Algae Business Summit | White Paper

The Australian Algae Bioeconomy - Snapshot 

International Keynote: The Progression of the Algae Industry in Europe 

 Session 1: From Supply to Market: Opportunities and Challenges - Case studies from across the algae industry 

  Session 2: Regulatory and other frameworks to support the Australian Algae Bioeconomy & Driving a supportive business ecosystem 

Session 3: Developing a Roadmap and Recommendations 

Professor Peter Ralph, Executive Director of C3, Professor of Marine Biology, Founder: Deep Green Biotech Hub

Distinguished Professor Peter Ralph is an internationally respected academic and research leader in the fields of algae bio-systems and biotechnology, seagrasses, and the adaption of aquatic plants to warming and acidifying oceans. A professor of marine biology at the University of Technology Sydney, and Executive Director of the Climate Change Cluster in the Faculty of Science, Peter is also the founder of the NSW Deep Green Biotech Hub. 

Professor Wei Zhang, Research Director, Marine Bioproducts Cooperative Research Centre; Founding Director, Centre for Marine Bioproduct Development, Flinders University (SA)   

Professor Zhang is an inspiring leader in marine biorefinery and bioproduct development technologies, and he has passionately pursued an overarching career driving translational research with industry impacts.   An entrepreneurial academic champion, Wei’s vision to connect formerly disparate marine bioproducts research and commercial sectors led to growing Australia’s industry R&D capability and market impact into a new 3rd-Gen marine bioproducts industry, sustainably utilising Australian untapped marine bioresources.   He was the driving force behind ground-breaking work in functional foods, nutraceuticals, cosmetics, and biomaterials, leading to the successful $270m Marine Bioproducts CRC.  

Dr. Alexandra Mosch, Growth Management and Advisory for Sustainable Businesses, International BD at Greentech Group                                                                                                                                                                               

Colin McGregor, Managing Director, Biogenesis

Mr. McGregor is one of Australia’s most experienced commercial algae producers and has commissioned large-scale algae growth systems both within Australia and abroad. Colins interest in algae originated while working as a Senior Engineer at Qantas Airways, looking for viable sources of Sustainable Aviation Fuel. He subsequently left Qantas to work for an Australian company looking to produce jet fuel from algae. He then moved on to developing large-scale natural algae growth systems for human health supplements and agricultural products. Colin founded BioGenesis in 2017 as a truly Australian company with the mission to provide the platform for algae to achieve the great promise and potential that it has for the planet. Colin holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA), a Bachelor of Engineering BE (Hons 1st class), a Bachelor of Manufacturing Management (BMM), and is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (MAICD). Colin is also a certified Master Project Director, winning the national Australian Institute of Project Management Achievement Award.  

Adrian Spencer, Founder, Sampano 

Adrian Spencer commenced a Freshwater Ecology degree at La Trobe University Wodonga in 1993 and has gone on to pursue a diversified career across geoscience, taxation, finance and nutraceuticals, including raising over $700m for innovation and research. Adrian is the Founder and CEO of Sampano Pty Ltd – an organisation dedicated to building the Australian value chain for the local Nutraceutical Industry. Sampano has a formal partnership with Swisse Wellness and CSIRO and together have produced the Australian Roadmap for a local nutraceutical industry, with support from the Victoria Government. Adrian is the inaugural recipient of Agrifutures Australia Researcher of the Year for his work on Algae. 

Sam Bastounas, CEO, PacificBio 

Sam is an experienced CEO who has worked extensively across Asia Pacific. He has a passion for sustainability, innovation, and disruptive technologies. He has led the transformation of Pacific Bio from a leading research organisation to a world leading circular economy business focused on water purity, sustainable onshore aquaculture, and regenerative agriculture.

Sam led the management buyout of Axieo (now DKSH) a leading supplier of functional products for the food, life sciences and agriculture sector and served as President of Chemistry Australia. He was Australasian President of Nuplex (ASX:NZSX) and has built a highly engaged workforce in every organisation he has worked in producing great results for the business, its customers, and shareholders. He has also completed several successful mergers and acquisitions and has served on multiple boards as a non-executive director.

