Judges

Professor Paul Greenfield, Vice-Chancellor, The University of Queensland

Professor Paul Greenfield has recently taken up the position of Vice-Chancellor of The University of Queensland (effective from 1 January 2008.) He was previously Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Chemical Engineering at The University of Queensland.

He has a Bachelors Degree with Honours and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of New South Wales and a Bachelor of Economics from The University of Queensland.

He has worked in industry, with CSIRO, and at universities both in Australia and overseas.

Professor Greenfield has over 25 years experience in research and in environmental management. His current research interests lie in biotechnology, environmental management and R & D management. He has consulted widely including acting as an expert witness in a number of pollution and site contamination cases.

Stewart Gow, Manager, Venture Capital Attraction, Invest Queensland, Department of State Development and Trade

Stewart is Manager, Venture Capital Attraction with Invest Queensland.

Stewart spent two years in Silicon Valley as Australian Vice Consul for Information Technology. He is a co-founder of Archers Angels and the Brisbane Angels Pty Ltd (business angel investor groups) and is the Queensland State Representative for the Australian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCAL).

He founded and managed the Venture Capital Unit within the Department of Tourism Regional Development and Industry during which time he developed the Queensland Capital Raising Pipeline program for which he was awarded the AVCAL Outstanding Service Award.

He worked as a commercial litigation lawyer for 10 years in Queensland and the Northern Territory. Stewart has also completed an MBA from the University of Queensland where he is an Industry Fellow and a part time lecturer at the UQ Business School.

Bruce Scott, Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer, NBC Capital

Bruce is Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of NBC Capital, a specialist private equity manager. Bruce co-founded NBC Capital in February 1999 and is responsible for managing deal flow, supervising investment assessment process, and liaising with investors.

Bruce has twenty-four years experience in funds management, listed equities and investment, property and as an active private equity investor. Bruce has managed his own Public Accounting business, been a Stockbroking analyst and started his career in banking.

Before co-founding NBC Capital, Bruce was a partner in the Public Accounting firm Northern Business Consultants providing specialist business, taxation and financial planning advice to small and medium business people. Before that, Bruce operated his own business, Bruce Scott & Associates, specialising in financial planning, business advice and corporate reconstructions for small and medium businesses.

Bob Christiansen, Southern Cross Venture Partners

Bob Christiansen is a founding Managing Director of Southern Cross VenturePartners. Previously, he was a General Partner and member of the Investment ommittee of the venture capital firm Allen & Buckeridge for eight years.

Bob spent seven years in senior operations and technology roles with Automatic Data Processing Inc (ADP) in Europe and the US. Subsequently, he helped found two US-based technology companies, including Corbel & Co - a Florida software company applying artificial intelligence technologyin the field of complex document creation. In 1993 Corbel was successfully sold to NASDAQ listed Broadway & Seymour Inc. Prior to returning to Australia in 1998 Bob acted as Chief Technology Officer for the Advisor Technology Services Division of Fidelity Investments in Boston.

Fidelity is the world's largest mutual fund company.

Anne-Marie Birkill, Chief Executive Officer, i.lab technology incubator

Anne-Marie has more than 20 years experience in the commercialisation of new technologies, in both the private and public sectors, spanning a wide range of disciplines but with particular focus in the field of plant biotechnology. Her previous roles have included General Manager of Pisces Enterprises Pty Ltd, a private sector plant production facility; Product Development Coordinator with Forbio Research, part of the publicly listed Forbio forestry biotechnology group; General Manager-Operations then Manager-Corporate Development with UniQuest Pty Ltd, the University of Queensland's award winning technology commercialisation company and partner in a boutique technology commercialisation consulting firm. Anne-Marie has lectured and tutored into TAFE, university and private sector programs including as founding facilitator for the AIC's Research Commercialisation Bootcamp™ product.

Anne-Marie holds a BSc(Hons) from the Flinders University and an MBA from UQ.