The BioMelbourne Network presents a half-day Health Technology Partnering Forum covering biotechnology, medical technology, pharmaceuticals and digital health on the morning of Friday the 27th of November.

The Partnering Forum is an annual fixture of BioMelbourne Network’s event calendar and brings together the health innovation ecosystem of Melbourne to discuss new approaches to partnering and collaboration. The event will explore engaging and dealing with multinational strategic partners, new business models, as well as future challenges and opportunities in the global health innovation landscape.

The program for this event will feature ten speakers over three sessions, including:

• A panel discussion on partnering across the product development lifecycle
• Recent industry case studies
• Presentations and a panel discussion on new approaches to partnering and collaboration

Ms Kathy Connell
Director – New Ventures – ANZ, Johnson & Johnson Asia Pacific Innovation Centre
Kathy is Director of New Ventures, Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) for Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Asia-Pacific and is responsible for implementing our strategy across Australia and New Zealand.
Kathy has a clinical background and started her commercial career as the VP of Global Business Development for an Australian biotechnology company. Prior to joining Janssen, Kathy worked for Sanofi engaged in in-licensing late stage pharmaceutical assets.  Kathy joined Janssen as Biotechnology Alliance Manager in 2011.
Kathy is a registered psychologist and holds Post Graduate Diplomas in Health and Medical Law from the University of Melbourne, Psychology from Monash University and Bachelor degrees in Psychology (Swinburne University) and Applied Science from LaTrobe University.  She is based in Sydney Australia.

Daniel Grant, Ph.D., M.B.A.
Senior Director and Head, External Research & Development Innovation (ERDI), Australia, New Zealand, Singapore,  Pfizer Australia
Dan Grant is Senior Director and Head of Pfizer’s External Research and Development Innovation (ERDI) group for Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.   He is also the Head of Open Innovation for Pfizer’s ERDI group.  He is responsible for identifying, evaluating and managing collaborative and licensing opportunities that align with Pfizer’s Worldwide R&D strategies.  Dan is also a member of the Pfizer Australia Country Medical Council and sits on the Steering Committee for Pfizer’s Center for Therapeutic Innovation in Australia.
Prior to joining Pfizer, Dan was a senior business development manager at Melbourne Ventures, a member of the Investment Committee for Uniseed and a Senior Business Development Manager for Biocomm Services.  In these roles Dan was responsible for technology evaluation and commercialisation through licensing and company formation.
Dan has sat on the board of a number of biotechnology spin-out companies, is a past Director of Research Australia, and currently a Director of the CRC for Mental Health and the Prader Willi Research Foundation Australia.  Dan is also a member of the United Nations ESCAP SBN Task Force on Innovation and Competitiveness.  Dan has a Ph.D. in Cardiovascular Physiology and an M.B.A.  He has more than 15 years experience in applied biomedical research including 10 years as a Senior Scientist at the Monash Institute of Medical Research.

Dr Kerry Hegarty,
Business Development Director, Life Sciences Research, Innovation & Commercialisation, The University of Melbourne
Dr. Kerry Hegarty has been recently appointed to the business development team at The University of Melbourne as part of strengthened efforts and revised strategies to diversify the sources of research income and exploit commercialisation opportunities for The University globally.  In her role as Business Development Director, Life Sciences, Kerry assists research teams with external engagement including industry partnership opportunities and the commercial translation of outstanding research outcomes.  Kerry brings the requisite credibility to the role having created and lead a number of early-stage technology companies from benchtop science to global sales.  Most recently, she served as Managing Director/CEO of Sienna Cancer Diagnostics where she built the team and partnering relationships responsible for successfully delivering to market Sienna’s first product used for the non-invasive detection of bladder cancer.

Michael Kotsanis , BSc, MBus
Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director
Michael commenced as CEO and Managing Director of Acrux in November, 2014. He has over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and has significant senior Ieadership experience across the global pharmaceutical markets. Michael was formally the Chief Commercial Officer for Synthon Holding BV, a specialty pharmaceutical company based in The Netherlands, a position he held from mid-2010. Prior to Synthon, he served as President, Europe, Middle East and Africa, for Hospira, the global leader in generic injectable pharmaceuticals. Michael joined Hospira following its acquisition of Mayne Pharma in 2007, where he served as President Asia Pacific from 2002. He joined Mayne following their acquisition of Faulding Pharmaceuticals in 2001, where he held responsibility for commercial activities in Australia and New Zealand. Prior to Faulding, Michael held a variety of sales and marketing positions with Boehringer Ingelheim over an 11 year period. Michael earned a bachelor’s degree in science from Monash University, and a master’s degree in business from the University of Technology, Sydney.