Nick Hazell, V2 Founder, Visionary and Intrapreneur

Nick Hazell is the founder of v2food, Australia’s leading Plant based meat company, and has been engaged in breakthrough technology innovation for most of his career. With masters in Engineering Science  and in Manufacturing Technology from Cambridge University, Nicks first career was in Aerospace technology, in the UK but the siren call of chocolate enticed him to Mars, where he had a 20 year career in manufacturing, Research and Development and global technology development, in three countries, coming to Australia as R and D Director for Masterfoods, and subsequently for Pepsico. Nick has had a hand in developing many products you see in the supermarket, but is also a passionate fire starter in the wider innovation ecosystem, initiating the health star rating system for food labelling, Winning Pepsico’s chairmans award for massively reducing salt and saturated fat in all chips, running the 4th year of UTS breakthrough transdisciplinary innovation degree, BCII, and being part of Australia’s delegation at COP27 in Egypt.  When not innovating he sings in the opera house with the Sydney Philharmonia choir, or plays pickle ball.

Dr. Nick Fletcher, Manager Standards and Surveillance, Food Standards Australia New Zealand 

Dr. Nick Fletcher is currently the Principal Toxicologist and leads the Standards and Surveillance area at Food Standards Australia New Zealand. He has a keen interest in novel foods and currently chairs the Advisory Committee on Novel Foods (ACNF) which provides advice on the need for regulatory assessment of non-traditional foods in Australia. Nick has more than 20 years of experience in premarket safety assessment across agricultural and veterinary chemicals, therapeutic goods and foods. He is a current member of  The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), the New Zealand Environment Protection Agency Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (HSNO) committee, and currently leads FSANZ’s work for the Codex Committee on Contaminants in Food (CCCF) which establishes and endorses permitted maximum levels or guideline levels for contaminants and naturally occurring toxicants in food and feed. His research background is in food contaminants and he has a PhD from Karolinska Institute, Sweden.  

Phil Morle, Partner, Main Sequence 

Phil Morle is a partner at Main Sequence where he leads the Feed 10 Billion People challenge. He’s passionate about delivering healthier people and a healthier planet, leading him to develop an interest in a number of adjacent areas such as decarbonisation, synthetic biology, new materials, and recycling. Since joining, he has led the firm’s company creation program called Venture Science, developing notable startups such as v2food, Samsara Eco and Eden Brew. Serving as the chairperson for companies co-founded by Main Sequence, Phil oversees the strategic outcomes and purpose for Eden Brew, Samsara Eco, v2food, and RapidAIM, and as a director to Nourish Ingredients, Coviu Global, Q-CTRL, and Maxwell Plus, among many others. Prior to Main Sequence, Phil co-founded the first tech incubator in Asia Pacific – Pollenizer. Here he played an instrumental role in developing the startup ecosystem across Asia Pacific and advised some of the world’s biggest organisations on practical ways to deliver new growth and the cultural change that is required to get there. Before that, he served as the CTO at the massive file-sharing company – Kazaa. At its height, this company was the majority of data traveling through the internet and played a material role in the emergence of how media is shared today. In 2016,  he led and designed the program for ON, CSIRO's national deep tech accelerator program. 

Catriona Macleod, Interim Executive Director, Institute for Antarctic and Marine Studies

Catriona completed her undergraduate degree in Marine Biology at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, and has a GIBiol (Hons equivalent) in Behavioural Ecology from the University of West Scotland. Catriona then worked in a variety of research and development support roles within the aquaculture industry. Firstly, as Assistant Development Manager (Stock Improvement Programme) for Marine Harvest International in Scotland and then as Hatchery Production Manager for Saltas Pty Ltd in Tasmania. Whilst with Saltas she undertook an MSc degree (part-time) with UTAS, looking at tools for assessing the environmental impacts of salmonid farming, which saw her return to soft sediments and invertebrate ecology. This instigated a change in career and Catriona took up an Invertebrate Ecologist position at the Centre for Introduced Marine Pests (CRIMP). She continued in this role until 1997 when she moved to the state government research laboratories and returned to the assessment of salmon farming impacts. Completing a PhD in 2006 with UTAS, she then took up a position at the Tasmanian Aquaculture and Fisheries Institute within the Estuaries and Coasts Program as research group leader for Ecosystem Effects of Aquaculture. Catriona moved on lead the IMAS Centre for Ecology and Biodiversity in 2019 and stepped up into the interim Executive Director role at IMAS in early 2022. 

Dr. Kath Fisher