The Team

Julian Chick

Public Portfolio Manager

Julian has over 20 years’ experience in capital markets and LSHC, on both the investor and operational side of businesses, giving him a unique understanding of companies’ value drivers, value inflection points and commercialisation strategies and pathways. Included in his roles, Julian has worked in funds management and venture capital and private funding. Over a 5 year period in funds management, Julian’s funds under management grew from $115 million to over $300 million, with an average annual return of over 20%. Julian also has over 15 years at the Executive level of life sciences companies across therapeutics, diagnostics and medical devices, including 8 early stage and start-up companies and achieved one trade sale exit of an Australian contract services organisation, multiple IPOs and public offerings in Australia and Singapore, 3 global product approvals (including through the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency) and launches. Julian has raised over $300 million globally for LSHC companies and has an in-depth understanding across the LSHC sectors. Julian has a PhD in physiology undertaken at La Trobe University and Oxford University. He is an Adjunct Professor at Monash University.

Peter Smith

Investment Manager - Private Investments

Peter has extensive industry experience. He has an MA and PhD in biochemistry from Cambridge University in the UK. He then became a top-ranked healthcare analyst with UBS and HSBC, based in London. In 1997, he founded immuno-oncology company, Onyvax, in the UK, which was funded by blue-chip venture capital companies, such as 3i and SR One (GSK’s corporate venture company). Since he came to Australia in 2003, he has been CEO of two significant publicly-listed biotechnology companies on the Australian Stock Exchange and has been involved in the development of numerous clinical stage products, US-approved drug, and numerous deals and fund raisings.

Jeremy Blimbaum

Head of Operations - Europe

Jeremy is a trusted legal and commercial adviser who has, over the past 20 years, worked with many clients (including a range of biotech companies) on incorporation, IPOs, consolidations and exits. His expertise covers corporate, M&A, regulatory requirements and capital markets (equity and debt). Jeremy has helped his clients to raise funds, develop and implement their strategy, and establish relationships with industry partners. He has advised investment funds on their legal structure and strategy. Jeremy has also invested as a business angel in various biotech companies.  

Robert Scott

Principal - China

Rob is based in Shanghai and is an expert in technology commercialization, market entry and business planning. Rob leverages 15 years’ experience (over half in China) in successfully delivering strategic advisory, international business management and capital raising services for a range of clients both in Australia and internationally. He has held senior executive roles in these areas with Ernst & Young for over 6 years and was the Leader of Ernst & Young’s China Business Group for the State of Queensland. Rob was responsible for advising on a number of biotech and medical technology capital raisings and M&A deals during this time. He also assisted several leading Chinese companies from the energy and other sectors (such as Suntech Power and Guangdong Power) to invest and expand their operations in Australia.

Brian Patterson

Risk and Compliance Director

Brian worked in Big 4 Chartered accountancy firms since graduation in both accounting and tax advisory roles. For 20 years he was a tax partner with PwC, working on a variety of local private and listed companies, as well as inbound and outbound investees across a wide range of industries, including financial sector enterprises and large pharmaceutical companies. His responsibilities included client portfolio management, as well as business unit management and various Asia Pacific roles.After the early 2000 corporate failures and the increased focus by regulators on the accounting profession, Brian moved from client facing work to take on a full-time Risk and Governance role within the accounting practice, which involved understanding and managing business risks, establishing systems, developing policies, training employees on policies, monitoring compliance with rules, checking on compliance and implementing reporting regimes.

Curtis Scribner

Medical and Regulatory Affairs Director

Curtis Scribner, MD, MBA, is a board certified internal medicine specialist with very long experience in drug development as a clinical investigator, regulatory reviewer, and product life cycle consultant. After his post-doctoral fellowship in the Arthritis and Rheumatology Section of NIAMS/NIH, Dr. Scribner spent 10 years at the Center for Biologic Evaluation and Research (CBER), FDA, reviewing all phases of clinical development (discovery, preclinical testing, clinical trials, and regulatory) in a wide breadth of areas (blood, plasma, recombinant proteins, cells, tissues, etc.). He worked for 6 years in a small venture-based drug, biologic and combination development company (BioMedicines/Intarcia) as the Chief Regulatory Officer. He has more than 20 years of experience as a consultant to drugs and biologics companies working on everything from discovery and preclinical models through clinical trials, Data Safety Monitoring Committees and regulatory interactions in the US (FDA) and Europe (EMA and Member States), including the RAC (NIH) for gene therapy companies. He has extensive experience in oncology, hepatology, infectious disease, rheumatology, immunology, very rare and Orphan diseases and gene therapy, but he has also interacted with essentially every Division at CBER and CDER FDA in the last 6 years.

Gavin Houghton

Chair, Investment Committee

Gavin Houghton, BEcon, MEcon (UQ), is an experienced senior executive in the energy and natural resource sectors. After beginning his career with BHP, Gavin has held senior executive roles with North Limited and Rio Tinto plc, including being a member of its global investment committee. He has an active interest in technology and a commitment to environmental issues and outcomes. Mr Houghton is based in Lucerne, Switzerland, where he runs RKLAB, an industrial technology company.

