MedTech Ignite Innovation Pitch Challenge

Natalie Murphy is a healthcare leader with experience across Research & Technology, product development, service management and commercial roles throughout Australia and New Zealand. Currently Team Leader – Key Account Manager (VIC/TAS) at Dräger, she partners with hospitals and health services to deliver solutions that genuinely improve patient safety and clinical performance and that actually work in the real world, not just on a slide deck. A biomed at heart, Natalie started her career in Research & Technology, helping translate early stage ideas into clinically viable products. She has worked in product development and led service management teams, so she knows what happens after the shiny launch, when equipment has to perform at 2am and someone needs to answer the phone. Having worked across Australia and in New Zealand, she understands the nuances of different healthcare systems, procurement pressures and operational realities. Her end to end experience means she assesses innovation through multiple lenses including technical feasibility, clinical relevance, commercial viability and long term scalability. As a judge for MTAA Ignite, Natalie is drawn to ideas that are bold but practical, measurable, sustainable and capable of making a real world difference, ideally with minimal buzzwords.

Mo Dirani is an Australian entrepreneur and scientist working at the intersection of health, technology, and research translation. He is the founder of Plano Pte Ltd, an award-winning Singapore-based healthtech company using science-driven technology, education, and AI to manage childhood myopia. Mo served as Plano’s Founding Managing Director (2017–2024) and is now Chair of the Board and a member of its Science and Innovation Advisory Group. Plano’s investors include Singaporean government entities, venture capital firms, and Santen, a global ophthalmic pharmaceutical company. Mo is Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Heart Foundation, Adjunct Associate Professor at Duke-NUS Medical School, and an honorary Principal Investigator at SERI and CERA. He serves on multiple medtech company boards and advises leading global startup accelerators, including 500 Global. He completed his PhD at the University of Melbourne at age 26, holds 10 patents, and has published 100+ peer-reviewed papers. He is also the author of The Plano Adventures, a best-selling children’s book series used in schools across Singapore.

Andrew Maxwell is the Founder and Managing Director of Chatsworth Associates, a boutique advisory firm supporting emerging and high-growth companies in the bio-medical, medical device, mobile health and Health IT sectors. Over his career, Andrew has worked with innovators and entrepreneurs to plan and execute more than $300 million in equity and debt raisings, corporate transactions and international expansion programs. Andrew brings deep operational experience as the former Managing Director and CEO of Global Kinetics Corporation (GKC), where he led the commercialisation of neuroscience research in Parkinson’s disease. Under his leadership, GKC secured $22 million in equity funding, achieved FDA clearance and CE mark approvals, and implemented its technology in hospitals across 16 countries. He is an active investor, is the chair of the Bond University’s School of Health Sciences & Medicine Advisory Board and serves as a Non-Executive Director and Chair guiding high-growth, technology-enabled organisations across MedTech, HealthTech, Medical Devices and Funds Management.