About Us

Phone: +61 2 8079 2576
Email: satish@intersect.org.au

Phone: +61 2 8079 2500
Email: jonathan@intersect.org.au

Jonathan has twenty-five years of experience in research across both industry and academia, with a focus on health and medical applications of bioinformatics and data science. Prior to joining Intersect, Jonathan was an Associate Professor in Bioinformatics in the Sydney Medical School of the University of Sydney for twelve years, and during that time held coincident appointments as the Chief Technology Officer of Children's Medical Research Institute and the Chief Executive Officer of Sydney Bioinformatics. Jonathan holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Sydney; conducted postdoctoral training at Fox Chase Cancer Center, in Philadelphia, USA; and has six years of experience in the biotechnology / medical technology industry, including appointments as Senior Bioinformatics Scientist at Proteome Systems Ltd, a biotechnology start-up, and Founder of his own digital health start-up. For over six years, he has led the Intersect Services Team, including Intersect's core Membership Services: a team of  Digital Research Analysts and Digital Research Trainers providing digital research training and support to the researchers of Intersect member universities across Australia. Since 2022, he has overseen the establishment and operation of 3AI: Intersect's data science and analytics service that provides researchers in universities, government, and industry with access to critical data science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning support.

Phone: +61 2 8079 2500
Email: craig@intersect.org.au

Craig has thirty years experience in Consulting, Engineering, Architecture and Product Management, across private, government and Higher Education organisations.  From architecting and leading the engineering team that built the number one online retail  shop of its time  in Australia, to rolling it out to two other countries, Craig has proven experience in designing, building and operating scalable, secure systems.  As an Enterprise Architect for multinational companies, Craig developed global strategies around Identity Management, cross-border ordering, and multi-faceted Customer Relationship Management. At Macquarie University Craig also designed their first Enterprise Service Bus, reducing integration between complex systems from weeks to minutes, and built their primary Data Hub, with integration and Master Data Management across a number of core subjects.  Since joining Intersect in June 2016, Craig has been helping Researchers manage and share their data, projects and knowledge, working with tools such as OpenStack, DMF, Mediaflux, AAF and software technologies, such as Java, Php, Python, R, Ruby & Matlab. 

Phone: +61 2 8079 2501
Email: liang@intersect.org.au

Phone: +61 2 8079 2547
Email: mitzi@intersect.org.au

Mitzi is an HR professional with over 25 years’ experience in medium to large organisations across Healthcare, Financial Services and Technology.  Qualified in South Africa, she has worked in South Africa, New Zealand and Australia where she gained skills and experience in all areas of Human Resources, excelling in recruitment, employee relations and leadership development.

Over the last 18 years, Emeritus Professor Mike Calford has held a number of esteemed roles in Australian universities, including Provost at the ANU, Provost at the University of Tasmania, DVC R at Newcastle and PVC (Health & Medical Research) at Wollongong. He has also served as Director/CEO at two institutes: Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute and Hunter Medical Research Institute.

 In addition to his distinguished university leadership career, Mike has been an eminent researcher in the field of neuroscience. After receiving a doctorate at Monash University, Mike held research and teaching roles at the Universities of Queensland, Newcastle and Melbourne and at the ANU. He also worked overseas at the University of Oxford, the University of California Irvine and City University of New York.

Mike has had a long interest in the ethics and conduct of research, and has contributed to national policy in this area. He has championed high standards of practice in research generally, through both his employed positions, as a university and institute leader, and through representational roles at State and National levels.

Mike spent 4.5 years as a Member Director on the Intersect Board in its developing years (2009-2013) and returned as an Independent Director and Chairman in late 2020.

Kate is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Kate has over 25 years’ experience in the financial services industry with extensive knowledge of finance and risk. As a former Partner with PwC, Kate has worked in both Australia and the UK providing assurance and advisory services to clients.

Kate was appointed as a Director of Intersect Australia Limited in December 2020 and is Chair of the Board’s Audit and Risk Management Committee.

Kate is currently a Director of Australian Ethical Investment Limited and Australian Ethical Superannuation Pty Limited, Chairs the Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee, is a member of the Product Disclosure Committee, is a member of the People, Remuneration and Nominations Committee, and is a member of the Insurance Benefit Committee. Kate is a director of the Australian Ethical Foundation and Kate is also the Treasurer of a not-for-profit organisation in the education sector.

