Congratulations to our new Guest of The Chair

12 August 2020

MTPConnect would like to congratulate Dr Emma Ball, Director, Strategy & Business Development; Head of Search & Evaluation for CSL Limited, who’s been selected from an extremely strong field of candidates as our second Guest of the Chair.

This unique MTPConnect initiative gives emerging leaders in the medtech, biotech or pharmaceutical sector the opportunity to experience a range of board-level activities. Dr Ball will be attending MTPConnect Board meetings over the next twelve months, engaging with our Chair, directors and senior management and gaining new perspectives on how boards operate.

Dr Ball brings more than two decades of experience working across various aspects of the Australian and international biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors in global biopharma (CSL), small listed biotech (PrimaBiomed), small spin out (Prostate Diagnostics Pty Ltd) and academia (Monash University and Royal Melbourne Hospital). She also contributes to the sector through volunteer advisory roles with industry and academic organisations such as AusBiotech, NHMRC, SBE Australia, Monash University and IMNIS. Dr Ball trained initially as a molecular biologist and gained her PhD from the University of Melbourne. She also holds an MBA and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD).

MTPConnect Chair Sue MacLeman believes the Guest of The Chair initiative is vitally important in supporting the development of Board-ready leaders in the sector.

“On behalf of the members of the Board, I’m delighted to welcome Dr Emma Ball and we look forward to working with her closely over the next year,” said Ms MacLeman.

"It’s a time of enormous challenge as the sector responds to the global pandemic. Dr Ball will bring an interesting perspective from industry to our growth centre activities, and an expertise that will be of great value."

Dr Ball revealed she is looking forward to expanding her knowledge of the sector and also contributing her expertise in pandemic preparedness for our sector’s response and future recovery.

“I hope to gain first-hand experience of governance best practice through directly observing experienced directors and industry leaders in action. I am excited by the prospect of viewing the MTP sector from a different organisational perspective," Dr Ball explained.

“As somebody with end-to-end experience in commercialising biopharmaceuticals globally, I hope to share this knowledge and expertise to support the growth of local organisations that are at an early stage of development. I am particularly interested to learn more about both strategy development and policy formulation in this broader context.

“Relevant to the immediate pandemic situation that confronts us, I bring experience in biosecurity and infectious diseases through my work at CSL in pandemic preparedness, the 2009 ‘swine flu’ vaccine program and more recently involvement in CSL’s collaborative response to the COVID-19 situation.

"I look forward to contributing to MTPConnect’s activities in this crucially important area."

The Guest of The Chair initiative was launched in 2019 to support the ambitions of aspiring directors in the MTP sector.