Mr Hugh Alsop
CEO, Hatchtech
Mr Alsop is the Chief Executive Officer of Hatchtech Pty Ltd, an Australian pharmaceutical company developing an innovative prescription head lice product.  In September the company announced the signing of a commercialization agreement with integrated pharmaceutical company Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories (NYSE: RDY) for the rights of Xeglyze™ Lotion in key territories.
Over the last 17 years, Hugh has worked in executive positions for a wide spectrum of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including Acrux Limited, Phosphagencis Ltd, Sigma Pharmaceuticals and Mayne Pharma (formerly Faulding Pharmaceuticals).  Hugh was a key member of the team at Acrux when their testosterone product Axiron was licensed to Eli Lilly in 2010.
Hugh holds a Bachelor of Science with Honors (Chemistry) from the University of Melbourne and an MBA from the Melbourne Business School.
Passionate about the life sciences industry, Hugh is dedicated to addressing the unmet needs of complex market places with innovative, Australian developed products.

Ms Brigitte Smith B Chem Eng, MBA, MALD
Co Founder and Managing Director, GBS Venture Partners Ltd
Brigitte Smith has twenty years experience in venture capital, business strategy and start-up company operations.  Brigitte has been investing and managing investments for GBS’s $450m of life science specialised venture capital funds since 1998.  Brigitte is on the board of GBS portfolio companies AirXpanders Inc, Neuromonics Pty Ltd, Proacta Inc and Vivive Inc.  Brigitte was the founding investor and chair of Pharmaxis Pty Ltd.
Prior to founding GBS Brigitte worked in the US and Australia in operating roles with early stage technology based companies, and at Bain & Company as a strategic management consultant.  Ms Smith has a B. Chem Eng (Honours) from the University of Melbourne, and as a Fulbright Scholar completed a MBA (Honours) from the Harvard Business School and a MALD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, both in Boston, USA.  Ms Smith has also been an adjunct lecturer in Entrepreneurial Finance at Melbourne Business School.

Dr Julian Chick
COO, Admedus
Julian Chick is an experienced corporate executive with 15 years’ experience in senior management. His roles include Chief Executive Officer and Head of Business Development, as well as running early and late stage Research & Development projects. In the past six years, Dr Chick has raised hundreds of million dollars for R&D projects as well as being involved in product launches and partnerships, M&A and licensing transactions. He has five years’ investment adviser experience and has also held a role as an analyst reviewing healthcare and biotechnology investment opportunities for private equity investors and venture capitalists. Julian has a PhD in Muscle Physiology.

Mr David G. Mast
Asia Pacific Client Success for IBM’s Platform as a Service, Bluemix
In this the age of the Developer, businesses of all sizes, from Startups to Enterprises, are rapidly adopting PaaS to develop software in the cloud with greater speed, security and quality. To manage this transition David Mast is responsible for Asia Pacific Sales of IBM’s new Platform as a Service, Bluemix.
In this capacity, he will be responsible for collaboration with the Ecosystems Development team, WW Bluemix sales leader, AP inside sales and field teams at IMT levels, and the interlock of the Go to Market plans for the AP IOT and each IMT.
Previously responsible for the EcoD Division David and his team have vastly lifted the visibility, credibility and revenue impact of ISVs/SI(s), Start-ups, Academia, Influencers, Corporate, Born on the Cloud and Individual Developers.
His focus therefore continues to position IBM a prime mover in changing the way people work through Mobile, Cloud, Analytics, Social, and Security, and becoming an even more influential accelerator for go-to-market and innovative enterprises through IBM global insight, reach and investment opportunities.
David has the right background to build this business having held roles in Software Group’s Enterprise Sales Team, as the AP Software Executive for System Integrator and Technology Partner Alliances, AP Compliance, the A/NZ Channel Manager, and way back in 1996 as the Telstra SCL.
He has been with IBM for 18 years, previously Wang Australia, and worked for many years in the Advertising Industry.

Bill Hill MBA, BSc (Hons), GM, Strategic Business Development, Hydrix
Bill is a seasoned senior executive with over 25 years’ experience leading successful, high technology businesses servicing the medical, industrial and consumer fields.
He joined Hydrix in 2014 to lead their Strategic Business Development. Prior to Hydrix, Bill spent 14 years at Invetech where he held a number of roles including Business Unit Director.
Bill has worked across the full development spectrum from leading research projects, commercialisation strategy assignments and large scale product developments that resulted in award winning products for some of the world’s best known companies including Philips, Coca-Cola.
Bill has a B.Sc. in Applied Physics with Honours from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow and an MBA from RMIT University in Melbourne.

Dr Chris Sotiropoulos
Director & Co-Founder, APAC Health
Dr. Chris Sotiropoulos is a company owner who has created regional based healthcare companies to provide niche or rare medicines / treatments to fast growing but currently poorly serviced regions of the planet.
At present, 39 countries are able to be serviced by APAC Health and SEMEA Orphan.
He has completed over USD$350m worth of biotech and pharma licensing deals and has extensive links in the global healthcare, finance and legal community.