QUT Commercialisation Club - "Do academics make good CEOs?"

The Club is open!

The first QUT Commercialisation Club for 2025 will feature a lively debate on the merits of researchers becoming CEOs of spinout companies. Every researcher wants to see their discoveries in action, but is becoming a CEO a desirable or necessary step? What are the pros and cons?

Hear from industry and academic experts with many years' experience taking innovations out of "the lab" and into the marketplace. Continue the discussion at the networking function.

Our debaters are:

• Lottie Byron - Investment Director, QIC Private Equity
• Peter Laurie - Director, Inductive
• Michael Milford - Professor and Director, QUT Centre for Robotics
• Jane Andrews - Non-Executive Director, investor, consultant and science PhD
• Steve Bradford, Senior Manager in the QUT Office of Industry Engagement
• Xanthe Ashburner, Manager in the QUT Office of Industry Engagement

Everybody is welcome to join us - staff, students, industry guests.

FREE ENTRY

What is the QUT Commercialisation Club?

The Commercialisation Club brings together QUT staff and research students, industry partners and key external stakeholders to build the culture and capability around real world impact of research. The aim is to encourage an informal and inclusive atmosphere to encourage questions and participation, as well as being highly informative on the different pathways for research commercialisation.

Guest Speakers:

Dr Jane Andrews

Jane is a Director of TechnologyOne Limited, an ASX100 company specializing in enterprise software, and Infensa Bioscience, a company developing novel therapeutics for the treatment of cardiac infarction and stroke. As a founder and investor in numerous innovative companies, Dr Andrews has extensive experience in corporate strategy, entrepreneurship, commercialisation, innovation, venture capital, academia and research and development. Jane is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and holds a PhD in Life Sciences, a Bachelor of Science (First Class Honours) and a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment.

Lottie Byron

Lottie is an Investment Director in QIC’s Private Equity team. QIC invests into early-stage, innovative companies in Queensland directly and through venture capital funds, on behalf of the Queensland government, from the seed stage all the way through to series B, C and beyond. Lottie moved to Australia in 2023; prior to that she was based in Dubai as an advisor to Middle East sovereign wealth funds and began her career in private equity in London. Lottie has invested over US$100bn into private equity funds and privately held companies globally. Lottie is a Physics graduate and a member of Quantum Innovation Queensland.

Peter Laurie

Peter participates heavily in the Australian innovation ecosystem. He has been an entrepreneur in residence for over a twenty accelerator programs both commercially and at QUT, UQ, and Monash University. He presents regularly on all aspects of entrepreneurship and innovation to a broad range of audiences, and is running an accelerator program named Inductive (https://inductive.au). Peter is an electrical engineer by training, has an MBA from QUT, and has been doing commercial software development for the last thirty years. Peter won the Queensland Pearcey Entrepreneur Award for 2018.

Professor Michael Milford

Michael conducts interdisciplinary fundamental and applied research at the boundary between robotics, neuroscience, computer vision and machine learning. From 2022 – 2027 he is leading a large research team combining bio-inspired and computer science-based approaches to provide a ubiquitous alternative to GPS that does not rely on satellites. His team has worked on commercial autonomous vehicle technology with companies like Ford and Caterpillar, and been funded by and/or collaborated with organizations like Amazon, Intel and Google Deepmind. He currently holds the position of Director of the QUT Centre for Robotics and Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow, and is a Microsoft Research Faculty Fellow and Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering.