Directors & Senior Management
Simon Owen - Director/Joint Company Secretary
Mr Owen has over 15 years of experience as a corporate and commercial lawyer and corporate consultant with particular focus upon emerging enterprises. He has acted as both a Non-Executive and Executive director of a number of listed and public companies. Simon has undertaken significant capital raising assignments and has developed extensive networks and contacts throughout Australia and internationally. He has significant experience in the formulation and delivery of strategic goals of developing enterprises. His various roles have provided extensive experience of acquisitions, capital raisings, licensing, joint ventures, corporate development opportunities, investments and corporate structuring.
Sam Wright - Joint Company Secretary
Sam Wright is well experienced in the administration of ASX listed companies, corporate governance and corporate finance. He joined the Company as the Financial Controller for PharmAust Manufacturing Pty Ltd in September 2006 and was appointed Company Secretary for PharmAust Limited in August 2007. Sam has also filled the role of Director and Company Secretary with a number of unlisted companies.
Mr Bryant McLarty
Director
Mr McLarty has a practical working knowledge of Australian securities and equity markets with over ten years of commercial experience.
He has extensive experience in start-up and established companies, listed and unlisted, both as a Managing or non-executive director. He is a founding director and former Managing Director of Pharmaust Limited.
Mr Henry Gulev - Non Executive Director.
A community pharmacist for more than 20 years and state board member for Chemmart at Symbion Health Limited for more than 10 years. Mr Gulev has a wealth of experience, commercial acumen and keen interest in the development of pharmaceuticals and inception of new products. He is the owner of the highly innovative and successful The Downs Pharmacy Wembley Downs and has been a community pharmacist since graduating from the WA Institute of Technology (now Curtin University of Technology) in 1980.
Dr Wayne Best
Managing Director, Epichem Pty Ltd
Dr Wayne Best is Managing Director of Epichem and has 25 years’ experience in synthetic and medicinal chemistry, including the design and synthesis of a range of biologically active compounds. He obtained his BSc (Hons) and PhD in Organic Chemistry from UWA. He then spent two years at Imperial College in the UK, where he obtained a DIC, followed by a year at the ANU in Canberra.
Dr Best has worked with ICI Australia's Research Group and the Chemistry Centre (WA). Dr Best is a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and is an Adjunct Associate Professor at both Murdoch University and UWA.
Epichem Scientific Panel
Prof. John Horton – Epichem Chairman of the Board
John is a medical practitioner with 25 years experience in drug development
in industry.
For the last 17 years John has worked exclusively in Developing World Medicine – malaria, helminths, leishmaniasis, diarrhoea etc. and was the moving force and ‘father figure’ of the tropical disease initiatives in GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
John was closely involved in establishing the Medicines for Malaria Venture and the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development, and was a member of GATB scientific advisory committee. At GSK, John ensured involvement in 3 Public Private Partnerships with the WHO (Lapdap, Lapdap + artesunate and an early stage antimalarial) and in developing concepts for access in public health to these products.
John was intimately involved in establishing the Global Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis (GPELF), having initiated both the original studies that formed the basis of the programme, and the concepts behind the global programme.
Over the years John has acted as an advisor in a number of WHO programme initiatives (e.g. global helminth elimination). Although now retired from GSK, John continues to work part time for WHO in their drug development programmes, and holds academic appointments in Liverpool and in Perth, and is a founding trustee of the Malaria Consortium, a UK NGO. John is married with 5 children and lives in Hertfordshire in the UK.
Prof. Val Alder - Director
Professor Alder holds a Physics Degree from Imperial College, London and
a PhD in Auditory Biophysics from The University of Western Australia. Immediately
after graduating Val worked in industry sequentially for the Naval Defence
on radar as a research scientist (UK), Philips for research into colour
television (Netherlands), British Steel for statistical research (UK), and
also spent time as a high school physics and maths teacher (UK).
After her PhD Val changed fields to medical research working on vascular diseases on the eye building an internationally recognised group totally self funded, with international, national and industry funding in retinal vascular physiology and pharmacology, publishing extensively in this area.
Val was Deputy Director of the Lions Eye Institute, Perth in 1996-99, and also Associate Dean and later Deputy Executive Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at The University of Western Australia. Val has been heavily involved with the National Health and Medical Research Council for over 10 years, serving as the Chair of the Training Awards Committee and the Chair of the Career Development Committee, as well as having been a long standing member of the Research Committee.
Val received the IDA Mann Award for outstanding contribution to Australian Medical Science and Ophthalmology in 1996. In 1999 Val joined Murdoch University as Pro Vice Chancellor Research resigning from this position in 2003 because of illness. She has subsequently taken up a part time position as Executive Research Strategist at Murdoch University involved with developing and facilitating long term research strategy.
Val is a member of the Western Australian Department of Industry and Resources State Development Forum, serves as a member of several Boards, and chairs the Murdoch Westscheme Enterprise Partnership Investment Committee.

