Board
Dr. Greg Smith, Chairman, Cohda Wireless and Director, SciVentures Investments Pty Ltd
Greg is a co-founder of the venture capital company, SciVentures Investments Pty. Ltd., which manages the SciVentures Pre-Seed Fund, licensed under the Federal Government's "Backing Australia's Ability" program.
He returned to Australia in 1999, after 17 years based in USA and Europe working on the identification and development of high technology business opportunities from research outcomes. He was Director of the Alcoa corporate technical center in Pittsburgh and Vice-President of AlliedSignal's corporate research laboratories in Morristown, New Jersey and in Chicago. Earlier, he had worked for Exxon Chemical Company with technology and business development assignments in Australia, Belgium and USA.
In 2000, Greg was awarded the Washington-based Industrial Research Institutes' prestigious Maurice Holland award for his work at AlliedSignal and Alcoa on "front-end innovation". He has served as a member of the Federal Government's IR&D Board and of its Advisory Council for Intellectual Property. He is the chairman (or a director) of the boards of four SciVentures start-up companies.
Greg chairs the board of Cohda Wireless Pty Ltd, and the Australian Microscopy and Microanalysis Research Facility NCRIS platform and is a member of several other University related advisory boards.
Wayne Fitzsimmons, Director, Mooroolbark Group
Wayne Fitzsimmons is an experienced executive who has worked extensively in the US, UK, and in his home country of Australia. He was instrumental in the setting up of OpenDirectory Pty Ltd, having previously been Managing Director of Datacraft Technologies from which the Directory technology emerged. OpenDirectory emerged as the global leader in large-scale distributed directory systems and was acquired in October 1998 by Platinum Technology, who in turn was acquired by Computer Associates International in May 1999. The Melbourne Laboratory of OpenDirectory continues to provide critical R&D for Computer Associates internationally.
Before joining Datacraft in December 1993, Mr. Fitzsimmons spent 14 years in senior positions in the USA and Europe. This included being Vice President, International, at Banyan Systems Inc., Massachusetts (1990-94) and Vice President, Americas Far East, for Data General Corporation, Massachusetts (1983-90). He is a director of several small privately owned start-up and hi-tech companies in Australia including Haliplex Communications, QSR International, NGA.NET, and Space Time Research.
Mr. Fitzsimmons is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Australia and currently Chairman of the Pearcey Foundation, a not-for-profit group established in 1999 to promote the Australian ICT sector through annual awards to outstanding individuals (www.pearcey.orhg.au).
Bruce Tilbrook, CFO, ITEK Pty Ltd
Bruce is the Chief Financial Officer & Company Secretary of ITEK Pty Ltd, the commercialisation company of the University of South Australia. He is responsible for commercial management and corporate governance of the ITEK group of companies. He is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and is currently a non executive director of 3 start-up companies in the ITEK portfolio. He also manages the ITEK Catalyst Fund which provides pre-seed funding for ITEK approved projects. His past experience includes senior commercial roles in the transport, retail and manufacturing industries, management consulting in M&A and business planning and franchising services.
Ron Cattell, Director, Mooroolbark Group
Ron Cattell has lived and worked in 8 different countries around the globe. His early career was in software development, moving on to the management of large-scale international projects and later marketing and general management. After graduation in the UK he had several jobs with ICL, the European computer manufacturer and became their International director of marketing for the Networking division. In the early 1980s he worked for the European Space Agency in Germany managing the computer systems for Europe's first weather satellite.
Ron moved to Hong Kong in 1988 as one of the founders of Datacraft Asia. First as Director of Marketing, then COO, he led the expansion of that company into 13 Asian countries and Revenues of US$600 Million, He was heavily involved in the very successful Singapore public listing in 1995 and was CEO of the Group from 1999 to 2003. During his tenure, the company was voted the best Asian systems integrator for 5 consecutive years as well as being selected as one of the world's best 200 small companies by Forbes Global. He played a leading role in the acquisition of 19 companies throughout Asia. Ron moved to Australia in 2004 and sits on the boards of a small number of Public and Private companies including Datacraft Asia.