The UniQuest Board: Front, L-R – Dr Julian Clark, Mr John Grant, Professor Edwina Cornish AO. Middle, Professor Mark Blows, Mr Richard Moore. Back, Professor Matthew Morell.
UniQuest, the commercialisation company of The University of Queensland (UQ), has welcomed the appointment of Professor Mark Blows to its Board.
Professor Blows, currently UQ’s acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research & Innovation) previously served as UQ’s Pro Vice-Chancellor Research and the head of UQ’s School of Biological Sciences.
He holds a PhD in Genetics from La Trobe University and was elected to the Australian Academy of Science in 2011.
Coinciding with Professor Blows’ appointment, Dr Julian Clark has been reappointed to the Board, having first joined UniQuest in 2019.
Dr Clark has 40 years’ international experience in governance and executive roles in technology transfer of biomedical and health innovations, both from academic and public research.
The announcement follows the appointments of Professors Edwina Cornish AO and Matthew Morell to the Board in August last year, and Mr John Grant to the role of chairman in June 2021.
Mr Grant, who first joined UniQuest’s board in 2018, was the inaugural chairman of the Australian Rugby League Commission, and a founding partner and managing director of ASX-listed Data#3 Limited, achieving lifetime recognition for his service to the development of the IT industry in Queensland and Australia.
Professor Cornish spent more than a decade in leadership roles for Australian biotech company Calgene Pacific (renamed Florigene) before she was appointed Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at the University of Adelaide.
She joined Monash University as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) in 2004 and was instrumental in establishing Australian Grant Technologies, now one of the country’s largest plant breeding companies.
Professor Morell, Director of UQ’s Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food innovation (QAAFI) also joined the UniQuest board in August.
Over the past seven years, Professor Morell has led research at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), based in the Philippines and working across 17 countries, championing high-quality agricultural research to deliver benefits to the food and agricultural sectors.
Before that, Professor Morell worked for almost two decades at CSIRO, where he formed two spin-off companies that have commercialised novel grains delivering human health benefits.
UniQuest is 100 per cent owned by The University of Queensland through UQ Holdings.
Media: UniQuest, Esther Haskell, e.haskell@uniquest.com.au, +61 (0)409 767 199.