The Hon Susan Close MP is Deputy Premier, South Australian Government, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water, and Minister for Workforce and Population Strategy.

Susan has been the Member for Port Adelaide since 2012.

Before entering parliament, Susan was an executive in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and played a key role in the establishment of the Adelaide Dolphin Sanctuary as a community advocate. She previously worked at the University of Adelaide managing student services and holds a PhD from Flinders University.

Steve is the Managing Director of Tenmile, the HealthTech venture capital company of Tattarang, and lead for Minderoo Foundation’s COVID-19, Cancer, and Ocean Genomics initiatives.

Steve’s 35+ years professional experience spans research, strategy, M&A, start-ups and operating global businesses in fields as diverse as marine ecology, strategy consulting, digital health, and precision medicine. He is relentlessly passionate about the power of new technology to positively impact human health, ocean conservation and climate mitigation.

Prior to his current role, Steve managed global operating businesses and P&Ls, led M&A and established a new informatics and real-world data business for the world’s largest biotech, Roche-Genentech.

He holds a B.Sc. (Hons.) in Biology and a Ph.D. in Population Biology from the University of Sydney.

Paul L. Clark is a seasoned veteran in the Medical Device (MedTech) industry with over 30 years of experience. He has a diverse background, having worked in various capacities such as regulatory affairs, quality management, clinical research, product development, and operations.

Throughout his career, Paul has worked for regulatory agencies in Australia, Canada, the US, and Europe, and has also worked with startups and medium-sized MedTech companies in Australia and the US. He possesses a unique skill set that combines his regulatory, quality, and clinical background with proven commercial experience, including the successful launch of MedTech products in the ANZ market.

Paul's experience spans a range of active and non-active MedTech technologies, including implantable devices, cardiovascular, ophthalmic, drug delivery, renal, gastrointestinal, surgical, intensive care, wound care, imaging, mental health, monitoring devices, Software as a Medical Device (SaMD), wearable technologies and other digital health technology.

He has direct experience working with the TGA as a medical device evaluator, has been a CE Lead Auditor with TUV SUD, worked with the Canadian Medical Devices Bureau, and has dealt directly with the FDA for over 30 years. Paul has also worked directly with a number of startup MedTech ventures both in the US and Australia, and as an independent consultant/founder of Paul L Clark and Associates and Eleven Borders Pty Ltd.

If you need help navigating the global regulatory landscape throughout concept/feasibility, product development, commercialization, and post-market, Paul is the person you should talk to. His expertise traverses the regulatory borders of all key markets, including Australia, the US, the EU, the UK, Canada, and Asia.

Angie Corbo is an accomplished Informatics Leader at Roche, with over two decades of experience in designing and delivering health solutions that leverage emerging technologies, human-centered design, and strategic foresight. Passionate about creating value and catalysing transformation within the healthcare industry through digital innovation and collaboration. In her current role as Informatics Global Catalyst Innovation & Architecture, Angie enables and empowers the organization to identify and realise opportunities and risks, skilfully architecting pathways to achieve desired outcomes. Angie's motivation stems from the challenge and opportunity to create a positive impact on the lives of millions of patients and customers worldwide.

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David Hansen is CEO and Research Director of the Australian e-Health Research Centre at CSIRO – Australia’s national science agency. The AEHRC is CSIRO’s digital health research program.

With over 150 scientists and engineers across health informatics, biomedical informatics and health services research, the AEHRC is Australia’s largest digital health research centre.

David is passionate about the role of information and communication technologies in health care and the role of digital health professionals in developing a safe, high quality efficient and sustainable healthcare system.

Kunal serves as Founder & CEO at Eugene. The power to predict and prevent health issues is in our DNA. Eugene's purpose is to empower every person to act on this knowledge.

Kunal is an experience healthtech entrepreneur & product designer with a strong commercial background. He loves to build future-focused, purpose-driven companies that deliver strong financial returns while taking on real problems that we face as a multi-cultural global community.

He speaks 4 languages and has lived and worked in Australia, USA, Latin America, Middle East & India. He has started multiple companies over the course of his career and his focus for the past 10 years has been on healthcare.

Madeleine Kelly is a partner in the FB Rice engineering and computing team.

With a background in electronics and computing, Madeleine specialises in software related inventions involving AI/ML and data analytics, signal processing, and other types of ICT. Many of her clients operate in the digital health and medical devices industries.

