Cepheid: Corporate strategic planning 2023

• Despite a meaningful drop in revenues post-pandemic, the team was able to chart a course back to double digit growth over the next 5 years ($3b to $5b). Feedback from Danaher corporate was that this was the clearest strategic plan since the company was purchased in 2016.

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Cepheid: Franchise strategy development

• Designed & facilitated workshop with product mgt leaders to clearly articulate portfolio strategies, focusing on strategic position, external drivers & competitive dynamics.  Very positive feedback.

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Cepheid: Open innovation (OI) governance

• Appointed as Chair of the OI Governance Committee to better align our activities with corporate strategy. Held workshop with stakeholders, developed an operating charter and ran monthly meetings. Cleaned up engagements and initiated new highly strategic engagements, one of which halted a large M&A deal.

 

Cepheid: War gaming

• Architected a workshop to help commercial, product management, innovation, and IP stakeholders assess and develop countermeasures to a competitive product launch. Output was extremely valuable for strategic planning considerations and used in the development of commercial “battle cards”.

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Cepheid: Open innovation (OI) governance

• Appointed as Chair of the OI Governance Committee to better align our activities with corporate strategy. Held workshop with stakeholders, developed an operating charter and ran monthly meetings. Cleaned up engagements and initiated new highly strategic engagements, one of which halted a large M&A deal.

 

Cepheid: Technology roadmap development

• Planned, facilitated, and participated in technology roadmap, establishing near, medium and long-term plans for respiratory, GI & Sepsis disease areas. Orientated around current and future customer needs and what product attributes, technology & capability are needed to be successful.

 

Cepheid: External partnership

• Commercial and IP lead in successful partnership execution with Oxford University, UK to establish Host Response signature to better predict and subtype Sepsis.

 

Leica: Strategic Development

• Led five full strategic planning cycles with the President, including ownership of specific initiatives.

• Significantly revised our Digital Pathology strategy to include a major AI/ML component. Convinced corporate to agree to the establishment of AI/ML Strategic Business Unit (SBU) with $5m of funding. Shortly afterwards, secured a major deal with PaigeAI, the leading AI company in Pathology, to distribute computer added AI for prostate diagnosis.

• Post strategy development, led the establishment of the AI/ML SBU, change management, hiring team of 25 associates, new processes establishment, annotated image pipeline creation and early AI model development.

• Secured first of a kind outsourced research collaboration agreement with Verily (Google), for highly disruptive technology, called virtual staining. $2.5m deal, funding a powered study to assess if virtual (chemistry free) methods are non-inferior for prostate cancer.

• Worked with corporate to establish a quarterly strategic review for ongoing strategic dialogue with foundational and mature elements for all Danaher operating companies. Standing member of Danaher Diagnostics Innovation Counsel.

• Selected to be part of a small Danaher corporate team tasked with the development of data and analytic strategic frameworks. Subsequently used by all operating companies in the 2021 strategic planning process. Presented content to EVPs and Operating Company Presidents.

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Leica: Building a Culture of Innovation.

• Executive sponsor for rolling out the Innovators DNA – Culture of Innovation. Working with teams on Psychological Safety, Intellectual Honesty & Smart Risk Taking

 

Leica: Innovation Process:

• Developed a new breakthrough process for Innovation Programs. After significant benchmarking, my team established, tested and refined the process to a point where it is standard work and had a very healthy funnel.

 

Leica: New Product and Business Model Innovation:

• Launched APiQ software solutions, as a truly disruptive Internet of Things (IoT) product using cloud computing to deliver productivity tools both internally and to our customers – the first in our business and the industry.  This really focused in implicit versus explicit customer needs. Unfortunately, the business venture failed, as it was too early for the market.

 

Leica: New Product Launch and Open Innovation Model

• In addition to the commercial success of the BOND RX product line, mentioned above, my team also introduced a new Open Innovation model with gates and standard contracts that allows us to partner with technology / clinical companies to “test” assays using our installed base of world class researchers in Pharma and Academic research.

• In 2022 this led to the close of a $20m “technology” acquisition of an OI partner, Cell IDx.

 

Portfolio Manager of Start-up Aqua Diagnostic Pty Ltd, a water diagnostic company based on technology developed at Griffith University:

• Intricately involved from the initial investment negotiation to working closely with the CEO and Board on growth strategies and funding ($5m in total). Also, seconded into the role of Commercial and Operations manager, where I established contract manufacturing in China, set up contracts with distributors and worked on multiple OEM deals.

 

Portfolio Manager of Start-up Lighthouse Technologies Pty Ltd, an aesthetic medicine company based on innovative laser technology from Macquarie University, NSW.

• Seconded to Acting CEO while successfully leading a capital raising and merger with a US company that offered complimentary technology and had very valuable channel access. Then transitioned to VP Strategic Business Development to help drive growth. The business was very successful up until the financial crisis when credit became very hard for new laser clinics to access.

 

Portfolio Manager of Start-up Cohda Wireless Pty Ltd, a wireless telecommunications company, using advanced digital signalling process technology from the Institute for Telecommunications Research at the University of Southern Australia.

• Co-led the opportunity identification, investment and acted as portfolio manager, strategic advisor and alternate company director. Cohda Wireless is currently the leader in Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CAV) technology, with proven applications for connecting vehicles, infrastructure and pedestrians that will make our streets safer, smarter and greener. The company has secured ~$10m in funding to date.