BOARD
Carl Stubbings
Independent Chair
BIO
Carl Stubbings
BAppS (Med Tech)
Carl is an experienced senior leader in the biotechnology and diagnostics industry with a focus on commercialisation, sales, marketing and business development.
He has considerable experience commercialising diagnostic products, both locally and globally. Based in the USA for 13 years, he served as Senior Vice President for Panbio USA Ltd and Vice-President of Sales and Marketing for Focus Diagnostics, a subsidiary of Quest Diagnostics (NASDAQ:DGX).
Since moving back to Australia Carl has held a number of executive roles including, Chief Business Officer at Benitec Biopharma Limited (ASX: BLT, NASDAQ: BNTC), CEO and Managing Director of Sienna Cancer Diagnostics Ltd (ASX: SDX), and Chief Operating Officer of BARD1(ASX:IIQ). More recently he was appointed Chief Commercial Officer of Genetic Technologies (ASX:GTG, NASDAQ :GENE). Carl has also assisted several Australian biotech companies with their commercialisation strategies, these companies include BCAL Diagnostics (ASX:BDX), Biotron (ASX: BIT) and Minomic International. He is also a Non-Executive Director of Sangui Bio, an unlisted private company.
Susan McKean
Independent Deputy Chair
BIO
Susan (Sue) McKean
MBL, MHsC (Risk Management), Grad. Dip Applied Corporate Governance. FGIA, FCIS, GAICD.
Sue McKean is an experienced Senior Executive and Company Secretary with extensive leadership experience in health and community services organisations.
Sue’s roles include Group Executive Governance for UnitingCare Queensland, one of Queensland’s largest private companies and prior to that was the Director of Risk and Quality for UnitingCare Health. Sue was the inaugural Company Secretary for Australian Regional and Remote Community Services and start-up Leap in! Australia.
Sue has a passion for navigating complex governance, risk and leadership requirements in different organisational and service settings and is an experienced leader in organisations undergoing transformation, and sectors responding to increasing transparency expectations and regulatory reform.
Sue has a track record of fostering positive relationships and stakeholder management to achieve strategic and operational outcomes and holds a Masters of Health Science (Risk Management), Masters of Business Law and Graduate Diploma of Applied Governance.
Mark Grosser
Member Elected Director
BIO
Mark Grosser
BEng, BBus
Mark is the co-founder and CEO of 23 Strands Pty Ltd (23Strands), and is utilising whole genome sequencing and Artificial Intelligence to unlock the power of patient’s genetic code to provide a more accurate pathway to better patient outcomes.
23Strands is currently commercialising genomics screening and diagnostics across Women’s and reproductive health and is a key industry partner in over $30 million of translational and AI based grants and initiatives.
Mark is an experienced Engineer and business manager with over 20 years’ experience in the health technology industry where he has worked at companies such as Cochlear, Micromedical, Ventracore and the Henry Schein Group. He has significant track record in the commercialization of health innovations across a range of diagnostic, pharmaceutical and device markets.
He also is a passionate advocate for early stage innovation in Australia and has been an active mentor and supporter to the start up ecosystems across health, biological sciences and financial innovation. He currently is a member of several successful businesses and not for profits and sits on an Early Stage Venture Capital Investment Committee.
Robert McBride
Member Elected Director
BIO
Robert (Rob) McBride
Dip Bus, Cert, Med Lab Science, Microbiology and Clinical Chemistry
Rob is the General Manager of Australia, New Zealand, Korea and Singapore for Illumina. Rob has worked in genomics for over 30 years and is passionate about improving human health by using genomic technologies. Prior to his appointment to General Manager, he led the sales and specialist teams in Asia Pacific and Japan.
Rob joined Illumina in 2013 as part of the Bluegnome acquisition, initially driving growth in the In-vitro fertilisation (IVF) and cytogenetic portfolios in Australia leading to 95% conversion to Illumina technology. He then moved into a specialist role driving Non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) adoption as it emerged as an important technology reducing invasive amniocentesis screening in Australia. This led to a global CEO circle award in 2015. He then led the first clinical sales team globally in Illumina growing clinical adoption not just in reproductive health but including oncology and genetic disease and took the Asia pacific and Japan territory to region of the year in 2020 and 2022.
