Speakers

Adele Barnard

Clinical Research Director, Nutromics

Adele Barnard combines a PhD in Immunology with almost 20 years of experience in neuromodulation, having contributed to the development of some of the earliest waveforms and IPG systems in the mid-2000s. With extensive expertise in managing clinical trials in both the medical device and pharmacology sectors, she has led clinical research across Australia and held executive roles in prominent US companies, including Nevro and Abbott. She headed up a portfolio of clinical trials at Veritus Research in Australia. She also serves on human research ethics boards for medical device studies and consults to biotech companies, providing insights into the Australian regulatory landscape.

Dr Mary Beth Brinson

CEO, Wavewise Analytics

Dr Mary Beth Brinson is a medtech executive, company Chair and non-executive board member with a focus on early commercialisation and product adoption. She is the CEO at Wavewise Analytics, translating brain-monitoring R&D into market-entry milestones and partner-ready propositions.

Previously, she was CEO and CMO of ASX-listed TALi Digital Pty LTD, an experience that sharpened her operational and go-to-market execution under public-company disciplines.

Dr Brinson spent 16 years at Cochlear, culminating as Vice President, Global Clinical Affairs, building the evidence and regulatory foundations that de-risked first launches. She has consistently aligned clinical research, regulatory readiness, and initial go-to-market strategy to compress time-to-value in the early commercial phase.

Her qualifications include a Doctorate in Audiology (University of Louisville), an MBA (Rutgers), and a Bachelor’s in Audiology & Speech Pathology (University of Georgia). Prior to joining Cochlear in 2006, she was a clinical audiologist specialising in cochlear implantation, practising in the USA and in the UK.

Adam Caplan

Founder and General Partner, Jumpspace Ventures

Jumspace Ventures is a New York based venture capital firm focused on breakthrough innovations in neuroscience and human-machine interfaces. The firm invests in early-stage companies advancing brain-computer interfaces, neuromodulation and neural diagnostics.

Adam Caplan is also a Co-Founder at Artisan Council, a digital marketing agency, as well as a Co-Founder and Board Member at Facteus, a provider of consumer transaction data to hedge funds.

Earlier in his career, Adam co-founded ID8 Investments, a diversified venture capital firm, as well as Super Rewards, a monetization solution for social network games which was acquired by Adknowledge in 2009. Before that, he worked as an investment banker with Morgan Stanley for eleven years, focusing on the emerging Internet and new media sectors.

Professor Mark Cook

The Sir John Eccles Chair of Medicine and Director of Clinical Neurosciences at St. Vincent’s Hospital

Mark Cook is Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Sir John Eccles Chair of Medicine, University of Melbourne, and Director of Neurology at St. Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne. He is a neurologist recognised internationally for his expertise in epilepsy management, particularly imaging and surgical planning. In 2023 he was named an Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to neurological medicine and research through contributions to the treatment of epilepsy. He has worked closely with engineers for most of his career, developing novel therapies for epilepsy. His interests have included experimental models of epilepsy and seizure prediction, and he has led 3 first in human clinical studies of epilepsy devices, and is involved in the commercialisation of an implantable seizure detection device – Epiminder – that received FDA approval in May 2025.

Anton de Weger

Digital and Technology Lead at The Australian Epilepsy Project, The Florey

Anton de Weger is a seasoned leader, Founder, and technical director with a strong focus on machine learning strategy and application. He has successfully established and sold a multinational enterprise systems consulting company, guided a global enterprise software company towards a “Machine Learning First” approach, and architected other machine learning based applications.

His passion lies in machine learning product design and methodology, AI ethics, integrating machine learning with human decision-making, and harnessing the power of technology through high-performance multinational teams. This aligns perfectly with the opportunities at the Australian Epilepsy Project (AEP), where he contributes to encoding and distributing world-leading brain analysis expertise and data collection practices for epilepsy.

Professor David Grayden

Clifford Chair of Neural Engineering in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Leader of the Bionics Laboratory in the Centre for Neural Engineering, Melbourne School of Engineering, The University of Melbourne

Professor David B. Grayden is Clifford Chair of Neural Engineering in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering & Information Technology and the Graeme Clark Institute for Biomedical Engineering. He is Co-Director of the Victorian Medtech Skills and Devices Hub and Director of the ARC Training Centre in Cognitive Computing for Medical Technologies. Prof Grayden’s main research interests are in understanding how the brain processes information, how best to present information to the brain using medical bionics, such as the bionic ear and bionic eye, and how to record information from the brain, such as for brain-machine interfaces. He is also conducting research in epileptic seizure prediction and electrical stimulation to prevent or stop epileptic seizures. Prof Grayden teaches BioDesign Innovation in collaboration with the Melbourne Business School, and he is Co-Director of Biodesign Australia.

