Biomatters Board of Directors
Greg Casagrande - Chairman
Greg promotes entrepreneurialism. He is an investor and a mentor to several young NZ based hi-tech companies. In addition to chairing Biomatters, he is a founding board member of the ICE Angels, a network of angel investors, Chairman of English-To-Go, an online provider of English language education, and Director of Calcium, a provider of digital promotional tools.
Greg is the founder of the South Pacific Business Development Microfinance Network which operates in Samoa, Tonga and Fiji and provides over 20,000 poor families with meaningful opportunity for self-employment. He is also the founder of the MicroDreams Foundation, a charitable microfinance fund dedicated to launching and scaling micro-enterprises in the Pacific and Latin America. Greg is a frequent speaker at microfinance events globally and serves on multiple industry boards.
Through 1998, Greg recorded significant achievement with Ford Motor Company, Mazda Motor Company and Coopers and Lybrand in Financial Management, Product Development, Manufacturing and Sales and Marketing positions. He led teams in the US, Europe and Japan and was honored to be the youngest-ever Buchou (Division General Manager) of any major Japanese corporation.
Greg has an MBA in Finance and Marketing from Kellogg, an MS in Accounting from NYU Stern and a BA in Economics from Colgate University. He is also a CPA.
Dr Alexei Drummond - Director
A co-founder of Biomatters and the "father" of Geneious, Alexei has published over 50 scientific articles in international peer-reviewed journals including Science and Nature and is an expert on coalescent-based population genetics and bioinformatics software development.
Alexei was based in the University of Oxford from 2002-2005, before returning to New Zealand to take up an academic position within the Department of Computer Science at the University of Auckland and also to work on Geneious. He has helped attract other top international bioinformaticians to contribute to Geneious, and will continue to guide its development through commercialization.
Alexei was the winner of the University of Auckland's Science PhD of the year in 2002 and is also a previous winner of the New Zealand programming competition.
In 2007, he was the winner of the Royal Society Hamilton Memorial Prize for Contributions to Computational Biology and in 2010 Alexei was one of the inaugural Royal Society Rutherford Discovery Fellows, an award that came with $1,000,000 research funding over 5 years.
Visit
Alexei's academic homepage.
Aki von Roy - Non-Executive Director
Aki has spent over 30 years in big pharma, notably with Schering AG, Squibb and Bristol-Myers Squibb, in various roles such as Managing Director, Executive Vice President, President in the UK, NZ, Sweden, USA, Germany and Eastern Europe.
More recently, Aki has spent over 10 years in the biotech industry, involved in 15 start up/merger ventures as a consultant and/or investor. Living in NZ since 2000, Aki considers himself as a bio-entrepreneur , and has been the founder CEO of Proacta and CoDa Therapeutics, Chairman of Phylogica (ASX listed), Phytomedics (USA) and Vital Foods (recently partly acquired by Nestle), a director of Wool Equities and its subsidiaries (listed on the NZX), Source MDx ( USA ), Corra Life Sciences (USA) and Novatech (AUS). He is currently Chairman of Genesis R&D (listed on the ASX and NZX), a director of Biomatters, White Biotech and CuroNZ (all privately held) as well as a shareholder of a number of other biotech companies.
Gray Treadwell - Director
Gray has founded or directed five successful New Zealand computer and technology export startups, over more than 25 years. He has deep experience in product design and in the business side of intellectual property and law. He is enjoying a lifetime fascination with ergonomics and user experience.
Gray was a shareholder and director of Binary Research Ltd with its founder Murray Haszard, as it grew from a few people in New Zealand to a worldwide success story. Gray was responsible for achieving the successful sale of Ghost software to Symantec in 1998.
Task Technology Ltd, a profitable systems supplier in New Zealand co-founded by Gray, took the majority of the market for oil company point of sale systems from the incumbent supplier, using products he designed.
Gray has a degree in Economics and a passion for well-executed software, like Geneious.
Jonathan Sackier — Director
Jonathan has 30 years of healthcare experience. Trained in Britain as a surgeon & recruited to the USA in 1989 he helped lead the laparoscopic surgery revolution. As a Professor at George Washington University in Washington, DC, he founded, and funded the Washington Institute of Surgical Endoscopy, a center for education, research & innovation. He is a Visiting Professor at the University of Virginia and his activities in basic and clinical research funded by multiple grants have led to many publications, chapters and books. He has served multiple journals in editorial or reviewer functions, been involved in medical societies at the highest level and been honored for his work in many countries.
Jonathan's collaborations with the pharmaceutical and medical device industry have led to multiple technologies coming to market with partners like Valleylab, Pfizer, Karl Storz, Applied Medical & Pall. In 1984 his team at Genethics, a company he founded, discovered and patented amniotic stem cells and licensed the rights to a publicly traded British drug discovery company. He helped develop and market the AESOP robot with Computer Motion, who had a successful IPO in 1997 and also built a medical contract sales organization, a locum agency and helped found a communications company. He has consulted to healthcare companies and worked with the financial community on enterprise financing and due diligence.
Jonathan has served the Steppenwolf Foundation, is a Trustee of First Star, on the Board of the American College of Surgeons Foundation and chaired the Board of the Larry King Cardiac Foundation. He has sat on the Associate Board of AdvaMed and several corporate governance and scientific advisory boards. He was until recently Chairman of Adenosine Therapeutics and among others, sits on the Board of Hemoshear, EpiEP and Rex Bionics.
Dr Brett Ammundsen — Managing Director
Brett joined the Board of Directors in 2010, having been part of the Biomatters executive team since 2005. He currently serves as the company's Managing Director.
Brett has a PhD degree in chemistry and physics, and has worked with science and technology in business for more than a decade, holding executive, operational and director roles in several early to mid-stage companies. These have included companies active in renewable energy, materials science, biotechnology and software. His expertise is in management, integration of science and technology with business goals, and optimising the value of intellectual property in business.
In addition to his business experience, Brett has an established international scientific reputation in advanced materials and energy storage technology, having published more than 50 papers in science and technology journals, as well as contributing to patents and books.