The post Baumart Holdings (ASX:BMH) – Matt Logan appeared first on StockPal.

What’s your journey in becoming an Executive Director?
I started my career in 2006 providing corporate and accounting services for 10 years to various ASX listed clients in the mining, energy, industrial and technology industries. I co-founded Eco Pallets in March 2009 and having been exposed to a variety of companies, I had a very clear idea on how I wanted to grow the business. Eco Pallets was eventually acquired by BauMart Holdings in May 2016 and I was appointed as an Executive Director shortly after.

Tell us a bit about your business and how you are commercializing?
BauMart started its journey in 2014 investing in automated glass processing equipment which is leased to an experienced operator in Sydney. Since then, the business has diversified and now spans across equipment rental, end to end procurement, product distribution and managed services.

Since our first lodgement of accounts in FY15, our growth has seen a near tenfold increase in sales to $4.5m as of FY19.

Baumart has established a far-reaching distribution presence in the key regions of Australia. With a Head Office in Perth, we manage operations in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and overseas in Auckland, New Zealand.

This expansive distribution platform ensures we optimise our capabilities with a robust network of infrastructure that has great potential for other suppliers to utilise. We have sustained consistent organic growth with no capital raising since June 2017.

This is further complemented by a very structured approach to investing in the right people. I believe our people are our biggest asset and I am committed to appointing only the highest quality teams.

How are you managing with the current COVID-19 pandemic on both business and personal front?
The COVID-19 interruption to our supply chain was minimal with our China based goods being shipped out in December 2019, well before the lockdown, with consignments delivered to Australia and West Africa. Manufacturing in China has resumed in late February 2020 and our next orders have already started arriving into Australia.

Our other key supplier, of plastic pallets and crates, based in Malaysia, has been granted approval for the factory to operate, for reasons relating to their link to essential services.

As for the effect on our business, Eco Pallets, our key revenue generating division, supplies products that are necessities within the supply chain, ensuring essential services are able to reach supermarkets, hospitals and pharmacies. As such, we have seen minimal interruption to date with our Australian based operations, though this is being closely monitored.

We are an agile, cloud-based business with full digital capabilities and as a result of this, our transition to working from home was seamless with little to no interruption. We have been operating remotely since 23rd March 2020 and I have been averaging at least 15 – 20 voice and video calls per day.

Personally, I am adapting quite well to the changes but do have some frustration with not being able to play tennis on a regular basis like before. The game meets the definition of physical distancing so I was very surprised that it was shutdown. I still run, walk or hike on a regular basis to keep fit.

What’s the most exciting thing about running your business?
Challenges. In a growing business there is not a day that goes by where you feel bored. If running a business was easy then everyone would be rich. No project is without its challenges and that is what keeps me motivated.

How do you measure success?
The easy answer would be to say measures such as revenue growth, profitability or customer retention. Personally, I measure success by how much work-life balance is present in my life. I have spent the last 4 years building a strong team and investing time into my staff so they have the opportunity to develop their skills and progress. As a result of this, I have been able to enjoy a more balanced life and contribute equally to the demands on my professional and personal life.

What do you think is the most important quality of being an Executive Director of a listed company?
Consistency balanced with timely adaptation. Being consistent in everything you do makes your staff, shareholders, suppliers and customers know they are associated with a strong company with a clear vision. Additionally, if you are not trying new things, new ways, new methods, trial and error, then your competition will leave you behind.

What is your favourite book?
Andre Agassi’s autobiography. I was never a really big fan of him as a tennis player but his autobiography was so captivating. I read the entire book on a red eye flight from Perth to Sydney back in 2010. It was such a raw account with an important lesson for everyone to understand. It taught me that no matter what your situation is, it is up to you to take ownership of your life.

What message do you want to send to our readership in Asia?
BauMart has manufacturing partners in China, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. We have had partnerships with some of these spanning 10 years. This is BauMart’s key strength, securing distributorships and pursuing strategic investment. Being a diversified distributor with a robust Australia wide footprint, this presents significant opportunities for complementary or synergistic manufacturers seeking expansion into Australia.

