Microbio has appointed Paul Brennan as Chair of the Board, effective 2nd December 2024.
Paul brings extensive global experience as a Non-Executive Director and biopharmaceutical industry leader. Currently, he serves as Non-Executive Chair of Immuron (ASX: IMC, NASDAQ IMRN), a biopharmaceutical company known for its gastrointestinal health product Travelan®, which is sold across Australia, Canada, and the United States.
In an executive career spanning more than 35 years, he has held global senior leadership positions, including serving as CEO of Polynovo from 2015 to 2021. During his tenure, he transformed the company from a valuation of $30 million to a peak market capitalisation of $2 billion, establishing Polynovo as a highly successful Australian medical device company. He has also held senior leadership positions at prominent global organisations such as Smith & Nephew and Ansell.
Paul has experience in technology commercialisation in the healthcare sector and has strong capability in governance, strategy development, new market entry, business planning and transformation, and business scale up.
Commenting on his appointment, Paul said: “I’m pleased to be joining the Microbio Board at an important time in its commercial maturity. With its first InfectID™ product already on market and a strong pipeline of future products, the focus is now on an active commercial activation phase to drive sales, market adoption and expansion. I look forward to working with the Board and overseeing this growth strategy.”
Microbio is at an important intersection of its commercial maturity with its flagship product InfectID™-BSI (Bloodstream Infection) which detects 26 pathogens associated with more than 94% of sepsis cases in less than 3 hours. InfectID™-BSI is currently CE-marked cleared for sale in Europe, United Kingdom and India. A commercial activation program is underway to drive market adoption and expansion, including a FDA and TGA regulatory pathway.
With the maturing of the business, Microbio has also appointed a Chief Operating Officer expanding its executive leadership team. Mr Neil Verdal-Austin is an experienced global medical devices and MedTech leader with 30 years of executive experience, including at SomnoMed Limited.
Microbio’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Colin Keating, said: “It’s an exciting time to be leading Microbio as we focus on the execution of our commercial strategy to position InfectID™-BSI as the standard of care for the detection of sepsis, an infection that has devastating consequences on human life.”
“We are pleased to have attracted a high calibre Chairman in Paul Brennan, who has significant and relevant experience in the global healthcare industry to support our commercial growth strategy.”
“Equally we are pleased to welcome Neil as our COO, an important role as we continue to mature as a business and ensure we have the right internal structure, discipline, and capacity to support our success.”