Dr David King
Chairman - Independent

Dr David King brings a depth of corporate governance, capital markets and listed company board experience to Medical Therapies. He has previously held positions as Executive Director, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director in a number of private and listed companies.

An expert in high growth companies Dr King has a track record in starting business ventures and developing them into attractive investment and/or take-over targets. His experience in successful start-up businesses has been instrumental in MTY’s recent acquisition of the midkine intellectual property portfolio.

Dr King is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists and the Australian Institute of Mining & Metallurgy (Chartered Professional, Management) and holds degrees in physics and geophysics and a PhD in Seismology from the Australian National University.  

Ms Maria Halasz
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer

Maria Halasz has been involved with biotechnology companies for 16 years; initially working in executive positions in biotechnology firms, then managing investment funds and later holding senior positions in corporate finance specialising in life sciences.

Prior to joining Medical Therapies Ms Halasz had been an adviser to an independent sector based research firm in life sciences and managed Direct Capital Group Pty Ltd, a specialist biotechnology fund. She has also been a venture partner at the Emerging Technology Fund of venture capital firm Allen and Buckeridge.

Since taking over as Chief Executive and Managing Director of Medical Therapies Ms Halasz has led the restructure of the business, the acquisition of the midkine intellectual property portfolio and the recapitalisation of the company.

Ms Halasz is a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and holds a science degree in microbiology and an MBA.

Mr Koichiro Koike
Director

Mr Koichiro Koike is based in Tokyo and is co-principal of V2V, a corporate advisory firm specialising in cross border life sciences transactions between Australian and Japanese companies. Following his early career as a corporate finance and M&A specialist in Tokyo for a European investment bank Mr. Koike lived in Melbourne for 15 years.  

While in Australia, Mr Koike has served on a number of public and private life science company boards and has developed a strong track record in facilitating business and corporate development events between firms of all sizes in the sector.  

As an adviser he has been involved in out-licensing technology, capital raisings and initial public offerings. Whilst having a thorough understanding of the day to day requirements of high growth companies Mr Koike also has extensive contacts in some of the most prominent diagnostic and pharmaceutical companies in Japan. These companies are key candidates for MTY’s out-licensing activities, particularly for its diagnostic portfolio.  

Mr Koike has been closely involved with the Midkine technology for over a year and was an adviser to Cell Signals Inc., the vendors of the technology, during the acquisition process.  

The Company's Management team includes:

Dr Julia Hill
Project Manager

Dr Julia Hill was appointed in July 2008 as Project Manager of the Midkine portfolio. With over 15 years experience in the biotechnology industry Julia worked extensively both in research and in commercialising technology.

Following the completion of her PhD she held post-doctoral positions in Europe and in the USA.  Returning to Australia in 1999 Julia completed an MBA and gained technology commercialisation experience first as Commercial Manager at the CSIRO, then as COO of a publicly listed biotechnology company.

Recently Julia was Investment Manager in the venture capital sector as well as at a corporate advisory group where she was involved with capital raisings and licensing transactions.

Her experience as director on the boards of biotechnology companies provides an ideal mix of understanding the scientific, commercial and governance related issued of a publicly listed biotechnology company.