Leadership & Board

Executive Team

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John Kelly

Founder, Managing Director & CEO

For more than 20 years John Kelly has championed the cause of reimagining medical devices to enhance their usability and performance. Before founding Atomo Diagnostics in 2010, John was Chief Operating Officer at ASX listed (now NASDAQ listed) Unilife Corporation, where he led the ‘Unifill’ development team to develop the world’s first glass prefilled drug delivery device with integrated auto retract safety feature. This technology was successfully licensed to Sanofi Aventis. Previously, John led the New Product Implementation Group at ResMed, where he managed the design and commercialisation of the ground-breaking Mirage Swift mask. In addition to his commercial experience, John has an Honours Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Liverpool, a Master’s Degree in Systems Engineering from Queen’s University Belfast, and an Executive MBA from the University of Sydney, where he was awarded the Business School’s inaugural ‘Excellence in Leadership’ scholarship.

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Chandra Sukumar

Chief Operating Officer

Chandra joined Atomo in 2017 as Director of Programs bringing with her more than 25 years of experience within the medical device industry. She has extensive experience in the development of medical devices from conception to commercialisation. Prior to joining Atomo, she served in a variety of leadership roles within ResMed, including supply chain management, global manufacturing, and APAC marketing. Chandra holds a Bachelors Honours degree in Physics and an executive MBA from AGSM.

Board of Directors

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John Keith

Non-Executive Chair

John is the Managing Director of BNP Paribas. Prior to that, he led management and coverage roles for Nomura Securities in Sydney and Hong Kong. John also serves as a Director of ASIA Limited, Calliva Limited, Room to Read Australia Foundation and Ascham Foundation.

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Deborah J. Neff

Non-Executive Director

A veteran of the life sciences industry building market-leading global businesses. As principal of DJN Consulting, LLC. based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Deborah currently works with several privately held healthcare startup companies providing strategic business advice to and mentoring the executive management team. Previously CEO of Evanostics, LLC. and Pathwork Diagnostics Inc., and COO at Complete Genomics Inc., following a 15-year career with Becton Dickinson, Inc. where she last served as President of BDBiosciences, a major global business unit of the company. Former non-executive director of Bio-Rad, Inc., ForteBio, Inc. (acquired by Pall Corp) and AMO Inc., (acquired by Abbott). Deborah served as a board member and executive advisor for Galt Inc., and Vortex Biosciences Inc. She is an Executive Trustee of the UCDavis Foundation Board and also chairs the College of Biological Sciences Dean’s Leadership Council at the University.

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Dr. Paul Kasian

Non-Executive Director

Chair of IODM Limited. Non-Executive Director of Eco Systems Ltd (ASX:ESL). Previously Chair and CEO of Genetic Technologies Limited. PhD in Microbiology and MBA, both from the University of Melbourne, and GAICD. Former Chief Investment Officer and Head of Global Financials at HSBC Asset Management; Founding Director of Accordius; Founding Director of Wallara Asset Management.

Dr. Cheri Walker

Non-Executive Director

Dr. Walker is an executive with more than twenty-five years of experience working with life science and diagnostic companies. Employing years in the financial markets as a stock analyst, commercial execution to meet aggressive growth targets, and more than 45 successfully closed mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, she has worked as part of and with management teams, private equity and venture firms to develop the best strategies to build their life science business and to execute on acquisition strategies or sale of the company. Dr. Walker is currently the President, Chief Executive Officer, and Director of Rhinostics, an early-stage spin-out company based on technology initially developed at Harvard University. She has previously held senior executive positions at Abcam; Charles River Labs; Qiagen, and Life Technologies, now part of ThermoFisher. Dr. Walker holds a BA in Biology from Swarthmore College and a Ph.D. in Human and Molecular Genetics from Baylor College.

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Re-imagining diagnostics