Ken Richards
BCom, MBA, FAICD
Managing Director
Mr Richards has in excess of 25 years experience as a Managing Director in various listed and unlisted companies across a range of industries and holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Master of Business Administration degrees from the University of Western Australia. He is a fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and an Associate of the Financial Services Institute of Australasia.
Ken assumed the executive management role with Leaf Energy on the 1st August 2011.
Samantha Madden
B. Com, CA
Financial Controller
In September 2011, Samantha was appointed part-time as Leaf Energy's Financial Controlller. In this role, Samantha is responsible for managing the daily accounting system and ensuring company compliance will all accounting policies.
David Hudson
SGA Solutions Pty Ltd- Consultant
David brings to Leaf Energy an extensive and successful background in developing and implementing business plans for agbiotech products. The scope of David’s expertise includes value identification and evaluation, value capture strategy development, freedom to operate strategies including technology partnering and licensing, and establishment of platforms for delivery of agbiotech products to the market.
David previously worked at Monsanto Australia for 23 years and has been involved in the management and commercialisation of Australia's first agricultural biotechnology products, GM cotton and GM canola. David held the role of New Technology and Seed Business Manager for Australia and New Zealand, a role which extended across the agricultural biotechnology pipeline from proof of concept through to commercialisation pathway development.
After stepping down as Leaf Energy's CEO in order to focus on his expanding consultancy business, the Board of Leaf Energy has retained the services of David as a consultant to manage the development and exploitation of the company's gravel leases in Western Australia.
Technology Expertise
INPACT technology, developed by Distinguished Professor James Dale and his research team at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) forms the basis of Leaf Energy’s intellectual property portfolio. As such, the technical expertise of our company is drawn from Professor James Dale in the role of Leaf Energy’s Chief Scientific Officer.
Distinguished Professor James Dale
Professor James Dale is a world-renowned plant biotechnologist with more than 25 years in the biotechnology research and development sector.
As the Chief Scientific Officer for the company, James is personally leading a team of plant biotechnologists and researchers to develop existing and new applications of Farmacule’s core INPACT technology.
His prior achievements include the invention of FNC/GeneCo Technology, which was sold in 2000 by the CRC for Diagnostic Techniques and the Queensland University of Technology in a multi-million dollar deal to the world’s leading gene chip company Affymetrix (NASDAQ: AFFX).
James has published in excess of 70 research papers and contributed to the invention of more than six patents. He has also served as a member of Australia’s Genetic Modification Advisory Council and, in 2001, helped draft national legislation to govern the genetic modification of organisms.