FNI Board of Directors
Chairman
Mr Charles Allen AO
- Mr Charles Allen
MA MSc
Mr Charles Allen was born and educated in England. His working career was in the oil and gas industry, initially as an exploration geophysicist with Shell in various parts of the world, and later in production and general management. He was posted to Australia in 1979 as Executive Director of Woodside Petroleum Ltd. and Chairman of the North West Shelf LNG project, the largest undertaking by a non-government organisation in Australia at that time. He became Managing Director of Woodside in 1982 and retired in 1996 when the project was complete. He was appointed AO in 1990. He has been a Director and Chairman of CSIRO, National Australia Bank and Air Liquide Australia. He has also been a Director of Metals Manufactures, Amcor and is presently on the Board of AGL Energy.
Scientific Director
Prof Frederick A O Mendelsohn AO
MD PhD FRACP FAA
Prof Frederick Mendelsohn was appointed Director of the Howard Florey Institute in 1997 and is the RD Wright Professor of Experimental Physiology and Medicine at the University of Melbourne. He joined the staff of the University of Melbourne in 1975 where he held a Personal Chair in Medicine. He was a Member of the Wills Committee Health and Medical Strategic Review and is a past President of the Australian Neuroscience Society.
Board of Directors
Prof Geoffrey Donnan
MBBS MD FRACP FRCP (Edin)
Prof Geoffrey Donnan is Director of the National Stroke Research Institute and Professor of Neurology, University of Melbourne, Austin Hospital. His research interest is clinical stroke management and he was co-founder of the Australian Stroke Trials Network. He is President of the World Stroke Organisation. He received the American Stroke Association William Feinberg Award for Excellence in Clinical Stroke Research in 2007.
Dr Alan Finkel AM
PhD
Dr Alan Finkel was the founder and CEO of Axon Instruments, an ASX-listed, US biotech company. He was also a co-founder of the ASX-listed company Optiscan Imaging and served as a Director until 2002. After Axon was acquired in 2004,Dr Finkel co-founded and currently serves as Chairman of Luna Media, the publisher of Cosmos Magazine and G Magazine. Dr Finkel is Chairman of the National Research Centre for the Prevention of Child Abuse, a Governor of the Clunies Ross Foundation, Chairman of the Australian Course in Advanced Neuroscience, and the Chancellor of Monash University.
Prof Graeme Jackson
BSc (Hons) MBBS FRACP MD
Prof Graeme Jackson is the founding Director of the Brain Research Institute and a Neurologist at the Austin Hospital. He receives international recognition for his work in new MR technologies, particularly in the field of epilepsy. He is a Professorial Fellow of the Department of Medicine and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Radiology, University of Melbourne; an Honorary Neurologist at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne and a Board member of Neurosciences Victoria.
Mr Mark Jones
BA (Hons) (Sheff) MBA (MBS)
Mr Mark Jones is a Partner in KPMG’s Risk Advisory Services practice with national responsibility for corporate governance and internal risk management. He has previously provided external audit, internal audit, and accounting and advisory services to clients. Mr Jones is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, CPA Australia and the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Mr Jones is the alternate Director for Ms Margaret Jackson AC and Dr Thomas Schneider.
Dr Brendan Murphy
MBBS PhD FRACP FAICD
Dr Brendan Murphy was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Austin Health in January 2005. Prior to this appointment he was Chief Medical Officer and Medical Program Director at St. Vincent’s Health, Melbourne. He was also Professor/Director of Nephrology at St. Vincent’s from 1992-2005 and has only ceased clinical practice as a physician and his research career since taking up the Austin Health appointment. Dr Murphy was previously a Board member of the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, a Director of Kidney Health Australia and President of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Nephrology. He is also Chair of the Victorian Health Department Management Innovation Council.
Mr Martyn Myer
BEng MEngSc MScM (MIT)
Mr Martyn Myer is a Director of the Myer Foundation and holds a number of non-executive Board positions including positions at SP AusNet Transmission and Diversified United Investments Ltd, and is Chair of Cogstate Ltd, a listed health services software company working in the neurodegenerative arena. He has founded and run an equity funds management company and has also been involved in product development and marketing for hi-tech export orientated manufacturing companies.
