Board of Directors

Mr David Miles is a lawyer and company director whose career spans three key areas of interest – law, business and the community.  He was appointed Chairman of Innovation Australian from September 2007 to September 2014, having chaired its predecessor, the Industry Research and Development Board from March 2003.

Mr Miles’ broad business interests include positions as independent Chairman of Uniseed Management Pty Ltd and LegalSuper Pty Ltd, Director of ASC Pty Ltd, membership of the Council of the Australian National University, Deputy Co-Chairman of the Committee for Melbourne and Chairman, National Stakeholder Steering Committee for the National Smart Electricity Meter Project.  He is also an executive coach with Global Coaching Partnership and Chairman of the Australian Motor Sport Appeals Court (AMSAC).

Mr Miles was formerly Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner of the national Law firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth, a past President of the Law Council of Australia and also previously the Australian representative on the Council of the International Bar Association.  He was previously a member of a three person Expert Group that conducted a Review of the Australian Venture Capital Industry in 2005, Chair of the National Innovation Summit of 2000, the National Summit Implementation Group, the Innovation Awareness Council, the National Innovation Council, is a member of the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council, and a member of the Commercialisation Australia Interim Advisory Board.

Mr Miles Holds a Bachelor of Laws and was awarded membership of the Order of Australian in 2007 and an Australian Centenary Medal in 2001.

Dr Leanna Read joins as an independent board member and brings a wealth of executive, board and start-up investment experience to the role.  As CEO and Chair of the CRC for Cell Therapy Manufacturing (CTM CRC) until Oct 2019, she had oversight of research translation programs focused on cancer immunology as well as smart surfaces for implanted medical devices. Leanna also has an ongoing role as chair of CTM CRC’s spin-out companies, Carina Biotech Pty Ltd and TekCyte Pty Ltd. Under its new name, CureCell Ltd, CTM CRC is continuing as a charity to support research into curative immune therapies for childhood cancer.

Leanna recently completed a four-year term as Chief Scientist for South Australia. She is a current board member of Biosensis Pty Ltd, RSPCA SA and Playford Memorial Trust as well as a member of the Federal Government Biomedical Translation Fund Committee. She also chairs the Agtech Advisory Group, established in 2019 by the SA Government to promote uptake of Agtech into the farming sector and grow the SA Agtech industry. Her most recent appointment is chair of Health Translation SA, a collaborative network which brings together nine academic, research and health care agencies within South Australia to foster health applications of research in the state. She is a longstanding member of the Angel investment network, BioAngels/Southern Angels.

In addition, Leanna is the recipient of a number of awards, including the 2006 South Australian Premier’s Award for Science, Technology and Innovation Management Excellence and the 2006 South Australian of the Year (Science and Technology).

Dr Read holds a Bachelor of Agricultural Science (Hons), Biochemistry from the University of Adelaide and a Doctor of Philosophy – Biochemistry from Flinders University.  Dr Read is also a fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE).

 

Laurence currently holds the position of Director, Commercial CSIRO.  He brings to the Board extensive experience in senior executive leadership roles in strategy development and implementation, Business Development and Commercialisation over 15 years at CSIRO.

Prior to Laurence’s current role he held the position of Director, Business Development & Commercial (BD&C) responsible for CSIRO’s ‘customer first’ and ‘commercialisation’ strategies as well as delivering Intellectual Property, Contract, Commercial Legal and Business Development services to secure CSIRO’s external revenues and to deliver impact from CSIRO’s research through collaboration initiatives and commercialisation.

Prior to CSIRO, Laurence worked as a senior legal counsel for the Commonwealth statutory corporation – Export Finance and Insurance Corporation (EFIC). Laurence has a Master of Law (Sydney University), Bachelor of Law & Economics (Macquarie University) and is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD), Law Society of NSW, Australian Investment Council member representative for CSIRO, CSIRO Trustee and leadership program mentor for the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA).

Professor Julie Cairney is the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research – Enterprise and Engagement) in the office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research). Leading the implementation of the University’s industry, government and community engagement strategy, Professor Cairney will support the Research Portfolio’s work in growing research income across the University, fostering world-class research performance and mentoring, and recognising the impact of our research activities with industry, government and community partners.

Professor Julie Cairney is an engineering and materials characterisation researcher. She is currently an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow and a chief investigator on a number of other ARC grants. Professor Cairney currently leads a research group in the School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering that focuses on the relationship between microstructure and properties of materials. She is the author of over 200 publications, cited 4000+ times, including a book on the subject of atom probe microscopy and has also served on the ARC College of Experts and the New Zealand Marsden Fund. Professor Cairney also serves as CEO of Microscopy Australia, a national facility that is supported by the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy.

Allan Tait is Vice-Principal Administration & Finance and Chief Operating Officer at the University of Melbourne.  His portfolio includes finances, human resources, IT and facilities.  Allan chairs the University’s commercial subsidiary and is a member of a number of other boards.

Prior to joining the University he was a partner in the corporate finance group at PricewaterhouseCoopers, and finance director of the local investment banking subsidiary of the Toronto Dominion Bank.

Allan is a chartered accountant and a member of the institutes in both Australia and the UK.  He has a degree in economic history from the University of Birmingham (England).

Allan was the winner of Oracle’s ‘Leadership in Finance (Asia Pacific)’ award in 2014 and was a finalist in the Australian Financial Review’s ‘CFO of the Year’ in 2013.

Stephen is a proven strategist with over 16 years’ experience in Chief Executive and Company Director roles. He is driven to deliver outcomes and stakeholder value. With a breadth of experience across start-up/scale-up companies and the not-for-profit sector, Stephen challenges the status quo and prioritises governance and board strategy as critical elements to enable innovation and unlock growth.

In addition to his role as Pro Vice-Chancellor (Industry & Innovation) at UNSW Sydney, Stephen serves on The Hospital Research Foundation Group Board as Chair, which has grown to become the largest private funder of medical research in SA, providing over $30 million into research and patient care initiatives in 2021 alone.

As a Non-Executive Director and Chair of companies such as Myriota Pty Ltd, BiomeBank and Ferronova Pty Ltd, he has built management teams, raised capital and supported expansion into global markets. Stephen has supported the start-up and scale-up phases of over 15 companies and secured in excess of $500m in investment, grants and other funds. He has managed and grown a portfolio of companies across broad industry sectors and served on the Investment Committee of a number of Venture Investment funds.

Stephen holds a PhD from the University of Adelaide, he was a Fellow at Harvard University, has trained at the Harvard Business School and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.