Speaker Profiles

His work experience includes positions in research, research translation, commercialisation, start-up companies, biotechnology and philanthropy. In the early 90’s his patented discoveries in type II diabetes led to a commercial partnership where he lead a team of researchers at the University of Sydney and for which he was presented the Royal Australian Chemical Institute’s Biota Award for Medicinal Chemistry. Noel then moved into industry where he held senior management positions in research and business development before becoming the CEO of a number of listed (ASX) and unlisted biotechnology/health related companies. In 2009, Noel’s attention turned to philanthropy where he led the establishment of Research Australia’s successful philanthropy program as the Director of Philanthropy. He was a member of the Federal Government’s Advisory Council for Intellectual Property (ACIP) from 2009-2014, advising the Federal Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research and was Chair of the ACIP review into collaborations between Publicly Funded Research Organisations and Industry. The Minister released this report in late 2012.

She is a dedicated advocate and policy expert for the pharmaceutical sector and is well known for her contributions to national policy development.

Liz has a lifetime of experience in health care and pharmaceutical health policy with a core focus on improving the lives of patients.

Liz began her career in nursing and spent over 10 years as an Intensive Care nurse in the front line of critical care in London and Australia. A chance role supporting a clinical research trial ignited a passion for drug development, leading Liz to a Master of Medical Science (UNSW) in 2007.

Liz has worked across drug development, clinical research, regulatory affairs, and market access in the pharmaceutical industry. Liz contributes her clinical and industry expertise to a number of expert committees providing advice to Government and brings decades of experience to her role, having worked at the frontline of the medical field including as an intensive care nurse, clinical trials coordinator and clinical research associate.

Liz provides occasional lectures on drug development, regulation of medicines, quality use of medicines and the policy environment affecting access to medicines in Australia.

Most recently, he was a Director in KPMG Australia’s Enterprise division, where he helped shape private client and family office strategy, building national alliances and thought leadership across the ultra-high-net-worth and family enterprise community. 

As the Head of Family Office & Wealth Services at The Myer Family Company, Keith established and led the Sydney Family Office capability, growing it to manage more than $1B in assets and creating one of Australia’s earliest multidisciplinary family office models. At Perpetual Private Clients, Keith delivered leadership responsibility across adviser and client service teams, managing the interests of intergenerational families and integrating the full service capabilities of one of Australia’s oldest, most respected financial services businesses. 

He continues to advise families and firms through Drewery Consulting, bringing a practical lens to governance, stewardship and long-horizon decision-making. 

At Lipman Burgon, Keith supports our Private Office and For Purpose offering with a focus on integrated service design, family governance and ecosystem partnerships that improve outcomes for families over generations. Keith’s work has included writing family constitutions, facilitating governance transitions and sitting as an independent voice as a Director or Trustee on family boards and investment committees, ensuring objectivity and long-term stewardship of capital. 

He serves as Director of Brain Cancer Research within the HMRI Precision Medicine and Health Program and leads the Paediatric Stream of the Mark Hughes Foundation Centre for Brain Cancer Research. Prof Dun is also an Executive Member of the International Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Consortium (PNOC) Diffuse Midline Glioma Therapeutic Advisory Committee (DMG-TAC), a member of the Australian and New Zealand Children’s Haematology/Oncology Group (ANZCHOG) CNS Tumour Committee, and an Editor for the journal Neuro-Oncology.

Recognised internationally for his contributions to paediatric cancer research, Professor Dun has received 38 national and international awards, including NSW Premier’s Outstanding Cancer Research Fellow (2019), the Australian Institute of Policy and Science Young Tall Poppy Award (2020), the International DIPG “Big Hero” Award (Washington DC, 2022), and the UON MCR of the Year (2022), ChadTough Defeat DIPG “Spirit Award”, the PNOC “Basic Science Trailblazer” Award, the International DIPG Symposium “Innovator Award”, and was named HMRI Director’s MCR of the Year (2023). In 2024, he was awarded the ASMR Medial and in 2025, a Rare Tumors Research award at the Society for Neuro-Oncology annual Conference (Honolulu) and named winner of the Australian Financial Review Higher Education Emerging Leadership Award, recognising his leadership and contributions to translational paediatric brain cancer research. In 2026, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to medical research, particularly paediatric brain cancer.

