AusBiotech hails 'exceptional' talent in new board line-up

AusBiotech members have elected Johnson & Johnson Research managing director Susan Pond, venture capitalist Leigh Farrell and former Amrad managing director Sandra Webb as corporate directors to its board, after a tight race between nine candidates. Western Australian Biomedical Research Institute director Simon Carroll was also re-elected as an institutional director.

"The field for the election this year was exceptional -- we have not had a field like this before," said executive director Tony Coulepis. "The talent of the people who stepped up to the mark reflects the buoyancy of the industry, and the recognition that senior players in the industry need to get behind AusBiotech."

Coulepis said that the between them, the new board members brought a wide range of experience in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and medical devices.

He said that in the coming year, AusBiotech would focus on policy development and implementation, as well as strengthening its resources and infrastructure to benefit its members.

While the organisation now boasts more than 1700 members, Coulepis said he wanted to see membership by core biotechnology companies increase from around the current 40-50 per cent to 70-80 per cent. He said AusBiotech would tackle that target in part through the development of benchmarking tools, such as the annual salary survey.

Sandra Webb said she was delighted to be on the AusBiotech board. "I have always been very keen to give to my profession," she told Australian Biotechnology News. "I feel that I've seen a lot."

Webb said she believed that sustainable growth of the industry was of key importance to the sector.

As the director of GBS Venture's Genesis pre-seed fund, Leigh Farrell said he thought he would bring financial and company management perspectives to the board.

"It's an emerging industry -- now what we have to work towards is achieving best practice for our companies," he said. "It's a goal of mine to help the industry mature. What I would like to see is for some of our companies grow up from a cottage industry to being larger more stable companies with healthy product pipelines."