SMILE Foundation - Supporting Medical Innovation for Life Enhancement

Lyndall Beville is co-founder and Chair of the SMILE Foundation. Since graduating with degrees in Arts and Law in 1995, Lyndall has worked in the fields of public relations and community education, specialising in corporate social responsibility. Her most recent role was in Corporate Communications for international healthcare company Bayer. Blessed with two beautiful, healthy daughters, she has a heartfelt commitment to enhancing children’s lives through SMILE. She is also passionate about inspiring others along their philanthropic journey.

Also a co-founder of SMILE, Malcolm Beville has been instrumental in formulating SMILE’s ‘philanthropreneurial’ structure. With a degree in Commerce, Malcolm worked in the Property Investment Banking Division of Macquarie Bank for several years before joining the family business, which he now runs with his father John Beville. The Beville Group, whose core business is retail property, also has a venture capital arm with investments in the biotech sector, and Malcolm has been truly inspired by the quality of medical research coming out of Australia.

Professor Bob Williamson recently retired as Director of the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and Chairman of the Board of Genetic Health Services Victoria. He is a key figure in the global medical research community and one of Australia’s preeminent geneticists. He made major contributions to the identification of the genes mutated in thalassaemia, cystic fibrosis, Friedreich ataxia and Alzheimer disease, and has more than 400 refereed career publications, including 40 in Nature, Nature Genetics, Cell and Lancet.

He Chairs the National Committee for Medicine of the Australian Academy of Science, was Chair of the OECD Committee on Pharmacogenetics and Regulation of Genetic Testing, and has worked extensively for the World Health Organisation. Since retirement he has increased his activity for a number of medical charities. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and an Officer of the Order of Australia, and Professor of Medical Genetics of the University of Melbourne. He takes a major interest in national science policy and ethics, and has published widely on stem cell science and the ethics of embryo research.

Professor Mathew Vadas is an expert in the areas of medical research and biotechnology, with over 30 years’ Australian and international experience in medicine, science and commercialisation. He is Executive Director of The Centenary Institute in Sydney, one of the world’s leading medical research institutes focusing on cancer and molecular medicine. Mathew is a trained physician and pathologist as well as being one of Australia’s most highly cited authors in biomedicine. He is committed to promoting Australian medical research and initiated the establishment of the Hanson Centre for Cancer Research as well as the Clifford Prize for Cancer Research. In addition to his medical research expertise, he was also prime founder and driver of two biotechnology companies, Bionomics Ltd and Cryptome Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

Eugene Kopp completed his BEcon and Politics at Monash University in 1985 and post graduate Masters of Business Administration at IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland in 1990. He has over 20 years experience in merchant banking and six years experience in the biotechnology sector, as a non-executive director of Convé Plc, a London-based Australian pharmaceutical company with anti-fungal treatments. He is now an Executive Chairman of Prima BioMed Limited, a leading Australian cell-based oncology company, based in Melbourne. He is also a Managing Director of Bluscan Pty Ltd, a private equity company that invests in companies with emerging technologies and turn around opportunities.

Gillian Schwarz is a Business Development Consultant, specialising in attitude adjustment, motivation and effective communication. Before relocating to Australia, she had her own business in New Zealand for 10 years (1988-1998), as an independent consultant, conducting workshops for the New Zealand Institute of Management, and consulting to corporate companies, retail and small businesses. In 2002 she was diagnosed with early breast cancer. During her treatment, she utilised her knowledge about attitude and motivation to assist in her healing process. Gillian has a personal appreciation of the vital importance of medical research - she is currently taking part in phase 3 of a world-wide clinical trial.

Gillian undertakes public speaking to raise funds for research, and for five years was a peer support volunteer for the Cancer Council. She has developed workshops for people who would like to focus on attitude adjustment, including those confronted by life changing illness or disease, and specialises in communication workshops which result in increased productivity within organisations.

Jonny Taitz has a distinguished career in paediatrics and provides the SMILE Board with valuable hands-on experience dealing with children with rare conditions. He is currently the Assistant Director of Clinical Operations and Staff Specialist Paediatrician at the Sydney Children’s Hospital Randwick. Jonny is registered as a Specialist Paediatrician in Australia, South Africa and the UK. He also lectures in Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of NSW.

Jonny is probably best known as the paediatrician who treated accident victim Sophie Delezio. His interests range from rural paediatric health issues to his involvement with children’s charities such as the Humpty Dumpty Foundation and the Violet Foundation Supporting Meningococcal disease.

"As a practising paediatrician I am confronted by patients affected by rare childhood disease on a regular basis. While we have made great strides in research and treatment in this area, I find it difficult to tell parents of children with rare diseases that we don't have a cure yet. SMILE is working to change that."

Helen Hamilton-James joined SMILE as Financial Director in November 2007. She has extensive auditing and advisory experience in the finance industry as a Partner at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. Her background includes an Honours Law degree from Aberdeen University, Scotland and a Graduate Diploma in management from the Australian Graduate School of Management. Helen is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants for Australia and the Institute of Chartered Accountants for England and Wales. Her key responsibilities include leading the Deloitte NSW Assurance and Advisory social responsibility project, focusing on health services.