How can people connect with you?
Email:
Baumart Holdings Website: http://baumart.com.au/

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The post Technology Metals Australia Limited (ASX:TMT) – Ian Prentice appeared first on StockPal.

What’s your journey in becoming a CEO?
I am a Geologist by training, having studied at the University of Western Australia, and spent the first 10 years or so of my career as a field geologist across exploration and mining throughout Australasia. I then pivoted into the financial markets, where I spent 7 years as a sell side Mining Analyst in the equity capital markets. This experience was the foundation for my transition into management roles in the Mineral Exploration and Development sector, with my first role as the founding Managing Director of a gold developer that we listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.

Tell us a bit about your business and how you are commercializing?
Technology Metals Australia Limited (ASX:TMT) is an Australian Securities Exchange mineral exploration and development company based in Perth Western Australia. We listed TMT in December 2016 with the aim of progressing the development of our flagship Gabanintha Vanadium Project (GVP) located in the mid-west of Western Australia, about 700km north east of Perth. GVP was a relatively early stage exploration play when we listed which we have now taken through a number of exploration and resource definition drilling phases, generating one of the World’s highest-grade large-scale vanadium resources. We completed a PFS on GVP in June 2018, only 18 months from listing, and then progressed through to delivery of a high-quality Definitive Feasibility Study in August last year, demonstrating a lowest quartile operating cost project. The focus now is building on customer relationships to establish binding offtake agreements, heavily supported by a development project in the World’s best mining jurisdiction and pilot scale testwork demonstrating one of the highest purity vanadium pentoxide products on the market. In parallel with this work we are also focused on establishing the project finance mix to rapidly progress the development of the GVP to be the next primary vanadium mine in the World.

How are you managing with the current COVID-19 pandemic on both business and personal front?
On the business front we moved quite quickly to remote working arrangements, with the team staying engaged via regular video conferencing, and immediately put in place a range of cost reduction measures to ensure balance sheet strength through the period of disruption. We are fortunate that we completed the complex work streams involved in the Definitive Feasibility Study in 2019, so the level of field and laboratory work required has greatly diminished. Our focus on progressing the commercial discussions is continuing apace via teleconference and video communication platforms, which is achievable largely due to the relationships we have built with counterparties over the past two years when I have been doing a lot of travel to conduct those all important relationship building face-to-face meetings. Personally I have adjusted to working from home quite well, keeping in regular contact with the team and other stakeholders via online platforms, modifying my daily exercise routine to offset the fact that my local swimming pool has closed and even getting a few of the jobs done around the home during our weekends in isolation.

What’s the most exciting thing about running your business?
Establishing a team of highly skilled professionals and then working collaboratively with that team to progress the GVP from that early stage exploration project to completion of a high quality Definitive Feasibility Study on one of the highest grade, largest scale, lowest operating cost vanadium development projects in the World in a little over two and a half years. This has now got us to the starting line for what is going to be a hugely exciting period of time as we finance and then develop the next primary vanadium mine in the World. Building on the team to deliver on that promise is a very exciting proposition.

How do you measure success?
Success in my view is all about delivery. Delivering on our collective vision, delivering on the growth potential of individuals within the team, growing the value of our underlying business and ultimately contributing to the society in which we live and work. The GVP is located in a remote part of Western Australian close to the regional town of Meekatharra – ultimate success for me is the development of a profitable mining project that generates returns for our shareholders, provides our employees and contractors with a safe, rewarding workplace that they take pride in but most importantly generates long term meaningful social and economic benefits for the community in which we operate.

What do you think is the most important quality of being a CEO of a listed company?
In my view successful management is all about communication. So whether you are CEO of a listed company or the president of the local sporting club how you communicate to all of your stakeholders is of paramount importance. Achieving “buy-in” is incredibly important and that starts and ends with communication.

What is your favourite book?
Early on in my TMT journey I was at a vanadium conference in Wuhan, China and was recommended a book called Mr China by Tim Clissold – an Englishman who spent sixteen years travelling, working and investing in China. A great read to explore the emergence of China as one of the World’s economic powerhouses and how a “foreigner” came to develop an understanding of the Chinese culture and business practices. From a more recreational point of view I have just finished reading Jeffrey Archer’s seven volume The Clifton Chronicles, following the trials and tribulations of a range of families as they navigated there way through the twentieth century.

