Our Team

From New Zealand to the world

The company is led by a proven team, board and internationally respected medical advisors.

Management Team

Kieran Jina
Chief Executive Officer
MSc (Hons), MBioEnt (Hons)

Kieran served four years as Senior Associate at Pacific Channel, which managed a life-science seed stage fund. He has extensive experience in the management, operations and capital formation of early stage life-science ventures from their conceptualisation right through to exit.

Prof. Chris Pemberton
Vice President of Discovery
M.Sc (Hons), PhD Molecular Physiology

Chris has 18 years experience in the discovery and validation of circulating protein markers. He is also a senior member of the Christchurch Heart Institute, New Zealand’s premier cardiovascular research group.

Dr Jan Powell
Vice President of Development
MSc (Dist), PhD, MPH

Jan has spent more than 20 years engaged in biomedical research, including 7 years in R&D with Shire Pharmaceuticals. She has experience in non-clinical discovery and development, proof of concept studies and project management.

Honorary Professor Martin Than
Chief Medical Officer

Martin is the Director of Emergency Medicine Research, Christchurch Hospital. In addition to being a practising emergency medicine physician, he has a strong focus on optimising the triage of chest pain patients in the Emergency Department. He has been internationally recognised, and participates on many boards and committees, including the IFCC Committee on the Clinical Application of Cardiac Biomarkers that created the definition of high sensitivity troponin. He has published 176 papers and 3 book chapters.

Dr Jessika Wise
Research Scientist

Jess completed a PhD at the University of Otago, investigating 3D breast tumour models for drug discovery. She uses this expertise to help understand the biochemistry and mode of action of our biomarkers.

Directors

Colin Dawson
Executive Chair
BVSc, MBA, CFInstD.

Colin was the founding partner of health consulting and investment banking firm Medicus Capital. His governance experience has involved a number of health sector companies such as Pacific Edge, BLIS Technologies, Tiro Medical, Avalia Immunotherapies and Mars Bioimaging.

David Christensen
Director
‍BCom, DipGrad, MTour.

David is the CEO of Otago Innovation, the commercialisation vehicle for the University of Otago, New Zealand.

Dr Roland Toder
Executive Director
‍B.Sc (Hons), PhD, Habilitation (human genetics & Anthropology).

Roland has strong technological expertise and broad executive management experience. Dr Toder was a CSO of a molecular diagnostics company that listed in Europe. Dr Toder is a Partner at Life Science Consult, Management Consulting Germany.

Medical Advisory Board

Prof. James L. Januzzi
MD

Director of the Cardiac intensive Care Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Prof. W. Frank Peacock
MD

Prof. Peacock is the immediate past chief medical officer and prior president of the Society of Cardiovascular Patient Care (formerly known at the Society for Chest Pain Centers). He is a professor of Emergency Medicine, associate chair, and research director for Emergency Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. Frank has been involved in the approval of all troponin markers in the US.

Prof. A. Mark Richards
MD, PhD

Prof. Richards is Director of the Christchurch Heart Institute (CHI), University of Otago and Professor of Cardiovascular Studies for the National Heart Foundation of New Zealand and also Director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute, NUHS, Singapore. Prof. Richards was part of the team that identified NTproBNP as a marker of heart failure.