UTAS NEXUS AQUASCIENCES

Born in Tasmania, Miles attained a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Tasmania. Miles has also competed an Honours degree in Science (thesis in neural networks) as well as a Graduate Diploma of Environmental Management.

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Since leaving Tasmania in 1990, Miles has held a number of commercial roles in KPMG in Melbourne and WMC Resources (now BHP Billiton), including stints in Western Australia, Victoria, South America, Europe and North America. Miles joined Hydro Tasmania in 2003 in various roles including leading the strategy function, trading risk management, Treasurer, Director of Business Development and Chief Financial Officer. His career at Hydro included a 3-year secondment from July 2010 to Sarawak in Borneo as the Vice President – Strategy, Planning and Business Development for Sarawak Energy Berhad.

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Miles left Hydro to join the University of Tasmania in 2017, his current position as CEO of UTAS Holdings involves working closely with academics and a wide range of businesses to identify and enable ways to commercialise University of Tasmania IP.

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Miles sits on a number of Boards and has volunteered for Engender Equality (family violence), The Smith Family (education), Hobart City Mission, Australian Institute of Company Directors and is an active member of the State Emergency Service (General Response Unit).

Until 2015, Martin was partner-in-charge of KPMG Tasmania’s corporate finance services team delivering commercialisation, strategy, business models, business valuations and corporate advise to leading private companies. Prior to this, he spent 10 years in insolvency and restructuring and was also partner- in-charge of KPMG Launceston office.

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Martin is currently Executive Director of Ornatas Pty. Ltd., Chairman of Pet Solutions International Ltd. and Director of Strategy at St Lukes Health Insurance Ltd.  He is also a Director of Healthy Business Performance Group Pty. Ltd. and Board advisor to Vos Construction Pty. Ltd., Hansen Orchards Pty. Ltd. and Banjos Corporation Pty. Ltd.  These companies generate combined revenues of $550m and employ over 1,200 people.

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Martin is a past Chair of the Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and St. Giles Society. He was also a founding Director of the Tasmanian branch of the Australia China Business Council and a member of the National Board.

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Martin and his wife own Spikeybridge Vineyard in Relbia, making wine under their Broad Arrow and Spikeybridge labels. He is currently Chair of Wine Tasmania - the industry’s peak body.

Dr. Shahridan Faiez is the Managing Director for Ever Nexus and also President and CEO of Lobster Aqua Technologies, the company responsible for developing and managing the Integrated Lobster Aquaculture Park (iLAP). Dr. Faiez has a PhD from Cambridge University in natural resources management. His passion is sustainable development, which he has applied in the international development arena as a senior technical specialist at the World Bank for 13 years, and as an entrepreneur in the aquaculture sector for the last 7 years.

Dr Faiez returned to Malaysia on the request of the Malaysian Government and helped Khazanah Nasional start- up a shrimp aquaculture company, Blue Archipelago, which became the model for the NKEA in aquaculture. Subsequently he set-­up Ever Nexus Sdn Bhd to focus on developing sustainable projects in the aquaculture, food security, and urban livability sectors.

Dr Faiez has worked in more than 22 countries and sits as a director on the board of the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA).

In addition to his role as Director: UTAS Nexus Aquascinces Sharizal is one of the founders and principals of Ever Nexus Sdn Bhd which has Focused on Sustainable Development Solutions. 

With a strong passion for sustainability and how sustainable agriculture can transform the lives of people in rural areas, this former executive with Blue Archipelago Bhd (a wholly owned subsidiary of Khazanah Nasional) is actively involved in the government's Economic Transformation Program. He was the Lab Leader for the Agriculture NKEA that helped designed the economic transformation blueprint for Malaysia's agriculture sector to contribute towards Malaysia becoming a developed nation by 2020. He was instrumental in creating a RM1.6 billion government grant program for the nationwide promotion of the Aquaculture industry within the Agriculture NKEA.

In addition to his role on the UNA Board, Robert is the CEO of PFG Group, an advanced manufacturer of aquaculture systems and industry partner with IMAS.  Robert is an experienced senior executive with a demonstrated history of working in dynamic environments. Skilled in Budgeting, Financial Risk, Business Process Improvement, M&A and Stakeholder Management, previously Robert spent 4 years as PFG Groups CFO, managing and reporting the company’s finances. He is a highly skilled Chartered Accountant, financial planner and has a Master’s Degree in Applied Finance, his previous financial accounting and management experience includes 13 years with an ASX200 group.

Mr Lok Choon Hong is a qualified lawyer for Malaysia and Singapore and a registered patent, trademark and industrial design agents for Malaysia. He has been actively involved in the intellectual property (IP) field for the past sixteen (16) years. He was awarded the world’s top 1000 patent practitioners by IAM magazine for year 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 and IPStar Award by ManagingIP Magazine for year 2019 and 2020.  

Mr Lok holds a Master of Laws Degree from University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, an executive MBA degrees from INSEAD, France/Singapore and E-MBA from Tsinghua University, China. 

Mr Lok is the managing partner of Pintas IP Group (PIPG), a regional professional IP firm with operational offices based in Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and customer service offices in China and USA.  PIPG provides integrated IP filing and consultancy works covering Southeast Asia countries. He is also the founding partner of Global IP Southeast Asia Pte Ltd (GIP-Asean), an IP agency and consultancy boutique firm focusing on Japan-Southeast Asia regions.

Karina Groenewoud is the Director, Governance and Compliance at the University of Tasmania with responsibility for the maintenance and continuous improvement of the University's internal and external compliance frameworks.  In 2019 she led the 18-month transformation and modernisation of the University’s complex and outdated governance instruments framework. The project was awarded the 2020 Vice-Chancellor’s Transformation Award and the 2021 ATEM Best Practice Award for Excellence in Governance and Policy.

Karina has held various governance and general manager roles at the University over the last 10 years and prior to that, spent 16 years in the Tasmanian public sector in governance, management, policy and project roles in the education and vocational education and training sectors. 

Karina has held positions as Board Secretary for a number of Tasmanian statutory authorities.   She holds a Bachelor of Science with First Class Honours in Chemistry and a Master of Public Administration. She is a graduate and current member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and holds a Certificate IV in Competitive Systems and Practices (Lean Management).