What message do you want to send to our readership in Asia?
Technology Metals is at a really exciting time in its emergence as a vanadium producer in a period when vanadium demand growth has been steadily outpacing supply, driven by growth in consumption in the traditional steel market but also underpinned by the exciting emergence of the vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) market. As the World progresses to more and more green energy solutions, effective, affordable and sustainable energy storage will become crucial and VRFB is going to be a key player in that revolution. GVP will be a low cost producer of the high purity vanadium required for VRFB deployment and when developed will be just the fourth “primary” vanadium mine in the World.

How can people connect with you?
Email:
Technology Metals Australia Website: https://www.tmtlimited.com.au/

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The post InteliCare (ASX:ICR) – Jason Waller appeared first on StockPal.

What’s your journey in becoming a CEO?
I followed a fairly unusual path because I started my career as an Air Force pilot. I did this for over 20 years and had the privilege of holding commands in both combat and peace-time operations. I decided to leave the Air Force so my family could have a more stable life, but also to challenge myself on a new front. It turns out, the skills required when leading a combat unit are very similar to a CEO in business. In the end, it’s all about people, and people have the same traits, wants and motivations across nearly all disciplines.

Tell us a bit about your business and how you are commercializing?
InteliCare is an Australian technology company founded in January 2016 that has commercialised a predictive analytics engine hardware and software system for use in the aged care and health industries. InteliCare believes Australians deserve to age with dignity and through its business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) solutions built on its proprietary internet of things (IOT) platform utilising smart sensors and artificial intelligence (AI), InteliCare aims to enable people to stay in their own homes for longer while empowering healthcare providers to deliver higher quality, more efficient services. The R&D phase was largely completed in 2019 and now a full commercialisation program is underway.

How are you managing with the current COVID-19 pandemic on both business and personal front?
I felt fairly on in the piece that we were heading for isolation, so as a company we practiced the procedure at smaller scales and then had a full stay-at-home exercise well before it became the norm. We then went into stay-at-home mode before it became required by the government. Hence, it really wasn’t a big speed-bump, if anything, COVID-19 has made us busier. This is because the system has highlighted the need to protect the elderly. On a personal front, I’m really enjoying working alongside my wife and three University-aged kids. It’s unexpected but very welcoming family time. I do miss the day-to-day camaraderie of the team. However, we’re all on a continuous Microsoft Teams call during the day, so there’s lots of interaction.

What’s the most exciting thing about running your business?
The people – it’s always about the people. Seeing what they can do, how innovative and entrepreneurial they are and how they solve complex problems is really what fascinates me. It also keeps me on my toes as I have to keep up with them. The feeling when it all comes together, especially when there were hard, intractable problems, is terrific. It’s very much what the military strives to foster, and it’s just as powerful in the private sector.

How do you measure success?
For a listed company, it’s folded into the share price. At the end of the day, we are about creating shareholder wealth. However, and it’s a BIG “however”, doing good by helping society is core to our company’s values. Therefore, I will measure my success more on building and selling a great product that changes lives, because that will deliver the shareholder returns in the end.

What do you think is the most important quality of being a CEO of a listed company?
Leadership, end of story.

What is your favourite book?
I have many favourites because I read across lots of different domains. However, an unusual pick, but one I have recently recommended to many people, is “Open”, the autobiography of Andre Agassi. I would hardly ever read, let alone recommend a biography, but this is more a lesson on overcoming failure. You can’t put it down. It’s even better if you don’t really follow tennis. I’d love to meet the man.

How can people connect with you?
Email:
InteliCare Website: https://intelicare.com.au/

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The post Nova Minerals (ASX:NVA/OTC:NVAAF/FRA:QM3) – Christopher Gerteisen appeared first on StockPal.

What’s your journey in becoming a CEO?
I joined the company as CEO as the company was gearing up towards expanding its resource and progressing the Estelle Gold Camp to production. I’ve always considered this my area of specialization advancing projects from the resource development phase, where Estelle is positioned now, into mine planning and production. Certainly, my experience in both the technical and management realm reflects success in this arena. What’s exciting for me personally, is with the Estelle Gold Project I’m able to put my skills to work in my home state here in Alaska where I was born and bred, and working with an Australian company, a place I consider my second home where, as I like to say, I was reborn and rebred. Up top meets down under, a recipe for success.

