Precinct Leadership Group
The Precinct Leadership Group is made up of the biggest and most influential biomedical institutions in the Precinct.
These have a combined influence second to none in the Australian health sector and they play an active role in not only the development of the Melbourne Biomedical Precinct Strategic Plan and Framework Plan, but also ultimately in their delivery. Together, they will drive the necessary cultural change within their organisations to help bring more investment into the Precinct.
The Precinct Leadership Group is chaired by the Chair of the Melbourne Biomedical Precinct Office.
Rob Grenfell is a Public Health Physician and Health Director at CSIRO. He leads the Health and Biosecurity Business Unit with a broad portfolio covering Nutrition, eHealth, Medtech and Diagnostics and Biosecurity from plants to Ebola.
Rob's previous roles include National Medical Director at BUPA Australia New Zealand and National Director, Cardiovascular Health at the Heart Foundation.
Rob has also been the Strategic Health Advisor to Parks Victoria, and a Senior Medical Advisor at the Department of Health Victoria. He was a member of the Safety and Quality Outcomes Committee of the Hospital Innovation Reform Council, the Victorian Quality Council, Chair of General Practice Victoria, Member of the Health Advisory Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council and physician in charge of travel health BHP, and General Practice.
Andrew Cuthbertson joined CSL Limited in 1997 and is its R&D Director and Chief Scientific Officer.
In 2016 he was made an Enterprise Professor, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne and an Officer of the Order of Australia for his services to medical research.
Andrew has a keen interest in biopharmaceutical drug development. He currently manages an internal R&D budget of over US$600m, and a global R&D organisation of 1400 scientists. He is responsible for crafting the global R&D strategy for CSL.
Steven Petrou is the Director of the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health and Head of the Florey Department at The University of Melbourne.
Steven is a PhD trained neuroscientist who focuses on the disease biology of neurogenetic disorders. His interdisciplinary research includes ion channel biophysics, neurophysiology, animal models of neurogenetic disorders, molecular and cellular biology with real world experience in the biotech industry. He is a globally-recognised leader in the field of ion channel neuropathies, with a particular focus on rare epileptic encephalopathies, a range of genetic epilepsies affecting infants and young children with devastating impact for them and their families. In 2015 he was admitted to the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.
Steven is acutely aware of the need to translate discoveries to treatments, and is the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of RogCon Inc and Praxis Precision Medicines, companies pioneering breakthroughs for epileptic encephalopathies caused by SCN2A mutations.
Bill Charman is the Dean, Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Monash University; and Chair of the FIP (International Pharmaceutical Federation) Education Executive Committee in The Hague, The Netherlands. He was the founding Director of the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS) from 2007 through 2017.
Bill's research has been characterised by a multidisciplinary and collaborative approach to address major issues in drug discovery (especially for neglected diseases such as malaria), drug delivery and the pharmaceutical sciences. In 2015 and 2016, he was recognised by Thomson Reuters/Clarivate Analytics as a HiCi researcher in the field of Pharmacology and Toxicology.
Kathryn North is Director of the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and the David Danks Professor of Child Health Research at the University of Melbourne.
Kathryn trained as a physician, neurologist and clinical geneticist and in 1994, was awarded a doctorate for research in neurogenetics. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Harvard Genetics Program.
Kathryn is a leader in genomic medicine and in 2014 she was appointed as Co-Chair of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health – a collaborative network of over 400 organisations across over 45 countries. She leads an NHMRC-funded national network of over 40 institutions - the Australian Genomics Health Alliance (AGHA), with a goal to provide evidence and practical strategies for the implementation of genomic medicine in the Australian health system.
Sharon Lewin is the inaugural Director of the Doherty Institute where her lab team is part of an international effort to find a cure for HIV and to understand HIV and hepatitis B interaction.
Sharon is a Professor of Medicine at The University of Melbourne, and a National Health and Medical Research Council Practitioner Fellow.
Named Melburnian of the Year in 2014, Sharon has authored more than 230 publications and delivered more than 200 major international talks. She co-chairs the International AIDS Society’s Towards an HIV Cure initiative, and was co-chair of the 20th International AIDS Conference in Melbourne. She chairs the federal Ministerial Advisory Committee for Blood Borne Viruses and Sexually Transmitted Infections, and is a member of the NHMRC Council and the Governing Council of the International AIDS Society.