After leaving KPMG in 2000, he has undertaken roles as a non executive director of listed and unlisted companies. Most recently, Mr Harkness was Chairman of Reliance Rail, a Director of Goodman Group and Sinclair Knight Merz, Chairman and a Director of Charter Hall Retail Management Limited, as well as a member of the Territorial Headquarters and Sydney Advisory Board of the Salvation Army. Mr Harkness joined the Board of Directors of the National Foundation for Medical Research and Innovation in 1984 and was appointed Chairman of the Foundation between 2000-2018. Mr Harkness is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand and was a Fellow the Australian Institute of Company Directors until 2019.

He chairs Uniseed’s Biotech and Tech Investment Committees.

With over 25 years’ continuous experience in early-stage venture investment and research commercialisation, Alastair previously led Monash Innovation and established Monash Ventures, growing Monash’s invention pipeline and commercialisation deals by more than 100 per cent and delivering over A$25 million in realised exits, including the ASX listing of Amaero Engineering. He has served on investment committees across five institutional venture vehicles and on numerous portfolio company and fund boards.

A Cambridge MBA graduate, GAICD and Registered Technology Transfer Professional, Alastair is a past Chair of KCA, a KCA Life Member, and was named KCA’s Technology Transfer Professional of the Year in 2023.

He is the Founder of igiveonepercent.org, a giving advocacy that promotes annual charitable giving of 1% of one’s net investable wealth (NIW). He is also the Managing Director of drdavekennedy.com, a boutique consulting firm specialising in philanthropic advisory services to high-net-worth families and philanthropic foundations (i.e., advisory services and grant making) and not-for-profit organisations (i.e., fundraising). 

In 2007, he was recruited away from the UNSW Australian School of Business by the billionaire philanthropist, Chuck Feeney, to become the Executive Director of The Atlantic Philanthropies (AP) Australia Pty Ltd. As a foundation executive, he managed over $250,000,000 ($250m) in philanthropic grants that helped build in excess of $1,000,000,000 ($1b) of capital projects for Australian universities and medical research institutes. As a grantee liaison, he assisted the team that successfully applied for Commonwealth Government infrastructure grants during the Global Financial Crisis totalling $170,000,000 ($170m). These matching grants resulted in the construction of 3 separate medical and technology buildings valued at more than $800,000,000 ($800m). Independent of his grant making roles, he has helped to raise more than $62,000,000 in philanthropic grants from philanthropists and philanthropic foundations in Australia.

She is the founder and principal of Research Collective, a specialist consultancy supporting researchers and research organisations with strategic planning, program development, research impact, grant development and review.

Veronica has held senior executive roles and brings extensive experience in research strategy, funding and investment, program design and implementation, and organisational governance. She is also a non-executive director of the Children’s Tumour Foundation, which supports and advocates for people affected by neurofibromatosis.

Nancy also oversaw secretariat activities for the Telematics Trust, a charitable fund specialising in philanthropic support for educational projects using Information and Communication Technology (ICT). In 2013, she undertook research into Australia’s giving history and was co-author of Australia’s Top 50 Philanthropic Gifts, an initiative led by a working group comprising various philanthropic stakeholders. Prior to this, Nancy worked to promote philanthropy for health and medical research and managed the National Youth Ambassador Program at Research Australia. With an eye for detail, Nancy specialises in communications and process management. Originally from Canada, Nancy brings a wealth of international experience to the team having worked in the community development, government and education sectors in Canada, South America and Korea. She also holds a Bachelor of International Business, along with Post Graduate Certificates in International Business and Trade.

He is qualified in law and accountancy, and was admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales in 1974, and as a CPA in 1980. He has a BA (majoring in French language) and an LLB from University of Sydney, a Master of Commerce from UNSW (majoring in accounting and financial management) and a Doctor of Business Administration from Charles Sturt University with a thesis on the subject of venture capital and angel investment in small technology-based companies. He practiced as a solicitor in the law firm DibbsBarker of which he was a partner between 1978 and 2008, apart from two years living and working in Tokyo with the law firm Anderson Mori. In 1986 Rob was appointed by the Federal Minister for Industry Technology and Commerce as the first Chairman of the R&D Tax Concession Committee to administer the 150% R&D tax concession scheme, and a member of the federal Industry Research and Development Board. In 1989, Rob was one of the founding shareholders and directors of ResMed, now listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the ASX. Rob was a member of the joint ASX and AusBiotech Committee which drafted the first Compliance Code for Listed Life Science companies. Rob was involved in the establishment of marine farming of salmon in Tasmania as the first chairman of Tassal Limited (1984-1990), and a director of Salmon Enterprises of Tasmania (1984-1988). He is Chairman of Echoview Holdings Pty Ltd which provides the world’s premier software for hydro-acoustic data processing used in fisheries research. Since 1995 he has also been a director of the Biopharm Australia Pty Ltd and Sylvan Pharmaceuticals Pty Ltd group involved in the development and sale of sulphated polysaccharides in veterinary and human-use pharmaceuticals for the treatment of musculoskeletal and other diseases and disorders. Rob’s passions include a lifetime of attempting to master the game of golf, travel, food and wine. He has two children and three grandchildren, and lives about three months a year in Paris and the remainder at home in Sydney.

