Strategic Advisory Board
Prof Kevin Pfleger (Chair)
Director, Biomedical and Health Innovation
University of Western Australia
and WA Life Sciences Innovation Hub
Professor Pfleger is Director Biomedical and Health Innovation at The University of Western Australia (UWA) and the Western Australian Life Sciences Innovation Hub. He is also Head of Molecular Endocrinology and Pharmacology at the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, Deputy Director of the Australian Research Council Centre for Personalised Therapeutics Technologies, Chief Scientific Advisor to Dimerix, a spin-out company from UWA of which he was CSO from 2008 to 2014, and co-Founder of RAGE Biotech.
Kevin was awarded his MA and PhD from Cambridge and Edinburgh Universities respectively. He has received numerous accolades over his 20-year postdoctoral career, including WA Young Scientist of the Year 2009, an NHMRC Ten of the Best Award in 2010 with the tag-line ‘Young Entrepreneur’, the 2011 Australian Museum 3M Eureka Prize for Emerging Leader in Science, an NHMRC Research Excellence Award 2014, the Novartis Prize of the British Pharmacological Society 2016, 40under40 Award 2017 and UWA Innovation Champion 2018. Most recently, in 2021, Kevin was made a Fellow of the British Pharmacological Society. Kevin is President of the Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists, is a member of the International Advisory Group of the British Pharmacological Society, is a member of the WA State Committee of AusBiotech, and serves as the Commercialisation Representative on the WAHTN Management Committee.
Prof Fiona Wood
Director,
Burns Service of Western Australia
Professor Fiona Wood has been a plastic and reconstructive surgeon and researcher for over 30 years and is Director of the Burns Service of Western Australia (BSWA). She is a Consultant Plastic Surgeon at Fiona Stanley Hospital and Perth Children’s Hospital, Winthrop Professor in the School of Surgery at The University of Western Australia, and co-founder of the Fiona Wood Foundation.
Fiona’s dedication to improving outcomes for burns patients and expanding the knowledge of wound healing began in 1991 when she became trained as West Australia’s first female plastic surgeon.
Professor Wood’s greatest contribution and enduring legacy is her work pioneering the innovative ‘spray-on skin’ technique (Recell), which greatly reduces permanent scarring in burns victims. Professor Wood and Marie Stoner assigned their intellectual property to the not-for-profit foundation in 1997 such that the commercialisation of the device has supported the sustainability of the research foundation.
In October 2002, Fiona was propelled into the media spotlight as the team leader in the burns disaster response when the largest proportion of survivors from the 2002 Bali bombings arrived at Royal Perth Hospital.
Fiona was named a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) (2003), Western Australia Citizen of the Year (2005), Australian Academy of Engineering and Technologies Clunies Ross award winner shared with Marie Stoner, and Australian of the Year for 2005 by Australian Prime Minister John Howard at a ceremony in Canberra to mark Australia Day. She is an Australian Living Treasure.
Dr Kath Giles
CEO,
OncoRes Medical
Dr Katharine Giles has dedicated her career to improving the health and wellbeing of patients and their families through the development and application of novel technologies and is a passionate advocate for Western Australian innovation.
Katharine is currently Managing Director and CEO of OncoRes Medical, a Perth-based company focused on improving the accuracy of breast cancer surgery and eliminating the physical, psychological and economic burdens associated with repeat operations. OncoRes Medical believes that all breast cancer patients deserve the opportunity to move beyond their breast cancer surgery knowing that all the cancer has been removed, the first time.
Katharine is a Venture Partner at Brandon Capital Partners, a venture capital firm devoted to developing and supporting Australian life sciences businesses, a Director of Respirion Pharmaceuticals and a member of the Curtin Commercialisation Advisory Board.
In partnership with Breast Care WA and the McGrath Foundation, she created an interactive iPhone breast checker, in 2016 Katharine co-founded Spark Co-Lab, a not-for-profit education provider set up to educate, inspire and connect local talent and develop the local medical innovation ecosystem, and she was a 2018 winner of the 40under40 award.
Katharine has obtained a Masters of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery from the University of Western Australia.
Dr Liz Dallimore
CEO,
Argenica Therapeutics
Dr Liz Dallimore is the Chief Executive Officer of ASX-listed Argenica Therapeutics and Executive Chair of medtech start-up Inspiring.
