By Stuart Roberts, Senior Analyst, stuart@ndfresearch.com, +61 447 247 909 (May 2018)
The annual Bioshares meeting, held every July in Queenstown, New Zealand, is generally regarded as the preeminent Life Sciences investment conference on this side of the Pacific. A personal highlight for me at Bioshares is the traditional 'Peasants' Dinner', which is one of the events that open the meeting. The Peasants' Dinner is for all of us who aren't CEOs of biotech companies (plus a few who are). It's always a great night given that the venue is one of the best restaurants in town, in a town renowned for its fine dining establishments. Peasants' gives our industry a chance to acknowledge some of its quiet (and sometimes not-so-quiet) achievers through the Red Hat Awards, which represents significant contributions to the growth of the sector by the rank and file. Here are some of the recent winners of Red Hats:

Martin Ashdown

Research Fellow, Faculty of Medicine, University of Melbourne
​​​Cage Rattler of the Year, 2015
Every industry needs a cage rattler to help keep people's thinking fresh. Martin Ashdown has spent the last 15 years or so telling everyone who would listen that successful treatment of cancer has a lot to do with accurate timing of chemotherapy and immunotherapies to match fluctuations in each patient’s immune system. If Martin is right, a lot of oncology drugs that make a lot of money for their owners are in fact worthless. The Mayo Clinic are further developing Martin’s ideas on the ‘Immune Synchronization’ of therapy.​

Rob Birrell

Former CEO, Genetic Signatures
​​Best New Peasant, 2016
Rob Birrell worked with one of the founding fathers of biotech in Australia, the late Dr Geoff Grigg, to build Genetic Signatures (ASX: GSS​) over many years. Rob's 2016 Red Hat award recognises his dogged and imaginative persistence with the Genetic Signatures project through thick and thin. It is home-grown entrepreneurs like Rob who have helped make Australia a great place to build Life Science companies.

Paris Brooke

Director, BT Novo 
​Hall of Fame, 2015
One of Paris' clients puts it like this: 'Paris is an excellent communications consultant who can make a real difference to any organisation's communications and stakeholder management program. A natural communicator who articulates a clear and easily understandable message'. If we had more Parises in our sector the average market capitaliation would be a lot higher. Paris' 2015 Red Hat honoured her tireless work in getting the Bioshares meeting to happen every year.

Otto Buttula

Private investor
​​Financier of the Year, 2017
Otto Buttula helped build the boutique funds management business Investors Mutual and the online financial services pioneer Investorweb before the latter company was sold to the Commonwealth Bank in 2007. Since then Otto has chosen to become an active investor in Life Science companies such as Oncosil and Imugene. Our sector relies on hard nosed true believers like Otto to fund the growth ambitions of its startup companies at the fragile early stage of their development.

Gavin Clark

Director, Research and Enterprise, University of Otago
Kiwi of the Year, 2017
New Zealand is one of the world's emerging Life Science powers, and in good measure it is because of people like Gavin. Since he joined the main tech transfer office at the University of Otago in 2012, that venerable institution,  which is a Top 200 University globally, has grown research income by >20%, invention disclosures four-fold and commercialisation deal flow two-fold. This year's Red Hat for Gavin also acknowledges the vital role that tech transfer professionals play in making our sector world-class.

Krystal Evans

CEO, BioMelbourne Network
​​Cage Rattler of the Year, 2017
Once upon a time Krystal was a malaria vaccine developer at the prestigious Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. However she cares a great deal about how benchtop research can translate into outcomes for patients, and understands that the commercial end of the game is often where the real action is. Since joining the BioMelbourne Network in 2014 Krystal has helped transform that organisation into a strong advocacy group for one the world's greatest Life Science clusters, talking to powerful people in both the Victorian and Federal governments about what can make biotech in Melbourne even more productive than it already is.

Eddie Grieve

Manager, Listings Business Development, Australian Securities Exchange
​​Hall of Fame, 2016
Without the ASX we wouldn't have a Life Sciences sector in Australia and New Zealand, and the sector therefore owes a big debt of gratitude to Eddie Grieve, who has taken a strong personal interest in the fortunes of the sector. The fact that ASX is such a bio-friendly Exchange is in part due to the efforts of Eddie and his colleagues to market the Exchange to the Life Science community both in Australia and around the world. 

Lusia Guthrie

Former CEO, LBT Innovations
Best New Peasant, 2017
Lusia is a great Elder Statesperson in our sector. She spent 13 years at the highly successful Adelaide-based pharmaceutical company FH Faulding & Co before following her dream and co-founding the laboratory tools company LBT Innovations in 2004. In 2016, not long after Lusia stepped down as CEO, LBT gained FDA approval of its APAS Automated Plate Reading System, a breakthrough in automated culture plate reading, interpretation and reporting.

Kilian Kelly

Vice President, Product Development, Cynata
​Best Re-Rating, 2015 and 2017
In 2017 the stem cell developer Cynata (ASX: CYP) was the company represented at Peasants whose stock had risen by the greatest amount in the twelve months since the previous dinner. This had already happened once before, in 2015. Accepting the Best Re-Rating Award on Cynata's behalf was Kilian Kelly, Vice President of Product Development. Irishman Kilian Kelly was a veteran of Amgen and AstraZeneca before his arrival Down Under. Kilian is emblematic of the sort of talent we're attracting to our sector from other parts of the world.

Brian Leedman

Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Resapp Health
Best Re-Rating, 2016
ResApp (ASX: RAP) was 2.6 cents per share at the time of Bioshares 2015. It was 40 cents by the time Bioshares 2016 rolled around. Brian's 2016 Red Hat acknowledged this achievement but also honoured his passionate efforts over many years to promote the Life Sciences sector in Western Australia.

Amos Meltzer

Former CEO, Immuron
​Best New Peasant, 2015
As CEO of Immuron (ASX: IMC) Amos Meltzer did an outstanding job preparing his company to benefit from the strong commercial interest in new treatments for Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis or NASH. He continues to serve the Australian Life Sciences sector as a lawyer and adviser on capital raisings for new companies.

Daniel Moore

Director, Armada Capital
Financier of the Year, 2016
Daniel, a well-known 'rainmaker' in Australia's capital markets, worked for the best part of two years to get Race Oncology (ASX: RAC) on the ASX as a public company. His Red Hat Award in 2016 recognised the successful outcome of that journey. Before he went out on his own Daniel was a strong contributor to the health of the Life Sciences sector through his work in the Corporate Department at stockbroker Wilson HTM.

Mark Paulson

Partner, Jones Day
Hall of Fame, 2017
Australia and New Zealand are a long way away from the US, where a lot of the really big action is for the biotech and medical device industries. That doesn't stop this IP litigator, based in Washington, DC, from coming down to our part of the world every year to check out what is going on. Mark Paulson is really good at what he does. So good that in June 2004 he was featured in a Washington Post article headlined 'Wanted: Legal Superstars'. We are glad to have this friendly and quietly spoken American as a member of the Life Sciences fraternity in Australia and New Zealand.
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