Earlier in his career, he worked at the Women’s and Children’s hospital in the field of Cytogenetics and moved to the United Kingdom to work with the leading provider of Cytogenetic imaging systems, where he was responsible for the successful global commercialisation and launch of a cytogenetic imaging system for plants and animals. Rob returned to Australia in 2000 to regionally manage the Asia Pacific sales leadership. Later, Rob worked with a variety of companies in the medical field, specifically focused on Cardiology, radiology and laser dentistry.
Diana Nielson
Member Elected Director
BIO
Diana (Di) Nielson
BCom, Cert Nursing
Di is Head of Diagnostics at AstraZeneca ANZ and has over 35 years experience in healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry. For the last 8 years she has led the Diagnostics capability at AstraZeneca facilitating equitable and timely access to Genomics to support patient’s access to precision oncology. Di is passionate about the evolution and integration of genomics into routine healthcare.
She has strong relationships with an extensive network of National and International pathology and diagnostic providers regularly collaborating on key projects to enhance access to genomics for Australians.
Di has extensive commercial experience and currently sits on the Oncology Leadership Team at AstraZeneca. Prior to this she worked across the pharmaceutical industry in a variety of roles supporting the commercialisation of Precision Oncology medicines and identification of the associated biomarkers.
Edith Hurt
Independent Director
BIO
Edith Hurt
MHumanServ (Mgt&Policy), MDataScience (Strat&Lship), RN, GAICD.
Edith Hurt is an experienced Senior Executive, Company Secretary and
Company Director with extensive leadership experience in health, medical
research and for purpose organisations.
Her work in public health commenced as a Registered Nurse and includes roles
with beyondblue, and in medical research as Operations Manager of the ProCan
multi-omic program at the Children’s Medical Research Institute at Westmead.
She has an understanding of the Australian health system, including clinical
aspects, research, clinical trials and commercialisation and an appreciation of
where genomics does and could impact, along with the challenges and potential
barriers to adoption.
Edith was the inaugural Company Secretary and founding board member of the
Can Too Foundation and Chair of the Research Investment Committee. She
has over 10 years of commercial and not-for-profit Non-Executive Director
experience in health, community and business sectors.
Her background in management consulting provides a broad base of strategic
and operational knowledge, used to providing organisational advice, guidance
and insights to Executive Leaders on strategic direction, operational delivery,
risk management and governance.
A master’s degree in Human Services (Management and Policy), and experience
in Government Relations and Advocacy in not-for-profit organisations has given
Edith experience in industry, peak bodies, partner organisations and
government working groups developing policy. As a senior digital health leader,
with a Master of Data Science (Strategy & Leadership) and significant complex
program management experience, she has overseen the delivery of multiple
concurrent multi-omic research studies and has a track record of fostering
positive working relationships with key stakeholders in industry and
government to enhance an organisation’s reputation and impact.
Oliver Bonaccorso
Member Elected Director
BIO
Oliver brings 17 years of experience in the genomics industry, showcasing a diverse background that spans commercial and strategic roles across the life sciences, diagnostics, and pharmaceutical sectors. Currently, he serves as the Precision Medicine and Diagnostics Lead at Johnson & Johnson (J&J), where he leverages his extensive network of contacts within the diagnostic pathology industry and technology manufacturers to ensure high quality testing is available to patients. Within J&J, he manages the diagnostic strategy across all therapeutic areas.
Oliver has a keen interest in regulatory policy and reimbursement frameworks for companion diagnostics. He believes that prompt and equitable access to funded testing is crucial for the successful implementation of precision medicine.
He is passionate about the implementation of cutting-edge genomic technologies into clinical practice to improve diagnostic yield while minimizing costs and accelerating time to results for patients.