer.
Dr Andrew Barker
Executive and technical board member with 30 years’ experience in the Life Sciences industry across oncology therapeutics, gene therapies, cellular therapies, infectious diseases, drug delivery, medical devices, diagnostics and generics in listed and private entities, and academia. Currently Senior Manager in Tax Services (R&D) for RSM Australia. Former roles included Executive Director for Salus Technologies Ltd (acquired by Karmel Sonix) and R&D leader for Amaxa GmbH (acquired by Lonza), and senior research positions at the University of Cologne (Genetics) UWA (Pharmacology) and the Harry Perkins Institute for Medical Research (Oncology, microRNA). Business advisor and mentor to multiple incubators and startup companies, including CERI, IMNIS, Accelerating Australia, and Biodesign Australia. Andrew is a strategic and results-orientated leader with an exceptional ability to understand new technical concepts and integrate these into commercially relevant strategies. Strong understanding of finance, tax incentives, grants and compliance. BSc (Hon) and PhD in Microbiology.
Dr Carlo Bellini
Dr Carlo Bellini is a consultant, executive coach, and speaker. Carlo graduated valedictorian of his medical class and completed his residency in Perth. In 2016, Carlo was recognised as Australian Financial Review Young Executive of the Year and one of Western Australia's “40under40” leading entrepreneurs. He also holds an MBA from Oxford University, where he graduated on the Dean's Commendation List. Carlo has been Chief Medical Officer at Chevron Australia, an early employee at a Silicon Valley-based AI startup, as well as consulting for the Boston Consulting Group in Australia and Japan. He was the first Western Australian to study at the Google and NASA-sponsored Singularity University. Currently, Carlo has bases in Australia, London, and San Francisco as he grows his business, Health Innovation Performance (HIP) Consulting. HIP advises organisations that are looking to move the needle, from startups to multi-billion dollar corporations to governments.
Dr Helga Mikkelsen
Helga is an Investment Analyst at Brandon Capital, which manages the Medical Research Commercialisation Fund (MRCF). Following degrees in Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Helga completed her PhD in microbiology at the University of Cambridge and postdoctoral research in bacterial genetics at Imperial College London. She subsequently managed the development of anti-infective medical devices in urology at CamStent Ltd (Cambridge, UK). Since her move to Australia in 2016, Helga has worked with the Telethon Kids Institute to commercialise inhaled drug treatments for respiratory disease and is a co-founder of Respirion Pharmaceuticals, which develops a new treatment for chronic lung infections in patients with cystic fibrosis.