With over 25 years of experience as a professional geologist in technical and corporate roles, I have an extensive record of managing and advancing complex and challenging resource projects across North America, Australia, and Asia. My experience spans greenfields through to production stage projects focussed on a wide range of commodities, including gold and copper. I have worked as a geologist on the Carlin Trend in Nevada and on exploration in Alaska with Newmont. Have held senior positions at several projects throughout the goldfields of Western Australia. As a research geologist with Newmont I worked on the Batu Hijau Porhryry Cu-Au deposit in Indonesia. Most recently, through my technical contributions and management skills, I played a leading role in the successful start-up, operations, and exploration which resulted in further mine-life extending discoveries at several prominent projects in the Australasian region, including Oxiana’s Sepon and PanAust’s Phu Bia in Laos.

A few years ago, I took the opportunity to finally return to Alaska. I’ve come full circle. Alaska is a resource-based economy. It’s a safe jurisdiction and ticks all the positive boxes for development of a project on the scale of Estelle. I’m based in my hometown where I grew up. Life doesn’t get any better than this, building a mine here for my state and bringing jobs and economic benefits to my community. This could be my last stop in what’s been a long rewarding journey. But I am now in gold miners heaven!

Tell us a bit about your business and how you are commercializing?
We are in a self-imposed race to build a senior gold producer. Over the past two years we have been steadily proving up our gold resource, with the results to date going way above and beyond our original expectations. Now we plan to capitalize on this success by fast tracking the resource development. The drilling program currently underway is designed to significantly increase the total resource, adding millions of ounces to our inventory, but also it’s aimed at converting a large portion of the resource to the higher confidence Measured and Indicated categories. The Estelle Gold Project is shaping up to be one of the most significant resource endowments, both in terms of quantity and quality, in the world today and the investment community is really starting to tune in to this project. We are seeing the smart money get in early, getting in now. These investors are taking note of resource, as discussed, but are also seeing a capable management team focussed on a fast track towards production at Estelle. The resource development drilling program currently underway will produce results shortly and we plan to release a mid-year JORC compliant resource update. Based on this, we plan to commence the feasibility studies on the path towards production. We are focussed on this objective like a laser, with our internal budgets and schedules moving us to commission a mining operation in the 2023-2024 time frame. I should mention, the production ambitions we are discussing, is only for our Korbel deposit, which on projection shows may host upwards of 10Mozs of gold, not uncommon in the Tintina Gold Province neighbourhood, see Fort Knox, Dublin Gulch, Pogo, etc. In addition, we have 15 other known prospects across our 220km2 claim block, at various stages of advancement. We are steadily progressing this pipeline of opportunities as we are really start unlocking and developing a district here. All of these additional prospects and further upside will provide the resources as we build the next world-class mining district over the next several decades.

As a note to investors, I want to make it very clear that Nova Minerals is not building itself to be sold; it’s building itself to be a major.

How are you managing with the current COVID-19 pandemic on both business and personal front?
The health and safety of our people and the safe operation of our site is of paramount importance. Keeping our operation running is critical for jobs, our communities and for the Alaskan economy. We are not a business that can do all of our work remotely and we are fully focused on action to reduce the risk of transmission at our sites and in our offices. In light of COVID-19, we know the situation is difficult and we are encouraging our workforce to look out for each other, their families and communities as we manage through this together.

Operations at Estelle continue with additional monitoring and procedures in place to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission among our workforce. As things currently stand, there have been no material impacts on our operations or supply chain with our workforce able to access our safely and operate effectively.

Nova’s supply chains are still open and we currently have adequate supplies to operate and maintain critical equipment.

The Estelle Gold Camp and offices across the world are monitoring local conditions and have plans in place designed to maintain workforce safety and business continuity. These include procedures to move quickly to isolate anyone who may require medical treatment or testing as well as additional information and resources to support the wellbeing of our workforce.

