Jay Hetzel has become chairman at Uniquest, bringing more than 20 years of life science and commercialisation expertise accrued at the Csiro research agency.
University of Queensland has chosen Jay Hetzel (pictured) to succeed the retiring Mary Boydell as board chairperson of its commercialisation arm UniQuest.
Hetzel was selected on the basis of his expertise in life sciences research, product development and commercialisation.
He had previously spent more than 20 years with the Australian government-backed Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (Csiro).
While at Csiro, Hetzel covered animal genetics and genomics research, building on his 1998 founding of livestock genomics technology business Genetic Solutions, which was acquired by pharmaceutical firm Pfizer’s Animal Health division a decade later.
He also works to commercialise bio-derived products, acting as chairman to plant biomass product manufacturer Leaf Resources and as a director to gastrointestinal disease remedy developer Anatara Lifesciences.
Over the course of his career, Hetzel has acted as an angel investor, mentor or adviser to more than 20 early-stage businesses, spanning incorporation to second-stage rounds.
Hetzel said: “UniQuest is already setting the benchmark for university-based technology transfer in Australia and is among the top 10 per cent of university-based technology transfer offices in the world.
“Our goal over the coming years is to accelerate the translation of research discoveries into useful technologies and to build on the current impressive list of industry partnerships.”
– Image courtesy of LinkedIn