Madeleine's practice includes invention harvesting, drafting, multi-jurisdictional prosecution, oppositions, appeals, freedom-to-operate work, IP portfolio management and IP strategy. She represents a broad range of clients from individual inventors, start-ups, and SMEs, to universities and multi-national corporations. Clients seek her out for her “very strong technical skills coupled with expansive legal knowledge across multiple jurisdictions” and her ability to “provide pragmatic and actionable advice in a succinct manner” (IAM Patent 1000 2023).

Madeleine was recognised in the IAM Global Leaders list for 2021 and 2022 and has been endorsed in the IAM Prosecution recommended list each year since 2020.

She is passionate about supporting local innovation and regularly delivers seminars to the start-up community on devising appropriate IP strategies to meet their business needs.

Sue is a proud clinician and feels strongly about arming healthcare professionals with the appropriate technology to achieve exemplar patient care.  She is a strong advocate for making informed choices about care and having the right digital tools to provide access to the right information.  Her interests extend to clinician safety in the workplace, clinician enablement of cloud and how the changing environment will impact healthcare and our preparedness for future healthcare emergencies.

With over 20 years of commercial experience in digital health and health informatics she has also maintained her registration with AHPRA and was part of the surge register to assist with the workforce shortage during the pandemic.  She regularly participates in moderating panel discussions and roundtables and presents to a wide variety of audiences on global digital health initiatives.

Sue holds a Bachelor of Nursing and a Graduate Certificate in Business and is a Member of the Australian College of Nursing, the Australian Institute of Digital Health, HIMSS and the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She sits on a number advisory panels in health including the AWS Global Health Equity Program, Monash MIME Clinical Advisory Panel and is a business mentor to women who want to enter the technology field by challenging, inspiring, motivating and empowering them.

Sarah is a partner at OneVentures, one of Australia’s leading venture capital firms – she is responsible for sourcing life sciences companies who have developed transformative technology with global application. She applies her global executional experience and entrepreneurial passion to nurture their success, providing pathways for growth and actively shaping their future. Her enterprise level leadership experience has been forged over 20 years in a wide spectrum of organisations, including start-up, private companies, ASX and NASDAQ-listed companies, a multi-national pharmaceutical company and university research organisations.

A passionate Australian champion for our sector she is a deal maker and has a transaction record that spans the spectrum of small investments, to collaborations with universities, to small companies with ambitions to scale, to big pharma transactions worth 100’s of millions of dollars.

Sarah is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD) and currently serves on the boards of Kira Biotech, Axial Therapeutics, Vaxxas, Blade Therapeutics, Clinical Genomics and Life Sciences Queensland. She is a member of the UQ QAAFI advisory board, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute Commercial Advisory Board and the AusBiotech Investment Advisory Group.

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Chris is a founding partner of Brandon Capital and Chief Executive Officer of Brandon BioCatalyst. Chris was previously the Director of Commercialisation at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Australia.  Prior to this, Chris was the Manager of the Biotechnology Team at Melbourne Ventures, the commercialisation company of the University of Melbourne. Concurrently he was an Investment Manager for, and on the investment committee of, Uniseed Pty Ltd. Chris has international experience working for the business development group of Leiras Pharmaceuticals in Finland, a wholly owned subsidiary of Schering AG.

Chris is currently a director of; Azura Ophthalmics, Certa Therapeutics, EBR Systems (ASX:EBR), Global Kinetics Corporation, OccuRx, PolyActiva and Que Oncology. He is also an elected board member of the Australian Investment Council, Chair of CUREator and an advisory board member for The WILD Program.

Chris has a Bachelor of Science (Honours) from The University of Melbourne and a PhD in Endocrinology and Physiology from The University of Melbourne. He studied Private Equity and Venture Capital at Harvard Business School.

Dr Michelle Perugini is a health tech entrepreneur with extensive experience in healthcare and advanced AI technologies.

Michelle is an avid supporter of the AI and women’s health sectors globally, and Winner of the 2021 Women in AI (WAI) Healthcare Award. She has a PhD in Medicine and was a post-doctoral research fellow in Oncology for a decade. She has founded 2 global AI tech companies, the first of which was acquired by EY in 2015.