Donna Hutchison

National Director of Service Growth, St Vincent’s Health Australia

Donna Hutchison has extensive leadership experience in strategy, design, transformation, and scaling businesses. Her current role as Director of Growth at St Vincent’s is anchored around advancing clinical and commercial outcomes that align with the mission and values of the organisation. Most recently, this involved securing a $200m+ multi-year contract in partnership with the Australian Government to deliver Medicare Mental Health Check In, a game changing new platform in digital mental health and early intervention.

Prior to joining St Vincents, Donna held various executive roles across the research, education, and financial services sectors, including the Florey Institute of Neuroscience, where she led a number of strategic initiatives including the MRFF funded, Australian Epilepsy Project (AEP), a platform model approach to care that is redesigning the way brain health is diagnosed and treated.

Dr Elise Jenkins

Co-founder, Coherence Neuro

Elise’s research background is in bioelectronics and cancer neurotechnology at the University of Cambridge. She previously led technical teams at Siemens. In 2024 she was awarded Forbes 30u30 for her part in building Coherence. Coherence Neuro is building foundational neurotechnology that will overhaul how we track and treat cancer.

Tim Mahoney

CEO, Fluent

Tim Mahoney has long been driven to close the gap between people and technology. After completing a PhD in brain-computer interfaces, he co-founded Fluent to build what was missing: a truly scalable BCI solution. His team is now developing a groundbreaking platform that allows people to control technology directly with their intent.

Professor Ian T. Meredith AM

Vice Chancellor’s Professorial Fellow, Professor of Medicine and Cardiology, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

Professor Ian Meredith AM serves on the Boards of Innovation Victoria, AUScelerate and Western Health and several international and national medtech companies.

Dr. Ian Meredith is a globally recognised interventional cardiologist, professor of medicine, and executive leader in the medtech industry. With more than six years on the executive leadership team guiding decisions for the $1.0B USD Boston Scientific internal VC fund, Ian specialises in life science asset evaluation, diligence, asset management, governance, and M&A. Over 30 years, he has merged patient care, clinical research, and life science technology to create transformative healthcare solutions.

In 2003 he conceived and led the development of the Victorian Heart Hospital, Australia’s first advanced heart hospital, until joining Boston Scientific Corporation (BSC) in 2017. As a chief or principal investigator on 30+ major international trials, Ian has pioneered numerous cardiovascular treatment paradigms.

In 2023 he retired from the role of Executive Vice President and Global Chief Medical Officer at BSC, a global Fortune 100 company. In that role he led clinical innovation and medical affairs, overseeing 17,000 medical devices, impacting 33 million patients in 130 countries. Currently he serves as a Non-Executive Director for several international and national medtech companies.

Andrew Morokoff

Neurosurgeon and Associate Professor, The University of Melbourne

Associate Professor Morokoff is an academic neurosurgeon at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, University of Melbourne and the Brain Cancer Centre Australia. He trained in Melbourne and his PhD is in the biology of glioma. He completed a neuro-oncology fellowship in 2006-2007 at Harvard University, Boston and Necker Hospital in Paris. His clinical interests are brain tumour, acoustic neuromas, skull base surgery, epilepsy and his research focuses on liquid biopsies for brain cancer, brain tumour associated epilepsy and novel brain-computer interfaces. He was the neurosurgeon for the first-in-human clinical trials for NeuroVista, Synchron and Epiminder and is an advisor to a number of innovative brain tech startups.

Professor Nicholas Opie

CEO, Ultra Bionics; Founding Director, Synchron; Head of Vascular Bionics Laboratory, University of Melbourne

Professor Nicholas Opie BE BSc PhD MBA is a biomedical engineer and world expert in neural interfaces. He is Professor and Laboratory Head of the Vascular Bionics Laboratory, Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne, and an NHMRC Research Fellow.

Prof Opie has taken multiple numerous biomedical devices from concept to clinic, including a suprachoroidal retinal prosthesis (bionic eye) designed to restore sight to those with profound vision loss, and a motor neuron prosthesis (bionic spine) that is aimed at restoring independence, communication and mobility to those with paralysis.

Prof Opie is the founding CTO and Board Member of Synchron, a neural interface company based in Melbourne and New York and has raised over AUD$217M in both private funding and grants. Prof Opie designed and developed Synchron’s flagship product, the Stentrode.

