Greg is a co-Founder and Director of SciVentures Investments Pty. Ltd., a venture capital fund manager. He brings to SciVentures over 20 years of highly successful international experience in the identification and development of high technology business opportunities from research outcomes.

From mid-2000, he operated two start-up companies: One, entitled Genesis Tech Ventures Pty. Ltd, was established jointly with Ross Chessari, with an emphasis on the development of high technology-based start-ups from research outcomes, including taking these start-ups through to capital raising. His second, separate, start-up initiative, The IP Factory Pty. Ltd., was designed to work with early stage companies to develop globally competitive patent portfolios that then enhance these companies' valuations.

Greg returned to Melbourne early in 1999 to join the Strategic Industry Research Foundation (SIRF) as its Managing Director after 17 years of work in various companies in USA and Europe. SIRF was a semi-government entity that drove innovation outcomes from research and technology results. However, in mid-2000, SIRF was closed after discontinuation of its Victorian state government support.

Before leaving USA, Greg had worked for Alcoa Inc. in Pittsburgh as Director of the Alcoa Technical Center. There he had responsibility for the technical resources of Alcoa’s central laboratories and for its significant, corporately-sponsored R&D program. However, during most of 1998, he undertook a major assignment to drive a renewed technology strategy across all of Alcoa’s businesses world-wide. This ultimately led to a complete reorganization of Alcoa’s global technology management system. (Achievements outlined in the Arthur D. Little book "The Innovation Premium", Perseus Press, 1999).

Dr. Smith had previously worked with AlliedSignal, where he held the position of Vice-President of its Corporate R&D laboratories. There he drove a significant number of major new product, application and process innovations out of these laboratories into rapid development and many to commercial success. He was a member of AlliedSignal’s technology board, led a broad based re-engineering of corporate technology, and introduced a highly productive core process for front-end innovation.

Greg began his industrial career with the Exxon Chemical Company where he held various assignments in technology management and in new business development in Australia, Belgium and USA. He holds a Ph.D. in materials engineering from Cranfield University of Technology (UK) and M.Sc. and B.Sc. degrees from the University of Melbourne.

In 2000, he was awarded the Industrial Research Institute’s (Washington USA) Maurice Holland award for his work on "front-end innovation" at AlliedSignal (now Honeywell) and at Alcoa.

In 2001, he was a member of both the Federal Government’s Major National Research Facilities committee. Greg is currently a member of the Federal Government’s Industrial Research & Development Board. He is the Chairman of the start-up pharmaceutical intermediates company, Chirogen Pty. Ltd., and a Director of RPO Pty. Ltd. (formerly called Redfern Polymer Optics Pty. Ltd.)

Ross Chessari is a Director and Co-founder of SciVentures Investments Pty Ltd, a venture capital fund manager.

He is one of the key personnel at SciVentures, who secured a Dealers Licence, issued by the ASIC that authorises Sciventures to deal in securities, and a Pre-Seed Fund Manager Licence, issued by the Commonwealth Government. SciVentures was appointed as one of four fund managers to manage the $100 million Pre-Seed Fund Program. SciVentures manages $30 million in the SciVentures Pre-Seed Fund.

Ross is a key developer of SciVentures’ unique methodology and approach to investing the Pre-Seed Fund that seeks to maximise the volume of investments and therefore the chances of success, in a manner that controls and minimises the risks.

The SciVentures process is designed to avoid the adversarial process normally associated with completing a deal, particularly around valuation. Ross chairs the SciVentures Pre-Seed Fund Investment Committee.

Ross is a Director and Co-founder of Genesis Tech Ventures Pty Ltd. Genesis was set up explicitly to assist generators of valuable research outcomes to commercialise their technology. Genesis has delivered assistance with respect to all aspects of commercialising technology, including assistance with the setting of the research strategy, based on the capability and competitive advantages of the research institution and its researchers. Genesis has also worked worked-up opportunities and has completed significant capital raisings; including the identification of market applications, competitive advantages, human resource issues, financial modelling, valuations, road shows and investor pitches.

Prior to the establishment of GTV, Ross had been responsible for the management and administration of $15 Billion of funds under management. Ross assumed these responsibilities as the Managing Director of ANZ Asset Management and as the General Manager of ANZ Trustees. During Ross’s stewardship, ANZ was rated one of the top performing fund managers by several independent rating agencies. In addition, both the Asset Management and the Trustees businesses were re-engineered to be more profitable and more sustainable.

Ross has a deep expertise and understanding of the form and structure of deals and the negotiation process that leads to their successful completion. He developed this expertise as General Counsel of Datacraft Ltd and then of ANZ Funds Management.

Ross has academic qualifications in both law and tax, with a Bachelor of Laws and a Masters of Taxation, both from the University of Melbourne.

Ross is married with four children (2 x twins).

Professor David James AO is a Co-Founder and Director of SciVentures Investments Pty. Ltd., a venture capital investment fund manager.

David was born and educated in New Zealand, and later travelled to the USA to further his studies.