Ian is an accomplished medical researcher and a recognised leader in his field – applying proteomics technologies to study proteases involved in brain and cardiovascular function. Ian co-founded a proteomics-based, publicly listed, biotechnology company and he continues to collaborate and consult widely with the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Ian is an experienced board member and sits on a number of national and international government and non-government advisory and governing boards and committees, many with a strong industry focus. Ian’s unique background in business and research drives his passion to get researchers and industry collaborating and applying academic and institutional based research and research infrastructure to innovate. Ian strongly believes that by Improving the translation of research into commercial outcomes will help drive innovation in Australia, grow successful Australian businesses and lead to better economic outcomes for the nation.

A former history and English teacher, in 1973 she joined the NSW Department of Consumer Affairs to implement public information programs. Helen has appeared on a range of national news, current affairs and talk-back radio programs, and wrote weekly columns for newspapers and magazines. Termed a “crusader for consumer rights”, she has exposed many industry malpractices and unsafe products. She worked with world consumer advocate, Ralph Nader in Washington DC in 1980. From 1986 –1995 Helen hosted and reported on the ABC’s consumer watchdog program, The Investigators, before becoming host then senior reporter for Network Seven’s current affairs program, Today Tonight. Sydney-based, she filed national stories for Seven News and Today Tonight in Adelaide and Perth. Helen has written two books, Buying Power:A Guide for Consumers in Australia and Home Energy Guide. Helen’s awards include a Logie for most outstanding current affairs story in 1992 (The Homefund Scheme scandal), a Penguin Award for Best Female Presenter in 1987, the Better Hearing Award in 1990 and NSW Department of Fair Trading Consumer Protection Awards, 2002 to 2005. Her past roles include four years of jury membership for the Royal Australian Institute of Architecture Awards and the Victorian Architects Registration Board Architectural Services Awards. Helen was on the Board of the Australian Museum from 2011 to 2013. She is currently a Trustee of the Lizard Island Reef Research Foundation, for the Lizard Island Research Station run by the Australian Museum.

Since 1976 he has been the Chairman and CEO of a major property development and investment group which owns commercial, medical, industrial and residential properties throughout New South Wales. It owns and operates a range of businesses including a large medical centre on 2 hectares colocated with Wyong Hospital, self storage, child care, data centre services, Nexus Smart Work Hub and Golflinks Commercial Campus. A pioneer of the retirement villages industry Patrick established Henry Kendall Village in 1984 and by the end of 2005 his group was the largest privately owned retirement village group in New South Wales. He was the Chairman of Hypernode Pty Limited which operated the first modular Performance Optimised Data Centre (POD) in the Asia Pacific region. This data centre has been established on one of the group’s business parks and is now leased and operated by Servers Australia Pty Limited. Patrick has seen at first hand both the devastating impact of serious chronic disease and its complications as well as the importance of medical research and the way in which it can ameliorate some of the impacts of disease. In 1973 his young wife unexpectedly became diabetic and in 1995, having been beset by almost every side effect of that disease, including kidney failure, she was given a new life with a kidney and pancreas transplant. Since that time Patrick has devoted much of his time and financial resources to supporting medical research. From March 1998 to December 2014 he was a Director of Westmead Medical Research Foundation. He was Chairman of the Foundation from 2005 to 2014 and was one of the founding directors of the Westmead Institute for Medical Research. He served on the Board of that Institute until 2014. Patrick was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2008 for his contributions to aged care, to medical research, and to the environment. He was Chairman of Innov8 Central until his wife died in 2016 and is a founding director of the ArtHouse Theatre for the Performing Arts.