Robert Klupacs joined Circadian Technologies Limited as an executive in August 2005 and was appointed as Managing Director of the Company on 1 March 2008. He is also an Executive Director of all of the Company’s wholly owned subsidiaries and Chairman of subsidiary company Syngene Limited. Mr Klupacs is a registered Australian patent attorney and has been involved in the biotechnology industry for over 20 years. He has significant expertise in technology commercialisation and corporate structuring and has negotiated and closed a number of major licensing transactions with international pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies throughout his career. Prior to his position at Circadian, Mr Klupacs was CEO of ES Cell International Pte Ltd (ESI), a pioneering company in the development of human embryonic stem cell technologies based in Singapore. Prior to his role at ESI, he spent two and a half years running the Monash Institute of Reproduction and Development (MIRD) in Melbourne as its Chief Operating Officer, where he founded six start-up companies, and before that was employed for over 11 years by Zenyth Therapeutics Limited (formerly Amrad Corporation Ltd), with the last four years in that company as a member of the executive team and Director of Intellectual Property.
Board of Directors
Dominique Fisher was appointed a non-executive director of Circadian in September 2005. She became Chairman of the Board in the subsequent month and is a member of the Company’s Audit and Risk Committee. She has extensive business experience in the corporate area, including the commercialisation of new technologies. Ms Fisher is Principal and Executive Director of EC Strategies Pty Ltd, which advises local and offshore companies on technology strategies and major commercial transactions. She is Managing Director of Helix Digital Pty Ltd and is the Executive Chairman of CareerLounge Pty Ltd. Her past appointments have included a non-executive director of Pacific Brands Limited and membership of its Audit and Risk Committee, Chairman of Sky Technologies Pty Ltd, Councillor of the Australia Council of the Arts, and Chairman of its Dance Board, Insurance Australia Group Limited (IAG), member of the Prostate Cancer Foundation Victoria, NRMA, the Malthouse Theatre, Sydney Opera House and member of the ICT Advisory Board, advising the Federal Government on key issues affecting the development of the information technology and communications sector.
Tina McMeckan was appointed a non-executive director of Circadian in January 2008 and is Chairman of the Audit and Risk Committee. Her specific skills are in the commercialisation of science and technology and the energy sector. Ms McMeckan is presently Chairman of the Centre for Eye Research Australia and a Director of CRC for Spatial Information, SP AusNet Limited, Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute and was a director of Metlink Pty Ltd until April 2012. She is a past member of the Funds Management Committee of the AusIndustry Research and Development Board and has held senior investment management positions with the Australian Industry Development Corporation and Amrad Corporation Ltd (acquired by CSL Limited), focusing on capital raisings for innovation-based ventures. She also has extensive board expertise in public and private utility infrastructure, including power production, networks and retailing business in the gas and electricity industries. She was formerly the Chairman of NanoVentures Australia Ltd and a member of the National Board of Norton Rose law firm. Her other appointments as a director have included United Energy, Snowy Hydro Trading, the Westar and Kinetik Energy Group, Victorian Power Exchange, Vision Cooperative Research Centre, Solaris Power and the formerly listed company Alinta Limited (October 2003 to August 2007).
Don Clarke was appointed a non-executive director of Circadian in September 2005. He is Chairman of the Remuneration Committee and a member of the Audit and Risk Committee. He has been a partner of the law firm Minter Ellison since 1988, having joined that firm in 1980. Mr Clarke has a broad commercial practice (involving predominantly ASX listed companies in the SME sector and larger private companies) and experience across a broad sector of industries. He is also a non-executive director of ASX listed companies Webjet Limited (appointed as a director in January 2008 and Deputy Chairman in April 2011) and Phosphagenics Limited, and a former director of Calzada Limited (formerly Metabolic Pharmaceuticals Limited).
Russell Howard his dedicated his career to life sciences and biotechnology to generate valuable products that provide solutions to problems in medicine, agriculture, and the chemicals manufacturing business.
Russell is the Founder and CEO of Oakbio, a biotechnology company based in California, developing breakthrough sustainable microbe-based technologies that convert CO2 in waste gas into valuable chemical products. As well as providing a new and cost-competitive solution to the challenge of making chemicals without disruption to precious resources of land, food, water, and agriculture, this technology has potential impact for the critical challenge of climate change.
Very recently, upon return to Australia, Russell became Executive Chairman at Neuclone, a Sydney company developing biosimilar monoclonal antibody drugs. Neuclone’s proprietary manufacturing technology generates products differentiated by low production cost. Price-competitive biosimilar drugs can share in multi-billion dollar emerging markets while simultaneously providing cost-affordable treatments to millions more people.
Before Oakbio, Russell was Founder and CEO of Maxygen, a biotechnology company creating over 30 breakthrough products by gene shuffling of DNA. Russell led Maxygen from inception through IPO and 10’s of corporate deals plus spin-out of companies in Agriculture (Verdia, sold to Dupont), chemicals manufacture (Codexis) and protein pharmaceuticals (Perseid, sold to Astellas). Prior to Maxygen, Russell was President & Scientific Director at Affymax, pursuing combinatorial small molecule drug discovery.
Russell also spent over 20 years studying infectious diseases, primarily the molecular basis for the pathology of malaria and immune evasion by antigenic variation. He served on WHO and USAID advisory panels for malaria vaccine development. At the National Institutes of Health in MD, USA, Russell was responsible for invention of a rapid, inexpensive, human malaria diagnostic test marketed worldwide for over 15 years.
Russell is the Founder and CEO of Oakbio, a biotechnology company based in California, developing breakthrough sustainable microbe-based technologies that convert CO2 in waste gas into valuable chemical products. As well as providing a new and cost-competitive solution to the challenge of making chemicals without disruption to precious resources of land, food, water, and agriculture, this technology has potential impact for the critical challenge of climate change.
Very recently, upon return to Australia, Russell became Executive Chairman at Neuclone, a Sydney company developing biosimilar monoclonal antibody drugs. Neuclone’s proprietary manufacturing technology generates products differentiated by low production cost. Price-competitive biosimilar drugs can share in multi-billion dollar emerging markets while simultaneously providing cost-affordable treatments to millions more people.
Before Oakbio, Russell was Founder and CEO of Maxygen, a biotechnology company creating over 30 breakthrough products by gene shuffling of DNA. Russell led Maxygen from inception through IPO and 10’s of corporate deals plus spin-out of companies in Agriculture (Verdia, sold to Dupont), chemicals manufacture (Codexis) and protein pharmaceuticals (Perseid, sold to Astellas). Prior to Maxygen, Russell was President & Scientific Director at Affymax, pursuing combinatorial small molecule drug discovery.
Russell also spent over 20 years studying infectious diseases, primarily the molecular basis for the pathology of malaria and immune evasion by antigenic variation. He served on WHO and USAID advisory panels for malaria vaccine development. At the National Institutes of Health in MD, USA, Russell was responsible for invention of a rapid, inexpensive, human malaria diagnostic test marketed worldwide for over 15 years.