Nicole Tweddle completed her undergraduate degree in Physiotherapy at the University of Melbourne and holds a Master of Health Services Management from Monash University.
Nicole started her healthcare career in Ballarat as a physiotherapist and has worked across the hospitals within the Parkville precinct since 2003.
Nicole has 12 years executive experience in strategy and planning, performance, service development, and was most recently Peter Mac’s Chief Operating Officer.
John Stanway was appointed to the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the Royal Children’s Hospital in October 2017. Prior to commencing in this role, John was the Chief Operating Officer at The Royal Children’s Hospital for more than ten years, overseeing clinical operations. From 2012, John also held the position of Deputy CEO.
Before joining The Royal Children’s Hospital, John managed Monash Medical Centre, was Chief Executive of the Transport Accident Commission and held various senior management roles at General Motors Holden.
John has a double major in Economics and a Graduate Diploma in Industrial Relations and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. John was also President of the Victorian Hospitals Industrial Association and Chairman for 10 years.
Christine Kilpatrick commenced as Chief Executive, Melbourne Health in May 2017.
Previous appointments include Chief Executive, The Royal Children’s Hospital from 2008 – 2017, Executive Director Medical Services, Melbourne Health and Executive Director Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne Health. Prior to these appointments she was a neurologist, specialising in epilepsy. She was appointed a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Science in 2015.
Christine has held several external appointments including Chair Victorian Quality Council in Healthcare and Member of the Women’s and Children’s Health Board. She was awarded a Centenary medal in 2003, in 2014 was included in the Victorian Honour Roll of Women and in 2016 received an honorary Doctor of Medical Science from the University of Melbourne.
Sue Matthews joined the Women's as Chief Executive, from the Niagara Health System in Ontario, where she held the position of interim President and CEO from 2011-2013. Previously, she was Executive Vice President, Clinical Operations and Chief Nursing Executive.
Sue holds a Doctor of Public Health degree and a Master’s in Health Science Nursing from Charles Sturt University. In addition, she has a Bachelor of Liberal Arts in Health Studies degree from York University and a Diploma in Nursing from Ryerson Polytechnic University.
Sue is a Fellow of the Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia, Clinical Associate Professor at McMaster University, an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto and an Adjunct Professor Faculty of Health Services Management at Charles Sturt and Trent Universities.
Sue is an active researcher in the area of health services.
Angela Nolan was appointed CEO of St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne in early 2018. She has been a member of the Executive team since 2015, holding the roles of Executive Director of Acute Services and previously, Executive Director People and Corporate Support in 2015.
Angela began her career as a Chartered Accountant at Arthur Andersen, working with organisations across a variety of industries, including healthcare, manufacturing, banking and finance and superannuation.
She undertook further study in Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations, before moving to the ANZ Bank. In her final role at ANZ, Angela was Global Head of HR Advisory and Consulting, in which she led significant change programs that involved establishing new businesses, organizational redesign and restructuring, out and in-sourcing, offshoring, acquisitions and divestments and cost reduction.
Shitij Kapur is the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences and Assistant Vice Chancellor (Health), of the University of Melbourne.
Shitij is a clinician-scientist with expertise in psychiatry, neuroscience and brain imaging. He trained as a Psychiatrist at the University of Pittsburgh, and undertook a PhD and Fellowship at the University of Toronto. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, similarly Board Certified in Canada and has a specialist medical license in the United Kingdom. He is also a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and the Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, UK, and Fellow of King’s College London, UK.
Shitij was previously Executive Dean Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, Europe's largest and leading centre for mental health research. Shitij was also Vice-President (Research) for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) Toronto, Canada's premier centre for research into mental health and addictions.
Doug Hilton is the sixth Director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Head of its division of Molecular Medicine and Head of the Department of Medical Biology in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne. His research aims to understand which of the 30,000 genes are important in the production and function of blood cells and how this information can be used to better prevent, diagnose and treat blood cell diseases such as leukaemia, arthritis and asthma.
Doug has been awarded numerous prizes for his research into how blood cells communicate and has led major collaborations with industry to translate his discoveries from the bench to the bedside.
