Our Team
Management of the fund is undertaken by Trans-Tasman Fund Management Pty. Ltd. (TTFM). TTFM is managed by an independent team of Investment Managers and successful entrepreneurs and/or commercialisation experts who have been instrumental in assisting in the development of new companies and licensing opportunities.
TTFM has a focus on domiciling key assets/investees in appropriate markets in order to access skilled management, syndicated follow-on funding and augmented exit opportunities.
Investment Managers
Andrew O’Brien PhD MBA - CEO (Melbourne)
Andrew's previous roles include Morgan Stanley’s Corporate Finance Healthcare team in New York and London covering clients in the pharmaceutical and emerging European biotechnology market. During this period, Andrew was instrumental in completing a number of landmark transactions including the public offerings for deCODE genetics Inc, LION biosciences Inc, MediGene AG; and Actelion Inc. Andrew also advised Tibotec Virco on its sale to J&J and SmithKline Beecham on the merger of equals with GlaxoWellcome. Upon returning to Australia, Andrew joined Deutsche Bank AG, advising on healthcare transactions such as the DCA Group’s acquisition/financing of Medical Imaging Australia. Andrew then established Grannus Securities - a boutique Australian healthcare and biotechnology advisory firm, where he continues to advise public and private corporates on capital markets transactions, mergers & acquisitions and operational strategy as well as investment advisory roles for the venture industry and family office networks. Andrew was a Director of TTFM Investee Halo IPT Ltd. prior to its trade sale to Qualcomm, and remains a director of Investee Snap Network Surveillance Pty. Ltd. and an Observer to the Board of Ruga Corporation. Andrew has a PhD in biotechnology focusing on gene regulation in the context of seasonal asthma and hayfever and an MBA from the University of Melbourne.
Michael Bettess PhD MBA - Investment Manager (Melbourne)
Michael manages TTFM's Life Science investments/portfolio. He has over 15 years experience in both life science research and technology commercialisation. His commercial roles have been predominantly in the identification, development and commercialisation of academically derived opportunities. Michael has invested seed capital successfully into early stage university research and project managed opportunities through to commercial outcomes. He has additional experience in academic/industry research collaborations. At TTFM Michael has led due diligence on numerous opportunities, including its lead investment in Ruga Corporation, and is an Observer to the Board of investee Pathway Therapeutics. Prior to joining TTFM, Michael was a ‘Roche Research Foundation’ Post-Doctoral fellow at the Swiss Experimental Cancer Research Institute (ISREC) in Lausanne, Switzerland. Upon his return to Australia he was appointed Manager of Commercial Development at Flinders Partners Pty. Ltd. (the commercialisation company of Flinders University). Michael holds a first class honours degree and PhD in developmental and stem cell biology from the University of Adelaide and an MBA from the Chifley Business School (La Trobe University).
Craig Reilly BA(Economics) MBA - Investment Manager (Auckland)
Craig manages TTFM's Engineering and Cleantech investments/portfolio. He has extensive domestic and international experience in general management, corporate finance advisory and strategic consulting across a breadth of industries and both private and public sectors, the most recent experience being in energy and biotechnology. He has worked for such organisations as The Treasury, TXU Australia, Ernst & Young Corporate Finance (Aus and NZ) and the Housing Corp of NZ. He has undertaken assignments for such entities as NZTE, ICube Limited, GraceLinc, Ludowici (Aus), Pacific Edge Biotechnology, IBEX Limited, Meridian Energy and Evivar Medical Pty Limited. Craig has a proven track record in company strategy, objectives and planning, business development, strategic alliances, change management, project management, mergers and acquisitions, capital raising, privatisation and asset sales. Craig has a Bachelor of Arts with Economics Major, University of Canterbury and an MBA from Monash University (1997). He has also undertaken the 'Leadership Development Program' conducted by the Australian Management College at Mt. Eliza Business School, Melbourne and the Advanced Management Program, Monash Mt Eliza Business School. Craig was a Director of TTCF investee Halo IPT Ltd.
John Haskey M.Sc&TComm, B.Sc (Hons) - Investment Manager (Adelaide)
John manages TTFM's ICT portfolio. He has over 18 years ICT industry experience in the development of software products and services within the telecommunications, networking and information security domains. John has successfully brought a number of multi-million dollar products to market from initial proof-of-concept to market entry and beyond. In addition to product development, John’s commercial roles within the ICT industry have been in Product Management, High-Technology Marketing, Pre-sales Support and Technical Consulting. Prior to joining TTFM, John worked for Motorola Inc. (US & Australia), Hewlett-Packard (UK) and a number of ICT start-up companies both in the UK and Australia. More recently John has been working as a Commercial Manager at ITEK, the commercialisation company of the University of South Australia. At ITEK John was predominately focused on identifying, developing and commercialising opportunities derived from academic research across the mechanical, industrial and ICT space and was a Director of ICT based spin-out company Iterative Connections. John holds a Masters of Technology Commercialisation, a B.Sc. degree with Honours in Computer Science, a Dip HE, and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD).
Elaine Theodore - Administration Manager (Melbourne)
Lanie has significant experience as an Executive/Personal Assistant and Administration Manager in a range of organisations. Lanie spent 17 years with AVJennings Homes and has extensive experience in a wide range of industries. Most recently, Lanie was Office Manager at Stem Cell Sciences Ltd., an ASX listed Biotechnology Company that was recently acquired by Stem Cells Inc.
