IMB’s Engagement & Philanthropy Committee is a collective of valued supporters who are passionate champions of the research and impact of the institute. The committee seeks to increase the institute’s profile and strategic linkages with like-minded individuals and companies who share our vision for impact in health and science.
Committee members are unpaid volunteers with a wealth of knowledge, skills and expertise that they are willing to share to advance the success of the Institute. The committee meets, at a minimum, four times each year.
Joseph Donataccio
Diversity of breadth and depth of experience is a hallmark of Joseph’s substantive career. Unusually, he works from board level to detailed, operational process level across a vast range of organisations - all levels of government, GOCs and commercial. The latter includes giant multinational companies to micro-businesses - corporates, industrial, manufacturing, resource, technology and community sectors. He works with and through people to improve the organisations he works with and underpins his passion for his work with “lifelong learning”.
Joseph’s core competency and intellectual property is his Enterprise Ecosystem Architecture modelling. By definition, he covers all aspects of organisational design, development, implementation and continual improvement. Areas of Corporate Governance, Strategy, Enterprise Risk, Compliance, Process Management, Performance Measurement, Audit & Assessment and Continual Improvement are central to this. He advisors, coaches, trains, facilitates and assesses all of the above to enable conformance, performance, sustainability and business continuity.
He is inspired by the world-class, creative and expert science practised daily by our passionate IMB team to solve human and world problems. They break and re-set limits in science.
Kylie Ahern
Kylie Ahern is a an award-winning science publisher who has worked across popular and academic science publishing as well as mainstream media in Australia and the UK.
In 2004, she raised financing, established and was co-founder and CEO of Cosmos Media, launching Australia’s top-selling science magazine and website, COSMOS and environmental magazine and portal, The Green Lifestyle Magazine.
COSMOS was a game-changer for the science sector in Australia. Prior to the launch 99% of science magazine sales were to imported titles.
COSMOS came along and had world class science writing around local scientists, many of who weren’t featured in mainstream media despite their extraordinary careers and impact. Before long we were outselling all the international titles. We created the science category in Australia. And we absolutely helped build the profile of many scientists that are well known today.
Since selling Cosmos Media in 2013, Kylie has been consulting for various universities, research institutes and publishers. She helped establish the Nature Publishing Group team and their strategy for the Australian & New Zealand markets. More recently she founded strategy, content and engagement consultancy, STEM Matters.
Kylie is highly active in both the science and media community having served on the Science and Technology Australia Board, the Australian Centre for Robotic Vision Publisher’s Australia board and as Chair of Inspiring Australia NSW Committee.
James Callianiotis
James commenced his career in the property industry at the early age of 18, and never looked back. He quickly transgressed into sales and into corporate franchising at 24, moving into a corporate real estate group at 30, where he was the co-founder of Realway Property Consultants which was built up to 59 offices in Queensland.
James progressed into a CEO role within agribusiness before taking his career into the global market, as an international consultant predominantly in the field of technology before returning to Queensland. The energetic business builder was head of one of Australia's largest and most iconic Real Estate franchise groups; LJ Hooker’s Queensland operation for a year before he immersed himself into the world of start-ups where he found more success in the facilities sector, specialising in medical and pharmaceuticals.
When James was appointed by Deepbridge UK to start up Deepbridge Australia he connected with entrepreneurs, young businesses and institutions, where he focused on investing in companies in the agricultural, biomedical, green energy and technology sectors.
Not everything was plain sailing though. James recollected the bittersweet moments in his career, which hit him hard but identified them as opportunities that taught him that people would always come first.
Through his long career, James has learned a lot about himself. One of them is that he is a big believer that not one person can change the world. James’ passion in the medical and bioscience sector has led to him working closely with the industry, as he believes greatly in investing in the industry. James adds, “Universities have a role to play where opportunities to develop the best cures in the world.” He is passionate about helping the university.
He is someone who learns the hard way. He speaks fondly of how it is important to connect with like-minded people that genuinely want to help others from all walks of life. James acknowledges that while it is impossible to teach people instinct, you can, however show them what to look out for. An advocate for skills and education, he hopes to see more young people attend university, learn to be an individual, take those skills and start their own jobs.
Giovanna Rita Leung
Giovanna Rita Leung is an Italian-born Australian academic consultant, corporate trainer, and educator, who has been a leader in the study abroad industry for over 25 years. She was also Co-Founder, and later President, of the Hong Kong International Education Consultants' Association (HKIECA) for eight years, as well as President of the Hong Kong Council of Women, an advocacy group for the betterment of women and children, from 1981 to 1985.
After being educated at All Hallows’ School and The University of Queensland, Giovanna relocated to Hong Kong where she distinguished herself in a number of industries, including hospitality, retail, training, marketing, and education. In 1994 she became Director of an international education consultancy and increased the number of students going overseas from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea by 25% to 30% per year, transforming the company's Hong Kong office into the most successful of its global 65 offices. During a 25-year career in international education ,she assisted thousands of Hong Kong students to study in Australia.
In 2003, she became Founder and Director of her own highly recognized and successful company, Academic and Continuing Education Ltd (ACE) in the overseas study sector. ACE's clients included many of the finest universities, colleges, technical institutes and boarding schools in Australia, UK, USA, New Zealand and Canada.
She has also been a corporate trainer providing programs for working professionals, and for a number of years, acted as advisor and consultant to various not-for-profit organisations.
Giovanna graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Romance Languages, Literature and Linguistics) from The University of Queensland.
Kate Schroder
For 20 years, Professor Kate Schroder has studied the good, bad and ugly of our immune system – how immune responses protect us from infection, but can also cause several serious human diseases. Kate is an IMB Laboratory Head, the Director of the IMB Centre for Inflammation and Disease Research, and a graduate of the University of Queensland.
Kate’s discovery research has revealed fundamental mechanisms of our body’s inflammatory response. She is passionate about ensuring her fundamental research findings are applied clinically, to ensure patients suffering from inflammation-related diseases can access disease-modifying therapies. Kate and her collaborators at UQ and Trinity College Dublin developed new anti-inflammatory drug candidates that formed the basis for a biotech start-up company, Inflazome Ltd. In 2020, the pharmaceutical giant Roche acquired Inflazome for AUD$620 million plus milestones, in a landmark deal for academic intellectual property. Two drug candidates are now poised for Phase 2 human clinical trials as novel anti-inflammatory therapeutics.
Kate regularly works with industry to guide commercial programs, serving on the Scientific Advisory Boards for biotech and pharmaceutical companies (e.g. Inflazome, Novartis).
Kate is a passionate advocate for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in academia. Kate helped establish the IMB Women in Science and Technology Fund to assist women in overcoming barriers to their career progression.
Jessica Taylor
Uniting a group of people to serve a community that is undoubtedly under-served is no easy task, but Jessica Taylor manages to do not only this but more. She’s not just a leader, she’s an inspiring woman who inspires others to dream just as big, aim just as high, and achieve just as much. Any woman who has felt the sting of endometriosis and its diagnostic delay is likely filled with a righteous fervour that calls her to stop the same thing from happening to other women that she has suffered herself, but it takes more than just disappointment, more than just anger at a system that has failed you; it takes vision and it takes real action to change that system for the better. Jessica Taylor has proven not only this but more. At a young age she is president of the QENDO, CEO of APMA, Chair of The Australian Coalition for Endometriosis, alongside a stunning resume of other memberships and appointments that reflect her passion for health and empowerment.