Phone: +61 2 8079 2576
Email: satish@intersect.org.au

Deborah is Deputy Vice Chancellor Research, Enterprise and International at Western Sydney University, providing leadership and guidance to achieve the University’s strategic priorities for research and innovation and focusing on quality assurance and enhancement.  In addition, she is responsible for supporting the research portfolios within the Schools and Institutes. Professor Sweeney joined Western Sydney University in 2009 as the Director of Research for the College of Health and Science, then was nominated Associate Pro Vice Chancellor Health and Science in 2011 before being appointed PVCR in July 2014.

Professor Sweeney has more than 20 years’ experience in research and research management. She has a PhD in Optometry from the University of New South Wales (1992) and more than 20 years’ experience in research and research management, also holding various executive roles within the Cornea and Contact Lens Research Unit and Vision CRC and its predecessor the CRC for Eye Research and Technology, including five years as Chief Executive Officer of Vision CRC. Deborah Sweeney is a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry. Her major research area has been corneal physiology, and her work has been instrumental in developing an understanding of the physiology of the human cornea and the effects of contact lens wear and refractive surgery on corneal function characteristics and the development of alternative forms of vision correction.

Professor Sweeney has published over 100 refereed articles and several book chapters, and is a co-inventor on two patents. Deborah Sweeney is a Graduate Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She is also a member of Intersect’s Board Audit and Risk Management Committee.

Prof. Grainne Moran provides strategic leadership and support to the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research & Enterprise) in overseeing the centrally managed shared research facilities and equipment at UNSW. Grainne is also responsible for strategy and policy relating to research infrastructure, including internal and external infrastructure funding schemes and effective operation, development and financial sustainability of infrastructure.

The Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research Infrastructure) portfolio includes the Mark Wainwright Analytical Centre  (the central unit managing major shared experimental research facilities across UNSW), Research Technology Services (including HPC, data management and community initiatives/training),  Research Imaging NSW (a partnership between UNSW and the SESLHD to provide researchers with state-of-the-art MRI capabilities), cold storage services, and research infrastructure projects more broadly across the University.

Kirby has over 30 years IT experience, with over 20 of those spent in senior roles for university and postgraduate vocational education and research sectors. This includes nine years (2007-16) as UNSW’s Chief Information Officer. During that time Kirby established the “Research Domain” governance group that initiated and oversaw establishment of investment in research infrastructure and systems in conjunction with the University Library and the PVC Research.

Kirby was heavily involved in the broader HE sector including instigating and later chairing the Greater Sydney Basin super-science high bandwidth research network project (including facilitating the right-to-use for regional NSW universities); President of the council for ICT in Australasian Universities (CAUDIT); AARNet Advisory; University benchmarking committee and chair of NAUDIT (NSW Universities).

After leaving UNSW in 2016, Kirby continued various voluntary HE roles including reviews of university centres of research and as faculty and later Director of the HE Leadership program for senior Library and ICT staff in Universities and Research institutions (2013-19). From 2017 Kirby served as Chief Information Officer for GP Synergy which conducts training of medical doctors, work-force management (NSW&ACT) and primary healthcare research (NSW, VIC & Tasmania), before retiring in 2023. During this time Kirby was successful in GP Synergy’s certification against the international security standard (ISO 27001) from 2018.

Kirby has been an active member of the Intersect Board (2014-16 as Member representative and Independent Director since 2020) and the Intersect BARM (since 2014).

Paul lectured in banking and risk management at The University of Sydney and UNSW until his retirement in 2019. Paul was Chief Financial Officer at the Securities Industry Research Centre of Asia-Pacific (SIRCA) until 2011 and is currently Company Secretary of Intersect Australia Limited, the Sydney School of Entrepreneurship Limited and the Australian Genomic Cancer Medicine Centre Limited

With over twenty years experience in international financial markets, Paul has extensive experience in the banking industry having worked for a number of banking organisations, including Advance Bank of Australia, the Australian Financial Markets Association, HongkongBank of Australia Limited (HSBC), Australian Bank Limited and the Commonwealth Banking Corporation following commencing his working career with the Sydney Water Board. Paul has also worked with a number of start up organisations with activities in financial services product development and risk management services.

