We are very excited to be announcing the SBE by Springboard Enterprises Life Science program cohort for 2021. These 9 incredible women-led businesses are transforming industries in the Life Sciences.
Ventora
Amy is a co-founder and CTO of Ventora Medical, a medical device start-up with a mission to help premature babies breathe. She is a biomedical engineer with a strong passion for innovation and its ability to improve health outcomes for patients. At Ventora, she leads the product development team and supports Ventora’s business and commercialisation strategies. Amy was recently recognised for her work on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Healthcare and Science list, alongside her co-founder Edward Buijs.
Lactamo
Etta is a global award winning (Fortune 500) corporate lawyer with 15+ years of experience in company management. Etta advise businesses on both commercial and legal matters, facilitating and accelerating commercial objectives. In 2019 Etta put together a team of experts and founded Lactamo, bringing an innovative FemTech product to market for breastfeeding mothers. As Lactamo’s CEO Etta has built award winning foundations for the company, and was recently announced by Women’s Agenda as “Emerging Entrepreneur” Finalist 2021
Laronix
Farzaneh holds a Ph.D in Computer/Biomedical Engineering. She invented Laronix’s Bionic voice technology as the scientific lead of Bionic Voice research at Western Sydney university 2015-2019, and managed its development to successful pre-clinical trials with multiple patients.
Farzaneh has been an industrial R&D project manager and has received extensive entrepreneurial training in through CSIRO ON Accelerate6 and WCBA 2020 (New York’s prominent Medtech accelerator). She has been instrumental in transferring Laronix from successful research into a leading Australian medical start-up.
Oncology One
Dr Joanne Boag has more than 15 years-experience working in the life sciences sector. Prior to joining Oncology One in November 2020, Joanne was Director of Business Development at a commercial stage digital health company. Previously, Joanne has worked at an ASX-listed diagnostic company and medical research institutions, where she led successful outcomes in research innovation and commercialisation. Joanne is a Registered Australian Patent Attorney and has a PhD in molecular biology from the University of Western Australia.
Incisive Technologies
Kerry, originally from the US, has been involved in benchtop-to-sales enterprises for more than 30 years. She has led start-ups in a range of fields – energy, oncology, and now oral health. In each case, novel products were introduced to the global market before she exited to her next challenge. Kerry’s interest is in building the story and strong teams that can validate the opportunity, set goals and take the next step toward raising the required funds and/or attracting partners.
Neurotologix
Kate is an audiologist with 20 years of clinical experience and a track record of creating and managing sustainable hearing and balance clinics. She also holds degrees in computer science/ mathematics and public health and has extensive clinical and epidemiological research experience. Kate is a driven innovator and entrepreneur and is passionate about helping those with dizziness and vertigo. Kate is currently CEO and co-founder of the MedTech start-up, Neurotologix.
Theratrak
Laura Simmons is the CEO and Founder of Theratrak, she is also a passionate paediatric occupational therapist. Laura works with families with children living with a range of disabilities providing them with early intervention treatments. Laura has worked in the private health sector for almost 10 years, and in this time has noticed a distinct lack of innovative technology solutions targeting the ongoing care of people living with disabilities outside of direct therapy and how this is impacting the client’s overall progress.
Sea Our Beauty
Inspired by her personal mission to positively impact our community and planet, Natassia founded Sea Our Beauty to redefine what it means to be a sustainable beauty brand. After completing a Bachelor of Science, majoring in biochemistry, Natassia worked with Australia's leading beauty through wellness companies including Swisse Wellness, Elle Macpherson's WelleCo, and private equity fund The Foundry. Natassia strengthened her biochemistry foundation with diverse commercial experience across product development, sustainable sourcing, supply-chain, operations, and sales. Her journey highlighted the importance of uniting the beauty industry with ESG principles to conserve beauty.
QID Pharma
Carolyn has over 25 years of healthcare and industry experience, working initially on the front line of health care delivery followed by senior clinical operations roles in small to large biotech and pharmaceutical companies. A proactive and accomplished leader who is able to inspire diverse global teams, has a strong understanding of company operations, an extensive knowledge of drug product development, and an ability to utilise innovative approaches to ensure the efficient execution of development and company activities.
QID Pharma is a rare dermatology biotechnology company developing treatments for conditions of high unmet medical need. Our mission is to identify novel therapeutic products and create efficient options for advancing their development.