Our Mission

Najwa Aksu is Executive Assistant to George Medicines’ CEO, bringing broad experience supporting senior leadership within the pharmaceutical industry. In her role Najwa coordinates executive operations, international travel, meetings, events and onboarding, helping to ensure the smooth running of the business while supporting George Medicines’ mission to improve patient access to innovative medicines.

Amy Carroll brings over two decades of pharmaceutical industry experience to George Medicines, with deep expertise in medical affairs leadership, product launches and strategic stakeholder engagement across cardiometabolic diseases.

Prior to joining George Medicines, Amy served as Vice President, Head of Medical Affairs at Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, where she built and led the company’s medical affairs function across heart failure, cardiorenal, diabetes and metabolic disease portfolios. During her tenure, she successfully launched a first-in-class SGLT1/2 inhibitor for heart failure and secured FDA acceptance of multiple NDAs.

Throughout her career, Amy has held senior medical affairs positions at multiple pharmaceutical companies including Bristol Myers Squibb, Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Zealand Pharma, where she built and led medical affairs teams, developing strategic partnerships with key opinion leaders, and supported multiple successful product launches.

Amy holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and a Masters in Zoology from the University of Maine and a B.A. in Biology from the University of San Diego.

Scott Featherston is Chief Financial Officer for George Medicines and Chief Financial Officer and Director for Corporate Development for George Health. He is also an Honorary Professorial Fellow at The George Institute. Mr Featherston also has interests in education. He founded Caerus Capital, a boutique private investment firm that invests in the private education sector in Sub-Saharan Africa and he sits on the board of Luminus Education in Amman, Jordan.

Mr Featherston was formerly the Global Health Sector Leader and a Principal Investment Officer for the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group. During his time at IFC (2005-2015), Mr Featherston led numerous transactions in the health and education sectors in Africa, MENA, South/East Asia, and Europe and founded the World Bank’s Health in Africa initiative. Mr Featherston’s early career was in engineering and finance.

Mr Featherston holds master’s degrees in international affairs and engineering science.

Program Leader with over 14-years’ experience in biotech, medical devices and pharmaceutical products development from research to regulatory authorisations and early commercialisation. Before joining George Medicines, Rene successfully managed international teams to progress assets through early development and regulatory interactions in fields such as inhalation medicinal products and gene therapy.

Mark Mallon is a global pharmaceutical executive with a track record of bringing transformative medicines to patients and building successful global businesses.

During a 24-year career at global pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, he held multiple senior leadership roles including Executive Vice President of International and Executive Vice President of Product and Portfolio Strategy. Mark also led AstraZeneca’s operations in China, Japan and Italy, and played a central role in major product launches including Nexium (US), Crestor (Italy), Symbicort (Japan), Farxiga (international) and Fasenra (global).

More recently, Mark held a strategic advisor role at global investment firm ARCHIMED and was the CEO of NeoGenomics Laboratories, an oncology testing services company. As CEO of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, a gastrointestinal (GI) healthcare company, he led the successful transformation of a largely primary care business towards a company focused on making a difference for patients with serious and rare GI diseases.

Mark has a BSE in chemical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a MBA in marketing and finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Gary Quashie brings more than 15+ years of experience in life‑sciences business development, strategic partnerships and commercial growth to George Medicine. He is recognized for building global collaborations, translating evidence‑based innovation into scalable business outcomes, and shaping sustainable growth strategies in fast-paced environments across pharmaceutical, biotechnology, diagnostics, medical technology and artificial intelligence sectors.

Before joining George Medicines, Gary held senior business development roles at Parexel, Premier Research, GlobalData, OPIS and Clarivate (Thomson Reuters). Over the course of his career, he has led complex go-to-market initiatives, supported clinical development and clinical operations, advised regulatory submission programs, and contributed to alliance management, commercial launch, market access, licensing and fundraising strategies across a diverse range of therapeutic areas. His leadership experience also includes evaluating early‑ and late‑stage investment opportunities, integrating real‑world data and evidence (RWD/RWE), applying health economics and outcomes research (HEOR), and implementing decentralized technologies within hybrid clinical trials and commercial models. This breadth of experience has built a strong track record of driving execution, strengthening asset and partner value, and positioning programs for long-term commercial success.

Gary is currently an Executive MBA candidate at UCL (University College London) and holds a BSc in Biomedical Sciences from Royal Holloway University of London. He also holds certifications in Python programming from IBM, the ethical use of AI from the World Health Organization (WHO), and business-focused executive education from Harvard.

Dr Roberts has over 30 years’ experience in various commercial, general management, consultant, and strategic roles in both the branded and generic pharmaceutical sector and in contract manufacturing.

Dr Roberts has extensive global experience in strategic licensing and M&A and a proven track record in brokering deals in both established and emerging markets.

Professor Rodgers has a track record in cardiovascular disease prevention, innovation, and public-private partnerships, with an interest in scale-able interventions to address major risks to health. He is currently Director of the Cardiovascular Division at The George Institute, Australia and Chair of Clinical Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College of London.

Professor Rodgers was the Principal Author of the 2002 World Health Report, the main annual publication for WHO. Professor Rodgers has led developments of an affordable four-in-one cardiovascular combination pill (‘polypill’). He led a clinical trial programme in economically developed and developing countries, funded by the Wellcome Trust, European Union, National Health and Medical Research Council and others.  He has also been instrumental in developing the field of low-dose combination therapy in hypertension, helping initiate several clinical trials in the area.