John Parker

Professor John Parker is a medical device and technology inventor, researcher and experienced medtech executive with more than 20 years’ experience spanning research, innovation, product development and commercialisation. He has a particular expertise in translating emerging technologies from the laboratory through to industrialisation and clinical application.

John spent 13 years with Cochlear Limited, where he served as Chief Technology Officer and as an executive member of the Board of Directors. He was also the founder of Saluda Medical and, over more than 10 years as CEO, led the company through the conception, research, development and commercialisation of its innovative medical device technology. His experience encompasses all stages of innovation and commercialisation, including basic and applied research, product planning, R&D, engineering, industrialisation, operations management and business strategy.

John holds a PhD from The Australian National University and has held academic and research positions at Australian and international universities. He has authored numerous scientific publications and patents and maintains strong links with the research and engineering communities. He is an Adjunct Professor at the UNSW School of Biomedical Engineering and a Docent at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden.

John is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) and was awarded the prestigious ATSE Clunies Ross Medal in 2010 for his contribution to the commercialisation of Australian technology. In 2020, he received the Research Australia Award for Innovation.

John is currently Chairman of biotechnology start-up Ferronova Pty Ltd, a member of the NSW Department of Health Medical Device Fund Expert Panel, and an advisor to a number of private and public sector organisations. He is passionate about translating technology from bench to bedside and supporting the development and growth of Australia’s medtech and biotechnology sectors.

Oona Reardon

Managing Director, Pulse Economics

Oona Reardon is the Director of Pulse Economics, a Sydney-based consultancy specialising in health economics, market access, reimbursement and pricing strategy for the medtech, biotech and pharmaceutical industries.

With over 20 years of experience across the healthcare sector in industry, consulting and government, Oona is a recognised expert in health technology assessment (HTA) and evidence-based market access. Her expertise spans the full spectrum of access strategy, from early evidence planning through to submissions to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) and Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC), post-listing evaluation and pricing negotiations.

Before founding Pulse Economics, Oona held senior roles in health economics and market access, including positions at Labcorp, HealthConsult and the Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation (CHERE) at UTS. She also served as an evaluator of PBAC and MSAC submissions on behalf of the Australian Department of Health, providing her with unique insight into how evidence and value arguments are appraised within the national reimbursement system.

Oona combines strategic foresight with analytical rigour, partnering with clients to communicate the value of new therapies and technologies through robust clinical, economic and financial evidence. Her goal is to help clients achieve timely and sustainable access, so that patients can benefit from innovative health technologies sooner. Oona holds a Master of Public Health (Health Economics) and a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Applied Physics from UTS.

Shane Storey

Senior Healthcare Analyst, Canaccord Genuity Australia

Shane Storey is a Senior Healthcare Analyst at Canaccord Genuity Australia with more than 20 years of public markets experience. Previously he led Wilsons Advisory’s healthcare research franchise and managed a successful Industry Innovation Fund with experience in healthcare investing, IP due diligence and capital markets. He holds a PhD in Biochemical Engineering from University College London and an MBA from Macquarie Business School.

Shieak Tzeng

Co-founder & Co-CEO, Wellumio

Dr Shieak Tzeng is a physician-scientist, medtech entrepreneur, and co-founder and CEO of Wellumio, a clinical-stage medical technology company developing Axana®—a portable magnetic-resonance brain imaging solution designed to support rapid stroke assessment at the point of care. He has more than 18 years of experience working at the intersection of neuroscience, critical-care medicine, engineering, and medical-device innovation. Before founding Wellumio, Shieak established and led the University of Otago’s Centre for Translational Research and co-founded Elucimed, a bioinformatics company that achieved international adoption. He holds medical and PhD degrees from the University of Otago, and completed his post-doctoral fellowship in computational physiology at Harvard Medical School. His research has contributed to more than 100 scientific publications and multiple medical technology innovations.

Dr Diana Zhang

Founder & CEO, Preview Health

Dr. Diana Zhang is a professional musician turned multi-award-winning scientist. She is the Founder & CEO of Preview Health, an Australian startup that is unlocking precision brain health care using advanced AI and chemical methods. Diana received her PhD from UNSW Sydney where she investigated the use of machine learning and analytical approaches to improve disease diagnosis and has co-authored over a dozen peer-reviewed publications in leading scientific and music psychology journals including Nature Medicine, ACS Central Science, and Psychology of Music.

TeamSlatts who is convening BrainTech acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Countries on which we gather for our events. We recognise the sovereignty, knowledge and community of First Peoples and pay our respects to the Ancestors and Elders who pave the way for future Leaders.

We walk with great reverence on the various places TeamSlatts live, work and visit. Always was, always will be.

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