As Chief Financial Officer of SIRCA, Paul was responsible for all aspects of the management and operation of SIRCA Limited, including liaison with SIRCA’s key industry sponsors; the ASX, the Sydney Futures Exchange and the Australian Financial Market Association. In 1997 when SIRCA was established as a Public Company, his responsibilities included the development and implementation of legal arrangements and overall responsibility for all administrative and accounting functions.

Prior to this, Paul held a succession of increasingly senior positions in HongkongBank of Australia Limited (HSBC), including Senior Manager of Treasury Financial Services, Associate Director of Treasury, Divisional Director of the Futures Broking operation and Assistant General Manager, Financial Markets Division as well as Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Midland Bank plc Australia. Paul has also been consulted by the Advance Bank and the Australian Financial Markets Association, the latter where he co-authored AFMA’s submission to the Wallis Committee.

Professor Johnston joined the University of Canberra after three years as Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research & Innovation) at Murdoch University. Previously she was Dean of Graduate Research at the University of Newcastle and Dean of Postgraduate Research at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. In 2004, she was a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Connecticut.

Professor Johnston completed her BA (Hons) in Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford and her PhD in Social Psychology at the University of Bristol and is a qualified sport psychologist. She is an internationally recognised experimental social psychologist, whose research focuses on the non-verbal behaviour of individuals in social interactions. She has also undertaken research on various aspects of tertiary education.

Professor Johnston was a member of the inaugural management team of the New Zealand Institute of Language, Brain and Behaviour, and following the Christchurch earthquakes in 2011, was appointed to the Psychosocial Recovery Advisory Group for the Joint Centre for Disaster Research. She was the Chair of the New Zealand Deans and Directors of Graduate Studies and a member of the Australian Council of Graduate Research (ACGR) and was involved in the development of the Australian Best Practice Guidelines for Higher Degrees by Research. She was Convenor of the Universities New Zealand Scholarship Committee.

Awarded Oxford Blues and Colours at the University of Bristol for basketball she also played for the British Universities. She rowed for Oxford College and the City of Bristol and played soccer for the University of Bristol. She has now retired from over 10 seasons competing in road cycling, ocean swimming and triathlons.

Prof. Bruce Northcote is Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research Operations), a senior management position within the Division of Research and Innovation (DRI) responsible for providing leadership in achieving the University’s strategic goals in relation to research infrastructure and building of research capacity. He is also Chief Security Officer, with the responsibility of ensuring the University complies with essential regulatory requirements and best practice in relation to defence, national security and foreign influence and interference regulations and guidelines.

Previously he was CEO of TelAri Analytics - a commercial spin out from research in his prior roles as Director of the Teletraffic Research Centre and the Centre for Defence Communications Information Networking, within the Faculty of Sciences, Engineering & Technology (SET). In those SET roles he brought his considerable private industry communications engineering consulting experience to the Commercial and Defence sectors. For 2 terms he was an Associate Member representative on the RPDE Board, primarily focused on improving the engagement between RPDE and the academic community.

From 1994 until 1996 he worked at Bellcore (NJ, USA) as their lead consultant in Signalling System Number 7 and Advanced Intelligent Network congestion control research and Personal Communications Services performance analysis. In 1996 he joined Ascom Nexion to develop for them a coordinated performance benchmark test plan for multi-service switching platforms. After acquisition and promotion he became a Consulting Engineer in Fujitsu Nexion, working on broadband technology assessment, product definition and standardization activities for the Fujitsu broadband product range, actively participating in various standards forums (IETF, ATMF, ANSI T1S1 & ITU-T SG13).

Between returning to Australia in December 1999 and his current employment, he was a consultant for BSN Consulting Pty Ltd and Telic Australia Pty Ltd, working on projects for customers ranging from Vodafone Australia, Telstra, Telcordia (USA), Viridien (USA), to the Victorian Department of Justice. He has published over 20 refereed journal and conference papers, written numerous technical contributions for a variety of international standards bodies, is a senior member of IEEE and was an accredited ATM Forum Ambassador for several years.