Mr Allan J Myers AO QC
Mr Allan Myers is a Queens Counsel and has practised as a barrister, principally in Victoria, although his professional work has led to appearances in all jurisdictions within Australia. He has lectured in law at universities in Melbourne, England and Canada, published legal articles in Australia and elsewhere, and regularly presented papers at legal, business and educational conventions. He is currently the President of the Council of Trustees of the National Gallery of Victoria.
Prof Peter Rathjen
BSc (Hons) (Adel) DPhil (Oxon)
Prof Peter Rathjen is currently the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at the University of Melbourne. Prior to taking up that position he was Dean of Science at the University of Melbourne from 2006. He has a longstanding involvement in Embryonic Stem (ES) cell research dating from postdoctoral research at the University of Oxford in the late 1980s. Upon returning to the University of Adelaide in 1990, Prof Rathjen established a research program directed towards understanding the processes by which stem cells differentiate into functional cell types during embryo development. Part of this research, with particular emphasis on the mechanisms by which nerve cells are formed in the embryo, has been carried out within the ARC Special Research Centre for the Molecular Genetics of Development since 2000. More recently, Prof Rathjen became a founding member of the Australian Stem Cell Centre, with responsibility for the development and commercialisation of stem cell technologies for the benefit of Australia. Within the ASCC his specific interests include the development of therapeutically relevant methodologies for establishment and growth of ES cells, and their controlled differentiation to clinically applicable lineages such as muscle and blood.
Prof Rathjen was appointed to the Chair of Biochemistry at the University of Adelaide in 1995, became foundation Head of the Department of Molecular Biosciences in 2000, and in 2002 was appointed Executive Dean of the Faculty of Sciences. In 2005 he was the recipient of the inaugural Premier's Award for Scientific Excellence (Research Leadership) in South Australia.
Dr Thomas J Schneider
AB magna cum laude with highest hons (Harvard) D Phil (Oxon) JD (Harvard) Hon D Laws (Deakin)
Dr Thomas Schneider is the President and CEO of Restructuring Associates Inc. in Washington, DC and is the Chairman and CEO of Schneider (Australia) Consulting Pty. Ltd. in Melbourne. He is Of-Counsel to the law firm of O’Connor & Hannan in Washington, DC. Dr Schneider is a Board member of the Venter Institute and the American Australian Educational Leadership Foundation. He was a member of the US Secretary of Energy’s Advisory Board from 1994-2000, and was the Science and Technology Policy Advisor for Presidential candidate Bill Clinton in 1992 and for General Wes Clark in 2004.
Mr Robert Trenberth
BEng (Melb) MA Sc (Waterloo, Canada) MBA (Harvard) FAICD
Mr Robert Trenberth began his professional career as a structural engineer and he now serves as Chairman and Director of a number of companies and not-for-profit organisations. His corporate business career includes consulting with McKinsey & Company, followed by senior executive appointments with Carlton and United Breweries Ltd and McPherson’s Ltd, following which he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Ajax McPherson’s Ltd, the international publicly listed manufacturing group. In 1991 he was appointed Deputy Secretary of the Federal Department of Industry Science and Technology, returning to the private sector in 1996 as a Non-Executive Director. His current company appointments include Chairman of Riviera Properties Ltd and of Upstream Print Solutions and Director of the CRC for Polymers. His not-for-profit appointments include Chairman of the Australian Sustainable Industries Research Centre and Vice President and Director of the National Stroke Foundation.
Mr John Wylie AM
BCom (Hons) (UQ) M Phil (Oxon)
Mr John Wylie is a former Rhodes scholar educated at the University of Queensland and Oxford University. He is Head of Investment Banking at Lazard Carnegie Wylie and is Chairman of the Melbourne Cricket Ground Trust.
Mr Harrison Young
AB cum laude (Harvard)
Mr Harrison Young retired as Chairman of Morgan Stanley Australia in 2007. In a 32-year investment banking career, he was based in New York, London, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Beijing and Melbourne. He has also been a reporter for The Washington Post, a Captain in the US Army, and Chief Operating Officer of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in Washington. He is now a Non-Executive Director of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Chairman of the Asia Society AustralAsia Centre, and a Director of the Financial Services Volunteer Corpsin New York.
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