Dr Jenny Harry has a PhD in developmental biology and is a graduate of the General Manager Program at Harvard Business School. Jenny is an accomplished Managing Director of biotechnology and biopharmaceutical companies taking them from start-up phase to product development and commercialisation. She is developing a portfolio of board roles from science-based companies to creative enterprises.

Early in her career as a professional scientist Jenny made a significant contribution to our understanding of the evolution of sex determination in vertebrate animals. She subsequently joined an Australian scientific team who pioneered the development of a new field of science, enabling mass characterisation of the protein complement of the genome, and coined the term “proteomics”. This team founded Proteome Systems to commercialise a suite of technologies they had developed for proteomic analyses.

Jenny first formed and led the company’s R&D programmes, partnering with WHO, US-based Foundations and international corporations securing >$10m to develop diagnostic markers for TB, cystic fibrosis and Huntington disease. She took responsibility for implementing HR practices as the company grew to successfully integrate teams from diverse backgrounds. Jenny also played a major role in global corporate development, including establishing and growing JV businesses in the USA and Japan and managing a US-based subsidiary. Following listing on the ASX the company underwent a major restructure, exiting the proteomics technology business and focusing on biomarker development for diagnostics and drugs.

When Jenny was appointed Managing Director she rebranded the company as Tyrian Diagnostics, raised over $20m and led the commercialisation of the company’s first diagnostic test. Despite initial success, after 6 years the Board and management determined that the business was not sustainable, ceased operations and created a shell company which was later listed as a financial asset management business.

Her performance in these roles earned Jenny a reputation as an effective leader with a high level of integrity and trustworthiness, a creative strategic planner with the ability to see the big picture and execute on a detailed plan, an excellent communicator with skills to build by consensus and empower the people around her to achieve their full potential.

Jenny applied her wide-ranging experiences and business skills to the role of CEO of Ondek, a Perth-based startup founded by Nobel Laureate, Professor Barry Marshall. Jenny identified a commercial opportunity to develop a biologic drug for the treatment of childhood allergy, built an expert team and has taken the product successfully through non-clinical studies to scale up manufacture for clinical trials.

Over the past 5 years, Jenny has mentored entrepreneurs and executives and undertaken a variety of Non-Executive Director positions on the Boards of small listed and unlisted companies.

Areas of Expertise