After completing a PhD, he undertook three years postdoctoral research before returning to an academic position at the University of Queensland in 1964. He remained in this institution until 1987 when he joined a company floated out of the University.

In 1990 he was appointed Deputy Vice Chancellor at Deakin University and in 1994 became the foundation Vice Chancellor of the University of Ballarat.

David James’ studies have been in the areas of the theory of liquids and solutions, the nature of melts and glasses and in industrial and medical applications of lasers. He has authored or co-authored over 100 research papers, two books and has several patents.

Besides his academic work David has had experience in developing the technology precinct at the University of Queensland, and at Bond University.

He was responsible for the strategic development of the Ballarat Technology Park from its inception in 1995. He was a member of Premier Kennett’s Multimedia Taskforce and is a current member of the Victorian State Premier’s KISE committee.

In addition he has extensive interests in Regional Development in Victoria and in the commercialisation of intellectual property.

Mr. Luke Restorick
Investment Manager
Telephone: (613) 8606 3402
Facsimile:   (613) 9866 9866
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Luke Restorick joined SciVentures Investments Pty. Ltd in 2003 and works as an investment Manager.

Luke holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Mineral Resources Engineering from Nottingham University and a Masters of Science in Materials Science and Minerals Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Luke was also the recipient of the Management of Technology Certificate awarded by the Haas Business School and Engineering College.

Luke started his career working for Mars & Company, an international strategic consulting firm, where he spent the majority of his time working with teams consulting predominantly to blue chip companies, advising them on how to leverage their market positions through the development of strategic initiatives and detailed business plans.

After arriving in Australia Luke joined Invetech Pty Ltd (part of the Vision Sytems Group). Whilst working at Invetech Luke worked with a number of startup companies assisting them to develop business commercialisation plans. Through these projects Luke developed strong capabilities in technology assessment, market reviews, value proposition assessment, financial modeling and valuation development, as well as learning to worked closely with team members and the stakeholders to identify strategies that are most likely to achieve success and generate the best returns.

Luke’s responsibilities at Sciventures include identifying investment opportunities, performing due diligence, negotiating deal terms, execution of new portfolio investments and managing portfolio companies.

George Tsiamis is a Financial Analyst with SciVentures. George is also responsible for operations at SciVentures Investments Pty, Ltd. (incorporating trust operations).

George holds a Bachelor of Business from the Caulfield Institute of Technology (now Monash University).

Prior to commencing his association with SciVentures, George had worked in the finance industry for 17 years in a variety of roles.

After spending 2 years as an accountant in the commodity trading industry, George joined ANZ Funds Management in 1988. At ANZ, George undertook a number of roles dealing with investment and trust administration, unit pricing, trust accounting and settlements. In 1999, George became Head of Operations for ANZ Asset Management, a role in which he was responsible for the accounting, administration and custody of approximately $15B in Funds under Management.

In 2001, George left ANZ to establish the operations and finance functions at the newly formed Allianz Equity Management, a boutique funds management operation specialising in Australian Equities.

Since George began working with SciVentures late in 2001, he has been responsible for the development and implementation of the SciVentures Unit and Investment Registry systems. He has also worked with potential investees in developing the financial models to be used in assessing investment opportunities.

Dr. Clement Leong
Director
Telephone: (613) 8606 3401
Facsimile:   (613) 9866 9866
Mobile: 0421 837218
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Dr Leong is currently a director at SciVentures Investments Pty Ltd, where he leads the firm’s investment activities in the life-science sector.  He is responsible for all aspects of the investment process, including identifying and developing opportunities, negotiating and closing transactions, in addition to building the portfolio company’s management teams, boards, developing their commercial strategies and liquidity paths.  

He has over eighteen years of experience working in basic research, commercial R&D, and in early stage commercialisation in Australia and the United States, with companies such as Schering-Plough BioPharma in Palo Alto, California (formerly DNAX Research Institute) and Entelos Inc. in Foster City, California (AIM: ENTL).  His start-up experience focuses around developing and managing R&D programs, commercial transactions and capital raisings.  Dr Leong has established a number of private companies, either as a founder or as the founding investor. He has also been involved in the mezzanine or pre-IPO funding of a number of Australian biotechnology companies and was the cornerstone investor in the mezzanine round for Evogenix (ASX: EGX) and Patrys Pty Ltd (ASX: PAB).

He is currently the Chairman for AviPep Pty Ltd, 4G Vaccines Pty Ltd, and IgaVax Pty Ltd; and is a director on the board of Medsaic Pty Ltd, Glutagen Pty Ltd and SenoSano Pty Ltd.  Clement earned a PhD from the Department of Medicine at the University of Western Australia and an MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM).

Ross Chessari, Greg Smith, Clement Leong and David James are Directors of the Board of SciVentures Investments Pty. Ltd.

They are all members of the SciVentures PSF Investment Committee, which Ross Chessari chairs.

Greg Smith also chairs the SciVentures PSF Technical Advisory Committee.

David James acts as the SciVentures PSF ambassador to Australian Universities.

Additional staff, as they are recruited, are expected to join either the SciVentures PSF technical advisory committee or the investment committee.