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.

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).

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 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.

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.

Dax leads Business Development and Commercialisation in the Knowledge Exchange team at UNSW.  He has over 15 years’ experience developing and commercialising new technologies in start-ups, university and corporate research environments.  His technology experience covers advanced materials and high-tech sector including: robotics, devices, photonics, materials and data analytics. He has an MBA from AGSM and PhD in Polymer Materials and BSc in Industrial Chemistry from UNSW.  He is the author of 25 scientific articles, two book chapters, numerous conference presentations and has filed over 30 patent families.