Rotary Melbourne Weekly Club Meeting - 16 October 2024

Guest Speaker Dr Katie Allen, Prof. Fellow, Murdoch Children's Research Institute &

Professor Colin McLeod, Executive Director of the Melbourne Entrepreneurial Centre (MEC)

Title 'INNOVATE PATENT PROSPER - Commercialising Australian Innovation for Global Success'

Details 12.30 for 12.50 - 2.00pm at No35 Sofitel Melbourne & by ZOOM

Katie Allen is a senior leader known for managing, facilitating and influencing change by resetting strategy and transforming organisations through a range of roles - including political office, executive leadership in research institutions, and board chairman and director positions in the education and health sectors - building on deep experience in medical research and innovation.
Katie served as the Member for Higgins at the Opening of the 46th Parliament in Canberra, making her First Speech on 29th July 2019. Prior to becoming a Member of Parliament, Katie was

a paediatrician at the Royal Children’s Hospital for 28 years, a Professor at the University of Melbourne and the University of Manchester, UK and was Founding Director of the Australian Centre of Food and Allergy Research (CFAR).
She is internationally recognised for her role in understanding why food allergy is on the rise through her establishment of the Healthnuts cohort that has followed 5000 children through the first 15 years of life and the Vitality Trial- a population prevention trial of 2800 infants assessing the role Vitamin D may play in the development of early life allergy.
Katie has published >400 scientific articles and has been Director of the Population Health Research Theme at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and a member of the commercialisation and translation board sub-committee.
She was elected as a founding Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences and is recognised for her work at the WHO and the US National Academy of Science.
In the Federal Parliament Katie sat on parliamentary committees for: Trade and Investment Growth; Industry, Innovation, Science and Resources; Health and Aged Care; the National Redress Scheme; Indigenous Recognition; and Communications and the Arts.

Professor Colin McLeod is the Executive Director of the Melbourne Entrepreneurial Centre (MEC) and a Professor in the Faculty of Business and Economics/Melbourne Business School at the University of Melbourne. MEC runs a range of accelerators for researchers, professional staff, university students and alumni as well as development programs for academic researchers and doctoral students who are interested in having a community impact with their research. Colin is also a member of the Investment Committee for the University’s Genesis Pre Seed venture fund, in conjunction with the Breakthrough Fund Victoria. Colin has had an active role in 12 new ventures that have raised over $90 million in investment and a long career as a director of public and private companies.

Colin holds a BA, MBA and PhD, all from the University of Melbourne. His PhD examined the role of partnerships in the successful commercialisation of technology ventures, and he has also held academic appointments at the Haas School of Business at the University of California – Berkeley and the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge.

Colin was also a member of the Executive Committee that raised almost $200 million to construct the Olivia Newton-John Cancer & Wellness Centre at the Austin Hospital.

Join us for lunch and learn how we innovate.