Jane has a long career in clinical gastroenterology with research interests in IBD, Functional GI Disorders, Quality of Care, new care models and care outcomes. She has previously worked at many hospitals within Australia (NSW and SA) and completed part of her training in Oxford, UK. She is the author of over 200 papers and has successfully supervised several PhD, Masters and Honours students. She is currently the Medical Lead of the Gastroenterology, General and GI Surgery Services for Central Adelaide Local Healthcare Network, and continues to work also in clinical Gastroenterology with an IBD focus. She has experience in resource allocation and service design at both research and practical levels. She is one of the original design & build team behind CCCare - our IBD-specific Clinical management software and is the current CCC Board Chair. Jane is additionally on the Board of the Gastroenterological Society of Australia, and has been heavily involved over several years in consulting work for various Pharma, with all proceeds going to either CALHN-based or CCC-based research work.
Andre Wierzbicki has 20 years of international experience in corporate finance, banking and law. Andre commenced his career as an M&A and ECM lawyer at Allens Arthur Robinson in Sydney (now part of Linklaters) and later the boutique Sydney firm Gilbert + Tobin.
Andre joined the Australian investment bank Allco Finance Group in 2004. From 2007 Andre was based in London with responsibility for infrastructure transactions in the UK/EU as well as business development responsibility for Italy. From 2008 Andre worked for AMP Capital in their infrastructure team in both London and Sydney. From 2010-2013 Andre was a founder and executive director of Burford Infrastructure Partners, a boutique advisory firm focused on infrastructure assets and special opportunities following the financial crisis. More recently Andre has worked in his own family office and as an entrepreneur in the life sciences and private wealth space in the UK.
Andre is currently Director, Private Markets Development at Aberdeen Standard Investments, which manages £67bn of private markets assets globally. Aberdeen Standard Investments is part of Standard Life Aberdeen plc, a FTSE 100 Index company with £540bn of assets under management. Andre was a co-founder of Crohn’s Colitis Cure in 2012 and is involved in several other philanthropic initiatives in the UK. Andre has a Bachelor of Arts (Hons), Bachelor of Laws (Hons) and Master of Philosophy from the University of Sydney.
DPhil FRCP, Translational Gastroenterology Unit, Oxford University Hospitals, Oxford, UK
Simon Travis is Professor of Clinical Gastroenterology and Fellow of Linacre College at the University of Oxford. He was President of the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation (ECCO, 2012-2014) and is the senior author of many peer-reviewed international guidelines.
He qualified from St Thomas’ Hospital London in 1981 and trained in Gastroenterology both in London and in Oxford, where he did his PhD on colonic epithelial electrophysiology. He was formerly Chair of the IBD Section of the BSG (2002-5), Member of Council of the British Society of Gastroenterology (2004-2007) and Chair of the scientific committee of ECCO (2007-2010). He is on the Editorial Board of Gut and Journal of Crohn’s & Colitis, among other journals.
Research interests focus on inflammatory bowel disease, clinical prediction, endoscopy and outcomes in clinical trials. He is the author of 6 books, 30 chapters and over 300 papers.
Alissa Walsh is a Consultant Gastroenterologist at the Translational Gastroenterology Unit, John Radcliffe Hospital and an Associate Fellow at Green Templeton College at the University of Oxford.
Alissa qualified from the University of Queensland, Australia in 1999 and trained in Gastroenterology, completing her FRACP in 2006. She went on to complete a DPhil in Clinical medicine at the University of Oxford.
Alissa was the Head of IBD at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney prior to relocating to Oxford and is now part of the IBD team at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. She remains very involved with the inpatient and outpatient care of patients with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. She is also the current Clinical Lead for Endoscopy for the Oxford University Hospitals Foundation Trust.
Research interests focus on inflammatory bowel disease, electronic remote monitoring of patient’s symptoms and impact on quality of life, clinical prediction, and machine learning. She is the author of 1 book, 4 chapters and over 50 papers.
MPhil, MD, PhD, FACG, FRACP, Mater Hospital Brisbane
A/Prof Jakob Begun obtained his MD and PhD in genetics at Harvard Medical School. His advanced training in Gastroenterology and Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) was at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) where he developed a keen interest in the microbiome – immune system interactions. He is the IBD clinical lead at the Mater Hospital Brisbane and IBD Group leader at the Mater Research Institute – University of Queensland. He runs a basic and translational laboratory investigating the interaction between innate immune functions of the gut and the microbial community. He also performs clinical research on the use of intestinal ultrasound in IBD, real world effectiveness of therapeutics, and identifying barriers of care for adolescents and young adults with IBD at the Mater Young Adult Health Centre. He is the chair of the Gastroenterological Society of Australia IBD Faculty and the past president of the Gastroenterological Network of Intestinal Ultrasound.
MBChB PhD FRACP, Christchurch Hospital and University of Otago, Christchurch, New Zealand
Richard Gearry is a Consultant Gastroenterologist at Christchurch Hospital and Professor of Medicine at the University of Otago, Christchurch in New Zealand. Richard has undergraduate degrees in Medicine (1995) and a PhD (2006) from the University of Otago and has completed Fellowships at Box Hill Hospital in Melbourne and St Mark’s Hospital in London.
Richard has published widely in the field of luminal gastroenterology, particularly inflammatory bowel disease, is on the Editorial Board and Grant review boards of regional and international journals and funding bodies. He is a Medical Advisor to Crohn’s and Colitis NZ, the only New Zealand member of the International Organisation for the study of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases and a Trustee of the Gut Foundation, New Zealand.
