Michael Bettess
Senior Investment Manager at Brandon Capital
Michael Bettess
Senior Investment Manager at Brandon Capital
Greater Melbourne Area
Overview
Work Experience
Senior Investment Manager
2016 - Current
Brandon Capital Partners is a seed and venture capital fund management firm managing over AU$500M in investment capital through the MRCF (Medical Research Commercialisation Funds). The MRCF model is a unique collaboration of more than 50 of Australia and New Zealand’s leading medical research institutes and hospitals. The MRCF provides investments that support the development and growth of Australasian life science companies that arise from academic research and/or benefit member institutes. Currently serve as an Executive or Non-Executive Director for 4 MRCF investee companies developing novel drug assets across metabolic disease, autoimmune indications, ocular diseases and oncology.
Senior Business Development Manager
2013 - 2016
Working from the office of Industry Engagement and Commercialisation at Monash University, I was responsible for the analysis and subsequent commercialisation of select opportunities derived from high quality academic research within the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences. In collaboration with my commercialisation and research colleagues, I helped to develop and maintain a growing pipeline of quality opportunities and assets. I performed technical and commercial due diligence, identified opportunities suitable for patent filings, project managed research projects to commercial milestones (raising capital from an internal seed fund) and led complex commercial negotiations for alliance deals and multi-million dollar research & option contracts with Tier 1 multinational pharmaceutical partners or biotechnology companies. Opportunities included biologics and small molecules across Immuno-Oncology (including CAR-T cells), Cell Therapy, Autoimmunity/Immunology, Fibrosis, Infectious Disease, Metabolic Disease and Rare Disease sectors. Some publicly announced deals for opportunities I managed while I was at Monash - but closed after I left - are below:
Investment Manager and CEO
2008 - 2013
TTFM was the fund manager for the Trans-Tasman Commercialisation Fund (TTCF) and New Zealand Venture Investment Fund's (NZVIF) Seed Capital Investment Fund (SCIF) programme in NZ. TTCF had a sole institutional Limited Partner in AustralianSuper - Australia's largest superannuation fund. Responsible for the investment management of the Life Science pipeline/portfolio. Appointed Acting CEO in May 2012. Focus on the identification, analysis/due diligence, funding, project management and commercialisation/exit of select opportunities that arise from academic research at member institutes. Led diligence and authored investment recommendations for 8 TTCF investments including Nexvet Biopharma Pty. Ltd. (Nexvet) in Q3 2012 and HMBL (Heart Metabolics Ltd) in Q4 2012. Nexvet subsequently closed a AU$9M Series A in Q4 2013 and US$31.5M Series B in Q2 2014 and US$40 million IPO in February 2015 (NVET - NASDAQ). Nexvet was acquired by Zoetis (Pfizer Animal Health) in 2017. Heart Metabolics Ltd was acquired by a US based Life Science PE investor and closed a subsequent US$20 million Series A round in Q2 2014. TTCF investees raised over US$100 million in co and follow-on investment capital.
Manager, Business Development
2004 - 2008
Flinders Partners (formerly Flinders Technologies Pty. Ltd.). Responsible for the identification, analysis and commercialisation of select opportunities that arose from academic research at Flinders University. Experience in capital raising/commercial grant funding and project management that led to the commercialisation of a biopharmaceutical, medical device and research reagents.
Roche Research Foundation Post Doctoral Fellow
2002 - 2004
Post-doctoral Research Fellow in the laboratory of Professor Andreas Trumpp in the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC) at Epilanges and now located in the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). Research investigated the in vivo role of the oncogene c-myc through tissue specific conditional knockout in mice in the intestinal epithelium and bone marrow. The Trumpp lab also focused on the role of c-myc and other factors in stem cell differentiation decisions (including renewal/dormancy) and the architecture of the stem cell niche. This research had implications for cancer stem cell biology and potential targets/strategies for therapeutic intervention in both solid and liquid tumours. Main research was published in the journal Molecular & Cellular Biology (2005), with supporting research published under a minor authorship in Genes & Development (2004).
Research Associate and Post-Doctroal Scientist
2000 - 2002
Research Associate and Post-Doctoral Scientist the laboratory of Professor Stephen Dalton (currently at the University of Georgia, USA). Research focused on the role of the oncogene c-myc in the cell cycle control of Embryonic Stem (ES) cells with respect to the maintenance of pluripotency, and as a model of cancer cell proliferation/differentiation. Research was in-part associated with Australian Biotech Company Bresagen Inc. and its Cell Reprogramming/Cell Therapy platform technology that was subsequently merged with Viacyte (San Diego and Georgia, USA, www.viacyte.com) in 2004.
PhD Student
1995 - 2001
PhD student in the laboratory of Professor Peter D. Rathjen (formerly Vice Chancellor at the University of Adelaide). Research focused on mapping early mouse development through the controlled differentiation of embryonic stem cells in vitro. Co-Author on 3 peer reviewed papers and 3 reviews. Inventor on patent WO/1999/053021 (Cell differentiation/proliferation and maintenance factors and uses thereof. Bettess MD, Rathjen PD, Rathjen J. Lake J-A, Washington, J.) that was assigned by The University of Adelaide to its spinout Australian Biotech Company Bresagen Ltd. prior to IPO on the ASX in 1999. This asset underpinned Bresagen’s Cell Reprogramming/Cell Therapy platform technology at US subsidiary Bresagen Inc. Bresagen Inc's technology rights were subsequently assigned to Viacyte (US) (www.viacyte.com) in 2004 via a merger. The patent was abandoned by Viacyte in 2006. Viacyte was acquired by Vertex in 2022 (US$320 million).