obert Klupacs joined Circadian in August 2005 and was appointed Managing Director in March 2008. He is an intellectual property expert and entrepreneur with an extensive history of launching and managing successful ventures in the biotechnology industry. Robert was the driving force behind the founding of Vegenics Pty Ltd, Circadian’s major subsidiary. Prior to joining Circadian, he was founder and Chief Executive Officer of ES Cell International Pte Ltd (ESI), based in Singapore, a world leader in the development of human embryonic stem cell technology. From 1999 to 2001, he was Chief Operating Officer of the Monash Institute of Reproduction and Development, where he founded six start-up companies. Prior to that he was employed by Amrad Corporation Limited (since acquired by CSL) from 1988 until 1999, where he was Director of Intellectual Property and a member of the executive team. He holds a BSc(Hons) from Monash University in Pharmacology and is a registered Australian patent attorney. He is Chairman of Syngene Limited (42% owned by Circadian) and is a member of the Pharmaceuticals Industry Council.
Management
Susan Madden, who is also the Company’s Finance Manager, was appointed Company Secretary of Circadian on 14 May 2010 and has been the Finance Manager since September 2009. Prior to holding this position, she was the Finance Manager for over three years at the Cancer Council of Victoria and held several senior finance positions during her 14 years with the Shell Company of Australia Limited. Ms Madden is also the Company Secretary for Vegenics Pty Ltd and other Circadian subsidiary companies, and holds a seat on the Finance and Audit Committee for BreastScreen Victoria.
Richard Chadwick, who joined Circadian in February 2008, is qualified as both a European and Australian patent attorney. Richard joined Circadian from FB Rice & Co, where he had been working for five years in the Biotechnology Group. Prior to that, Richard had 10 years’ experience in intellectual property in the UK. This included working as an in-house attorney at Dow Corning Limited and five years working as an in-house attorney at Unilever.
Megan Baldwin joined Circadian in January 2008 and is responsible for research and development of Circadian’s product pipeline. Prior to joining Circadian, she was employed at Genentech, the world leader in the field of angiogenesisbased therapies for cancer and other diseases. Her experience included several years as a researcher in the group of leading angiogenesis expert Napoleone Ferrara, before moving to Genentech’s commercial division and having responsibility for corporate competitive intelligence activities. In this role, she developed extensive knowledge of the angiogenesis and cancer fields. Megan has a scientific background of more than 10 years, focused on angiogenesis and therapeutic strategies for oncology indications. She holds a PhD in Medicine from the University of Melbourne, having conducted her doctoral studies at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research.
Mark Sullivan has 20 years’ experience in the development of small molecules, therapeutic and prophylactic vaccines and microbicides. He is the founder and Director of Medicines Development and was formerly with Glaxo/GlaxoWellcome (now GSK) in London for 10 years, Gilead Sciences in San Francisco for two years and University of New South Wales for three years. Mark has a clinical research background that encompasses first-in-man, proof-of-concept, pivotal Phase II and III studies, regulatory submission (two New Drug applications with the FDA /Marketing Authorisation Applications through the EMEA ), Phase III b and Phase IV. Mark has worked on three development programs that have progressed through successful registration, namely 3TC for HIV (Phases I to III) and 3TC (Phases II to IV), and adefovir dipivoxil for chronic hepatitis B (Phases III to IV), including global registration. He has led the development of prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines for HIV and both small molecule and biologics for a number of indications.
Susan Foran is a qualified pharmacist with broad expertise in product development, project management and medical affairs. Her previous experience includes roles with leading multinational firms GlaxoSmithKline and Kendle Pty Ltd, and with small biotechnology companies. In these roles, she contributed to the development of numerous products, including pre-clinical, clinical and post-marketing programs. Susan has also managed her own consultancy business, providing product development advice and project management services to a number of Australian biotechnology companies.
Mike Gerometta has been with Circadian since December 2008 and is principally responsible for the outsourcing of Vegenics’ research and cGMP manufacturing activities. Mike has over 20 years’ experience in the Australian biotechnology industry, most recently as Chief Operating Officer of Q-Gen, QIMR’s translational research, manufacturing arm. He has also spent 19 years at Agen Biomedical, occupying a variety of positions and roles, most recently as Research and Product Development Director. In this role he was responsible for the chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC), pre-clinical program and patent management for Agen’s ThromboView® project, a blood clot imaging agent. Previously, he has worked at Biotech Australia, Sydney, and together with earlier positions at Agen, developed numerous successful immunodiagnostic assays for the medical, veterinary and food industries across various diagnostic platforms for the laboratory and point-of-care. He was awarded his PhD in biotechnology from the Queensland University of Technology and has a degree in chemistry from the University of Technology in Sydney.
Melinda Lowe commenced as Project Manager with Circadian in 2010. She has responsibility for coordinating the inter-disciplinary development activities associated with the development of our lead compounds VGX-100, VGX-200 and VGX-300. Melinda holds a PhD in Medicine from Monash University and has over 20 years’ experience in Australian biomedical research, principally in the fields of immunologically mediated disease and virology. She moved into project management in 2005 whilst at Starpharma Holdings Limited, a company developing nanotechnology products for pharmaceutical, life-science and other applications. Since then, as a Senior Development Manager with Medicines Development Limited, Melinda has worked on the development of a novel lipopeptide vaccine technology, and a practical and affordable conjoint treatment option for chronic viral infections.
Angus Tester has held the position of Senior Scientist at Circadian since February 2009. He is responsible for conducting and managing the pre-clinical research undertaken at the Circadian research laboratory, located within the Ludwig Institute of Cancer Research. Angus completed his PhD in Biochemistry at Monash University and subsequently has spent over 10 years working in the field of cancer research. He has gained extensive skills and experience using models of human cancer within laboratories based in both Australia and North America.