Andrew Wilks

Andrew has been involved in kinase research for almost three decades: initially as an academic scientist at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, where he discovered, inter alia, JAK1 and JAK2; and more recently, as founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Cytopia (now YM Biosciences), where he was involved in the discovery and development of new drugs that inhibit members of the JAK family of kinases. He is also co-founder and Executive Chairman of SYN|thesis med chem (with Dr Xian Bu) (2008), Qubist Molecular Design (with Dr Herbert Treutlein and Dr Jun Zeng) (2009), and Synkinase (With Dr Xian Bu) (2010), companies that provide drug discovery services to the Australian and overseas pharmaceutical industry. SYN|thesis med chem is a thriving medicinal chemistry company with offices in the US, UK and Australia and a large medicinal chemistry facilities in Shanghai, China. He published 1 book, more than 100 peer reviewed publications, and more than 50 US patents and patent applications. He is a member of the board and/or scientific advisory board of a number of Australian and overseas biotech companies and he holds an Adjunct Professorship in the Department of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Monash University. He is also a Fellow in the Chemical Biology Lab at WEHI. Andrew was the inaugural winner of the Australian Biobusiness Award in 2007, and was elected to the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in the same year. He was the winner of the Johnson and Johnson 2016 Industry Leadership Award.

Bob Moses

Robert (Bob) Moses was formerly Corporate Vice President of CSL Limited. Mr. Moses draws on more than 40 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical/biotechnology industry.  During the period 1993-2001, Mr. Moses played a central role in CSL’s development internationally.  Prior to joining CSL, Mr. Moses was Managing Director of commercial law firm Freehills, Chairman and CEO of a NASDAQ listed medical service company, and Corporate Manager of New Business Development at ICI (now Orica). Mr. Moses is also the former Non-Executive Chairman of TGR Biosciences Pty Ltd.  Mr. Moses also spent 17 years in various management roles at the multinational pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly.

Olga Kubassova

Mathematician with 10+ years expertise in actively managing innovation in life science companies, asset positioning, strategy and capital raising, Olga is the founding CEO of IAG, Image Analysis Group. She has extensive expertise and domain knowledge in identifying innovative approaches to clinical research, disruptive technology platforms and novel therapeutics. Olga is a renowned healthcare innovator and biotech investor, with a passion for improving people’s health. Olga is an active researcher, having already co-authored over 60 publications, books and book chapters and has become a scientific adviser to the UK government and EU funding bodies.

She is a founding member of 'The 2% club' to support women in leadership positions, fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, Royal Society of Engineering, alumni of several business leadership programs by Goldman Sachs, Oxford Said Business School, Business School of University of Leeds and the New York Economic Development Venture Fellows.

Gerhard Vorster

Chair, Advisory Board

With almost three decades of experience in the consulting industry, Gerhard was the Chief Strategy Officer for Deloitte Australia and Asia-Pacific – a position he held for 5 years. Gerhard was a key strategist and executive in designing and implementing the Deloitte Australia growth story since 2003 – a well-publicized and celebrated application of novel thinking and execution.In addition to completing several executive education programs at top tier business schools globally, Gerhard is trained as a professional civil engineer, holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering at the University of Pretoria; and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Potchefstroom (Cum Laude).

Andrew Tyndale

Andrew has 32 years’ experience in investment banking, the first 26 in commercial groups, including Babcock & Brown and Macquarie Bank. Since 2009, Andrew has carried on with investment banking, but for the benefit of the social sector through Grace Mutual Limited. Andrew is Co-founder of Propeller Projects. Andrew has served on numerous public and private company boards, including BUPA Australia and New Zealand, Gloria Jeans Coffee and numerous Babcock & Brown public vehicles. He has remained deeply involved in charitable work, including domestic and international development groups and social enterprises.

Zarmeen Pavri

With over 22 years’ experience in the financial services sector, Zarmeen is an accomplished senior business executive with a successful track record in building and growing funds management businesses. She has demonstrable implementation experience within multi-channel product and distribution areas coupled with solid investment operations, risk and compliance experience, having worked at Pengana Capital, MIR Investment Management, JPMorgan and Bankers Trust. Since January 2016, Zarmeen has set up her own consulting and advisory practice called Sustainable Contracting Services and applies her funds management expertise within the social impact investing sector and within the international development space. Zarmeen is an Australian Chartered Accountant and sits on the Women in Banking and Finance Association’s - Financial, Regulatory & Governance Committee.

Marjorie Kaufman

Marjorie Kaufman, CFA is a multifaceted marketing and investor relations executive with over 30 years experience in investment banking and asset management. Marjorie has raised over $5 billion in capital for private investment funds over the course of her career with firms such as Bankers Trust, Prudential Securities, J&W Seligman, Kingdon Capital and Guggenheim Partners. She has also acquired expertise in healthcare and biotech corporate development through direct investment and close collaboration with firm executives on growth and monetization strategies in companies such as Angion Biomedica, Inspiren, Mobile ODT, Sprout Pharmaceuticals and Undercover Colors. Marjorie currently serves as Chairman of the Board for Undercover Colors, Director and Investment Committee Chair for Westchester Land Trust and Chairman of Hilltop Cares Foundation. Marjorie holds a BA magna cum laude in economics and anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA in finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. In 1996 Marjorie was awarded the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. In 2010 she was named one of the 50 Leading Women in Hedge Funds by the Hedge Fund Journal.