Liz is the former Director of the WA Data Science Innovation Hub and previously worked as a research and development specialist and director at KPMG with more than 20 years of experience in research, innovation and technology across the UK and Australia, with a key focus on the biotechnology industry. A biomedical scientist by training, Dr Dallimore commenced her PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Oxford and completed it at The University of WA. She worked at the Perron Institute from 2000 to 2001 in the Stroke Research group. Dr Dallimore’s previous roles encompassed innovation and R&D at Ernst and Young in Melbourne and PwC in Melbourne and Perth. She was also a member of the Perron Institute Board from 2016 to 2020.
Liz completed an MBA in 2013 and was awarded an Alumni Prize for top student in capstone courses by the Australian Graduate School of Management. Liz is currently a WA Committee Member for AusBiotech and Non-Executive Director of National Energy Resources Australia.
Dr Michael Winlo
CEO,
Emyria
Dr Michael Winlo is CEO and Managing Director at Emyria – a health technology and clinical services company with sites around Australia that creates real world evidence with their patients for use by treatment developers, health payers and regulatory agencies. Emyria uses intensive follow-up and regulator-grade data capture to inform appropriate prescribing for novel therapies.
Michael is also a current Director, and previous CEO, of Linear Clinical Research, a dedicated clinical trial site and one of the first sites in the world to adopt electronic data capture. Prior to Linear, Michael helped found the Healthcare practice at Palantir Technologies, one of the largest Big Data analytics companies in the world. Michael has an MBA from Stanford and a MBBS(Hons) from the University of Western Australia.
Dr Julian Shapley
Entrepreneur in Residence,
Biodesign Australia
A medical device innovator, entrepreneur and leader with over 20 years of research, development and operational experience, Dr Shapley was instrumental in the inception, development, formation, and financing of Cellnovo.
As a biochemist and mechanical design engineer, and following post-doctoral experience within university and commercial development, Julian developed the founding technologies within the Cellnovo system, led cross-functional teams from ideation through to regulatory approval, led the quality team and design-for-manufacture, and the setup of a prototype manufacturing line. In the role of Chief Science Officer, he then focused on the continued protection and expansion of Cellnovo’s IP portfolio, business development activities and the integration of external technologies.
More recently, Julian has founded Glucose Republic, a company combining biology and software to help people eat and live better. Glucose Republic is building a personalised intelligence system for measuring and predicting metabolic responses to the food we eat and the exercise we take.
Dr Carlo Bellini
Consultant, Founder
HIP Consulting
Carlo Bellini is a doctor, entrepreneur, executive coach, and speaker. His expertise lies at the intersection of health, business, and innovation. He is the Founder of Health Innovation Performance (HIP) Consulting. HIP works with individuals, teams, and organisations from start-ups to multi-billion dollar corporations and governments who seek higher performance and want to move the needle in innovation. He is also the Founder and CEO of the Virtual Chief Medical Officer.
Carlo’s career spans Chief Medical Officer at Chevron Australia, an early employee at a Silicon Valley-based AI start-up, 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. His multi-disciplinary career enables him to move fluently between healthcare, business, and tech domains.
In 2016, Carlo was recognised as Australian Financial Review Young Executive of the Year. He is one of Western Australia's “40under40” leading entrepreneurs. He graduated valedictorian of his medical class and holds an MBA from Oxford University graduating on the Dean's Commendation List.
Dr Simon Graindorge
COO,
OncoRes Medical
Dr Simon Graindorge is the Chief Operating Officer at OncoRes Medical and also Entrepreneur in Residence at IP Group Australia. Simon has spent over 20 years as an investor and operator in medical device and digital health companies in the UK.
He has extensive experience as both an operating executive and board director investing in, building and growing start-ups, early stage and emerging growth companies based on early-stage, deep technology innovations across healthcare. Before joining IP Group Australia as an Operating Partner, Simon was a Partner in the UK life sciences team at IP Group plc, leading investment strategy and portfolio in medtech and digital health/healthtech. Over the last decade he has invested in and helped build companies like Tissue Regenix Group plc, Oxehealth, Creavo Medical Technologies, Intelligent Ultrasound Group plc, Ibex Innovations, Pancregenesis.
Simon joined IP Group from Ceramex Ltd, a corporate spin-out of the Hexadex Group and was previously an Executive Director at Tissue Regenix Group plc. Simon holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Western Australia, and Bachelor degrees in both Mechanical Engineering and Chemistry, and is also a Chartered Engineer.