MB BS (Hons) PhD FRACP, Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, School of Medicine and Pharmacology, University of Western Australia, Murdoch, WA and centre for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, Saint John of God Hospital (SJOGH), Subiaco, WA
Ian Lawrance is a Gastroenterologist and an Adjunct Professor in the School of Medicine and Pharmacology, Faulty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Western Australia. He completed his PhD at the John Curtin School of Medical Research in 1998 and undertook a post-doctoral fellowship in the Division of Gastroenterology, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA.
On his return to Australia in 2000, he was appointed as a staff specialist Gastroenterologist at Fremantle Hospital. He was subsequently appointed as a Senior Lecturer and then Associate Professor in the School of Medicine and Pharmacology, UWA. He was a Professor from 2009-18 when he became an Adjunct Professor.
Prof Lawrance was a founding member of the physician-initiated interest group ‘IBD Australia’ in 2002 and was its secretary from 2005-8. A member, and then Joint Chair, of the international IBD genetic Consortium (IIBDGC) and currently sits on the numerous pharmaceutical IBD drug advisory committees (Pharmatel Fresenius Kabi, Janssen-Cilag and Abbott Australasia and Scherring-Plough/Merck, Isopogen).
Prof Lawrance was the head of the department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Fremantle Hospital from 2004-7, the director of endoscopic services at Kaleeya Hospital from 2004-7 and was the Director of the Centre for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) Fremantle Hospital from its inception to 2015. In 2014 he set up, and continues to run, the Centre for Inflammatory Bowel Disease in the private sector at Saint John of God Hospital, Subiaco.
Susan is the Head of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Service at Liverpool Hospital in Sydney where she is a senior staff specialist and conjoint Professor with University of New South Wales (UNSW) as well as leading one of the SWSLHD Academic Units. She did her medical degree (Hons 1) through UNSW, and her Bachelor of Medical Science (UNSW) was in lactose malabsorption in Burmese village children. Her PhD was also at UNSW in mucosal immunology in IBD with Prof Michael Grimm. She is past Chair of the IBD Faculty within the Gastroenterological Society of Australia (GESA), past Executive Committee member on the ANZIBD consortium for 10 years, past member of the Infectious Disease, Immunity and Inflammation Clinical Academic Group within SPHERE and has served on multiple other committees including for Crohn’s and Colitis Australia, National Prescribing Service and as a Senior National Examiner for the Royal Australian College of Physicians. Her focus now is on targeted advocacy for IBD through her Board membership on Crohn’s Colitis Cure using the data and research from the IBD Software Crohn’s Colitis Care (CCCare) for which she is a co-designer. Advocacy work is in collaboration with Crohn’s & Colitis Australia, GESA and IBD Nurses Australia. Her research interests include e-Health and Value based health care; patient and clinician support tools in IBD; optimising patient/clinician communication and perianal Crohn’s disease.
Steve has built and led a variety of services-oriented businesses and operated as an executive consultant and business advisor over his 35-year career, most recently with Accenture. His experience has covered multiple sectors and he has worked across Australia, New Zealand, Asia Pacific, the UK and USA.
Originally from the UK, Steve joined Deloitte Consulting in Sydney in 1990, was appointed as a partner in 1995, running Australian and Asia Pacific businesses during that period, and for the last two years operated as the deputy managing director for Australia/NZ. Steve joined Accenture as a managing director in 2004, initially to run large deal business development in SE Asia, then moved to build their Telecommunications, Media and Hi-Tech business, which he ran for 8 years. He was appointed as senior managing director in 2012, continuing to run clients and businesses, the largest of which grew to revenues of AUD $700m pa and employed 4,000 people across 5 continents.
From 2014, Steve was based with Accenture in Hong Kong, where he developed a programme which doubled annual revenue and re-positioned Accenture in that market. He was also part of the global leadership team for growth markets, responsible for increasing market share with multinational conglomerates across Asia, Africa and the Middle East. During this period, he advised the boards and CEOs of two of Hong Kong’s largest multi-nationals, sponsored Accenture’s Asia Pacific Fintech lab, and led a global leadership development programme for managing directors in Accenture.
In 2017, he returned to Australia, to lead Accenture’s financial service business. Steve retired from Accenture in December 2019, after 15 years and he has since managed a portfolio of interests. These include mentoring several small businesses, working closely with a leading industry body, and co-founding Harrow Advisory—a business providing advice and assurance services to board members and executives at large corporates.
Kevin is an experienced senior executive and corporate advisor with extensive commercial experience across the technology and communications sectors. He has held global leadership roles in corporate strategy, marketing, sales, product management, strategic alliances, and customer service. Originally from the UK and now residing in Australia, Kevin has also lived in North America and Asia.
In 1994, after building the global training division for Eicon Technology, Kevin relocated from Canada to Australia to establish its Asia Pacific presence. During his tenure, the business expanded rapidly and secured some of its largest global contracts.
In 2001, he joined ASX-listed KAZ Group as executive general manager for marketing, overseeing its rapid scale-up, and subsequent acquisition by Telstra in 2003 for $333m. In 2007, he joined Microsoft where he led the enterprise marketing team with responsibility for over $1b in annual revenues. Kevin went on to be recognized as one of Australia's leading chief marketing officers, featuring in the CMO Magazine annual CMO50 list.
In 2013, Kevin joined ASX-listed Integrated Research, a global software business with solutions that provide critical data analytics for the payments transaction and video collaboration markets. Over the following nine years he held various executive roles, including responsibility for global product strategy and go-to-market.
Kevin currently provides mentoring and strategic advisory services, which includes areas such as market entry/expansion strategy, M&A, product, and marketing strategy.
