Senior strategy for institutions navigating Australia’s non-clinical biomanufacturing build-out. Operator-grade analysis for the decisions that matter.
Decision-grade landscape work, feasibility analysis, and strategic advisory across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
Why this work, why now?
Australia and New Zealand are in a defining 24-month window for non-clinical biomanufacturing.
Capital is starting to move through the National Reconstruction Fund, Future Made in Australia, the Centre of Excellence for Synthetic Biology, and a growing set of state and CRC-backed initiatives. Policy is being shaped now. Infrastructure decisions are being made now. The bets placed over the next two years will influence what sovereign biomanufacturing capability the region actually builds.
The institutions making those calls need more than market summaries or vendor decks. They need analysis that survives an executive meeting and helps answer the hard questions: where to deploy capital, what to build, who should build it, and how to de-risk the bet.
That is the work I do.
Built for institutional buyers
Government and policy.
Federal departments, the NRF, NCRIS bodies, state innovation portfolios, AusIndustry, CSIRO Futures, Treasury, PM&C.
Sector and philanthropic.
Cooperative Research Centres, NCRIS facilities, AusBiotech and adjacent sector bodies, philanthropic funders and family offices.
Investors and corporates.
Biotech-active venture firms, super funds, and corporate strategy teams across food, agriculture, and industrial decarbonisation.
Why me? Three things compound:
Operator credibility. Former CSO at Vow. Contributed to over USD $55M raised, built and led a 25-person multidisciplinary science team through scale to global product launch, direct engagement with FSANZ and international regulators.
Technical depth. Twenty years across academic and translational research. 55 publications, H-index 40, two patents, NHMRC fellowship at the NIH.
Sector focus. Non-clinical biomanufacturing exclusively (food, feed, fibre, fuel and industrial applications). Anchored in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, with APAC reach where the question requires it.
How I engage
I take a small number of premium engagements per year, typically landscape work, feasibility analysis, and strategic advisory in the four-to-twelve-week range. I work directly with senior decision-makers and produce decision-grade output: short, defensible, and ready for an executive meeting.
“James distilled the complex and rapidly evolving biomanufacturing sector into an analysis we could easily understand and use to develop our investment strategy. James's domain expertise and network, combined with his genuine and personable interaction style, made working with him both highly effective and enjoyable.”
— Darren Plett, Synthetic Biology Lead, Bioplatforms Australia
Expert Insights
I write a fortnightly newsletter, The BioRevolution, on the Australia–New Zealand non-clinical biomanufacturing landscape. Original analysis, interviews with senior practitioners, and developments worth tracking.
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