Michelle is currently Co-Founder and CEO of Presagen, an AI healthcare company building The Social Network for Healthcare, with a focus in Women’s Health. Presagen’s first product Life Whisperer uses AI for embryo selection to improve pregnancy outcomes in IVF, and is being used in IVF clinics globally.

Dushyant is a highly experienced business management professional with more than 12 years of expertise in digital trust services. His areas of specialization include information security, privacy management, cloud security, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Currently, Dushyant plays a crucial role in BSI's digital trust growth strategy implementation throughout the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.

Elaine Stead is a member of the investment team at Main Sequence, with a focus on the “Humanity Scale Healthcare” challenge. With a background spanning science, entrepreneurship, and venture capital, she's known for her enduring roles in innovation and has an investment track record that extends to over 80 startups across Australia, the United States and Southeast Asia.  

Previously, Elaine served as the Director of New Ventures and Entrepreneurship at the Australian National University (ANU), leading the startup and equity investment strategy of knowledge translation. She has also been a founder of venture businesses, including Blue Sky VC, Human VC and Tribe Global Ventures.

Elaine has advised state governments on innovation policy, directed innovation initiatives, and served on boards in Australia and the US. She's coached startup founders nationwide and contributed to a variety of publications. In all avenues, Elaine prioritises human-centricity, emphasising authentic connections, vulnerability, and compassion. She advocates for values-driven innovation and a desire to make better that which can be.

Elaine holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry (Stem Cell Biology) and a B.Sc.in Biochemistry and Microbiology, both from the University of Adelaide.

Rachel is GM Strategy Innovation & Ventures at HCF. She was previously Chief Strategy Officer for Team Invest Private (TiP Group) a boutique investment bank and ran a consulting firm with a focus on business strategy and health care.

Rachel brings 18 years experience in strategic planning & implementation including a decade with The Boston Consulting Group. Her expertise includes epidemic control, emergency health crisis response, prevention & disease management, health care delivery & medical research.

Rachel brings hands-on implementation experience, through her role as the acting CEO of an integrated health system & by developing a global health program across East Africa with the Clinton Health Access Initiative. Committed to improving health outcomes in the NFP sector, she went to West Africa in 2014 to drive the public health response as Expert Advisor to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, shaping the strategy and operations that successfully brought the epidemic under control

Rachel has extensive international experience including in Australia, US, Africa, Asia-Pacific & Europe. She is a recognised thought leader, speaking at international forums on health system improvement & serving on the Australian Advisory Board on Healthcare & Technology Innovation. She has been made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health & the Australasian College of Health Systems Management.

Prior to BCG, Rachel led a research program on STEM education in South Australia. She continues her passion for STEM education as a mentor for 1000 Girls, 1000 Futures with the National Academy of Sciences. Dr, Swift has held teaching appointments at the Universities of Oxford and Adelaide, Lincoln and St Hilda's Colleges at Oxford and Magdalen College School & is a published medical & global health researcher.

Anton van den Hengel is the Director of the Centre for Augmented Reasoning at the Australian Institute for Machine Learning (AIML), a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Adelaide, a Chief Investigator of the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence on Healthy Housing, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering and a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Australia and former Director of Applied Science at Amazon. The Centre for Augmented Reasoning (CAR), established in 2021, represents a $20m investment by the Australian Government in AI research. Prof van den Hengel was also the founder of AIML, Australia’s largest machine learning research group. Professor van den Hengel has been a CI on over $80m in research funding from sources, including Google, Facebook, Canon, BHP Billiton, and the ARC.
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Prof van den Hengel has won several awards, including the 2021 Australasian AI Outstanding Service Award, the Pearcey Foundation Entrepreneur Award, the SA Science Excellence Award for Research Collaboration, and the CVPR Best Paper prize in 2010. According to Google Scholar, he has authored over 420 publications, has an h-index of 82. He has had 8 patents commercialised, formed 5 start-ups, and had a medical technology achieve first-in-class FDA approval. Current research interests include deep learning, vision and language problems, image-based modelling, and weekly supervised learning.

Jerneen Williams is the Director of Operations for Bellberry Limited, a not-for-profit organisation providing streamlined scientific and ethical review of Human research projects across Australia. As Director of Operations Jerneen supports the operations team to deliver excellence in scientific and ethical review and review services.

She has an undergraduate degree in Genetics (Hons), a Master's Degree in Clinical Trials Research, several publications and more than 20 years of clinical trials industry experience working at public and private research sites.