Professor Rodgers also developed a world first cell phone based smoking cessation programme for youth, which disseminated proven health support messages in an age-appropriate, affordable medium.  Over 6,000 patients were involved in clinical trials that demonstrated a 50% increase in quit rates. The service has been rolled out by Departments of Health in NZ, UK and India, with over 2 million users to date.

Professor Rodgers trained in medicine in the UK, has a PhD in Epidemiology, post graduate qualifications in Public Health, is a member of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences and a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Kevin Spivey brings over eighteen years of clinical research experience to George Medicines, with deep expertise in clinical program delivery, cross-functional leadership and joint development programs across rare disease, gene therapy and broader therapeutic areas.

Prior to joining George Medicines, Kevin served as Associate Director, Clinical Program Leadership at Biogen, where he translated clinical and regulatory strategy into action, oversaw clinical resource and budget management, and supported regulatory submission strategy.

Throughout his career, Kevin has held senior clinical operations positions at multiple organizations including Nightstar Therapeutics, Britannia Pharmaceuticals and PRA Health Sciences, where he built and led clinical operations departments, managed global study delivery across multiple markets, and provided strategic input into regulatory dossiers and joint development programs.

Brendan Walsh brings more than 20 years of leadership experience across global pharmaceutical supply chain, CMC, technical operations and outsourced manufacturing. His expertise spans a broad range of dose forms and pipeline development programs across diverse therapeutic areas, with a track record of building high-performing supply organizations, establishing virtual manufacturing networks and delivering complex, high-profile product launches across Europe and international markets.

Brendan joins George Medicines from Otsuka Pharmaceutical Europe Ltd., where he served as European Supply Chain & Technical Director, leading regional supply chain and technical operations for the company’s commercial portfolio and pipeline assets. His responsibilities included end-to-end supply chain management, CMO selection and oversight, technology transfer and establishing supply chains for new product introductions.

Prior to Otsuka, Brendan held senior leadership roles at Tanabe Pharma Europe, including General Manager and Head of Supply Chain, EMEA, where he established the company’s EMEA supply chain department and virtual manufacturing infrastructure. Earlier in his career, he held technical and operational roles at GSK and Rhodia, spanning new product introduction, technology transfer and R&D.

Anushka Patel is Chief Executive Officer of The George Institute for Global Health and Scientia Professor at UNSW (University of New South Wales) Sydney. She is a cardiologist, with research interests in the prevention and management of common chronic conditions through large-scale clinical trials and implementation science. Anushka undertook her medical training at the University of Queensland, with subsequent postgraduate research degrees from Harvard University and University of Sydney. She is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, and of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.

Mark Mallon, Chief Executive Officer of George Medicines, is a global pharmaceutical executive with a track record of bringing transformative medicines to patients and building successful global businesses.

During a 24-year career at global pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, he held multiple senior leadership roles including Executive Vice President of International and Executive Vice President of Product and Portfolio Strategy. Mark also led AstraZeneca’s operations in China, Japan and Italy, and played a central role in major product launches including Nexium (US), Crestor (Italy), Symbicort (Japan), Farxiga (international) and Fasenra (global).

More recently, Mark held a strategic advisor role at global investment firm ARCHIMED and was the CEO of NeoGenomics Laboratories, an oncology testing services company. As CEO of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, a gastrointestinal (GI) healthcare company, he led the successful transformation of a largely primary care business towards a company focused on making a difference for patients with serious and rare GI diseases.

Mark has a BSE in chemical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a MBA in marketing and finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Stephen is a founding partner of Brandon Capital. Before moving to Australia, he was a Director of Apax Partners based in London. Previously, he fulfilled roles in product development with UK biotechnology company Cantab Pharmaceuticals. Earlier, Stephen spent ten years as a research immunologist in London and California.

Stephen is also currently a director of Amplificare, OncoRes Medical and Respirion Pharmaceuticals. He was a former director of Elastagen, (acquired by Allergan in 2018) and Longas Technologies (acquired in 2021).

Stephen has a Bachelor of Science (Honours) from Chelsea College London, a PhD in Immunology from Kings College London and an MBA, specialising in Entrepreneurship, from Imperial College London. Stephen is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a former director of the Australian Investment Council (AIC).

Justin joined The George Institute for Global Health in 2020 as Chief Financial Officer, bringing with him over 25 years of international pharmaceutical experience in both a commercial and financial capacity. His areas of expertise span investor relations, finance, strategic planning, M&A, corporate governance and marketing.

Prior to The George Institute, Justin was the CEO of First Pharma, a boutique privately backed pharmaceutical company. Before this, he held several senior executive positions at AstraZeneca both in Singapore and Australia. This included the role of Area Finance Director – Asia, Sales & Marketing Director – Australia, and Chief Financial Officer of Australia.

Justin is a member of ASCPA and holds a Commerce degree from Macquarie University. He has also undertaken various post graduate leadership programmes at the London Business School, INSEAD and most recently MIT.

Dr Charmain Gittleson has extensive international experience as a pharmaceutical physician and enterprise leader. Prior to joining the Board of George Medicines, Dr Gittleson worked at global ASX-listed specialty biotechnology company CSL Behring, where she most recently held the role of Chief Medical Officer. During her 15-year tenure at the company, she held various senior roles in clinical research, medical safety, medical and patient-related ethics, strategic product development, planning and implementation across multiple therapeutic and rare disease areas.

She is a qualified medical physician and holds a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. She also holds an Australian Medical Council Qualification and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and Stanford University’s Company Directors Course.