What’s the most exciting thing about running your business?
As I said previously, Alaska is a safe jurisdiction and my hometown; life doesn’t get any better or exciting building a mine here for my state and people.

I want to make it very clear that Nova Minerals is not building the Estelle Gold Camp to be sold, it’s building itself to be big, create jobs and opportunity for the state of Alaska and my people, that’s what excites and drives me every day. There are lots of good reasons for that; I would like the Estelle Gold Project to live beyond my lifetime as a very large gold producer and developer. That’s something that I’m working hard to try to create, along with all our fine management team and crew on the ground.

How do you measure success?
Success is measured differently for each stakeholder in Nova Minerals, and my success is when each of those stakeholders is successful. For our investors, it is the share price and resource growth. For the staff, it’s doing work they love and which makes them grow professionally, and which rewards them with the upside of the business as we grow the resource and move the project into production.

What do you think is the most important quality of being a CEO of a listed company?
For any CEO, its resilience, hands down. Ability to problem solve as the challenges come up. Progressing the project regardless what is thrown at you and most importantly looking after your people and all stakeholders each step of the way. The listed aspect adds the dimension of your performance judged by the market each day and it remains your job to run the business and communicate the value to the investors the best you can.

What is your favourite book?
The Bible, besides all the time-tested lessons to live by and stories of overcoming adversity, up, downs, etc. Here’s the takeaway as pertains to the subject at hand, the Estelle Gold Project. When you truly believe in something, put all your heart, mind and soul into it, never give up, never give in. In business we call that perseverance, which has been shown time and again, in research as well as just plain old common sense, as the most critical key ingredient to success in any business endeavour. And that’s what we have at Nova Minerals, unshakeable perseverance, and a management team on a mission to develop the next world-class gold district.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu is another which gives great insight into strategy to rank and discipline and, as they say, a little bit of luck doesn’t hurt either and to quote Sun Tzu “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”

So the massive gold resource we have at Estelle, that continues to be wide open in all directions, helps our mission immensely. It also helps to have a bunch of committed, capable, and like-minded colleagues in the trenches along the way. I’m so proud to be a part of the Nova Minerals team as we push forward and get the results expected by our stakeholders.

What message do you want to send to our readership in Asia?
To keep it simple, view us as the Fortescue Metals Group of the Gold space in Alaska and how fast we move.

In 2019, we went out to prove the concept in the initial phase of fieldwork. From the first stage of metallurgical test work at the Korbel deposit, we had a 76 per cent average recovery. That result is exceptional when compared with our peers who average 55–60 per cent recovery, in this type of gold operation, even a one or two per cent recovery upgrade has a large impact on overall profitability.

Not only have we defined the major resource at 2.5 million ounces, but we managed to do it at a discovery cost of less than US$1 per ounce [A$1.7], which is why we’re fast tracking this project. To give some perspective, anything less than US$10 [A$17] per ounce discovery cost is off the charts” and currently US$30 or $40 [A$52 or A$69] an ounce is more realistic.
Every time we drill, we’re adding millions of ounces to the resource inventory. Our gold is very liberated throughout the ore body, so we have a high recovery, which keeps the recovery cost low, Our 2020 target is to recover somewhere between the 5–10 million-ounce range. Adopting advanced ore sorting technology is also an exciting possibility thanks to the style and mineralisation of our rock, which will further improve our recovery.
We believed in the project and now we’ve proved it. We have 15 other known prospects at various stages of advancement and Korbel, which is developing into a super pit scenario, so our future is very exciting.

How can people connect with you?
Email:
Nova Minerals Website: https://novaminerals.com.au/

The post Nova Minerals (ASX:NVA/OTC:NVAAF/FRA:QM3) – Christopher Gerteisen appeared first on StockPal.

The post Uscom Limited (ASX:UCM) – Rob Phillips appeared first on StockPal.

What’s your journey in becoming a CEO?
I was born on the east coast of Australia, and grew up in Fiji, then a small outback city in central Australia and was educated at the University of Queensland, in Brisbane Australia. I have both a clinical and commercial background which is important for managing a medical technology company. I have a PhD and MPhil in medicine and am an Adjunct Associate Professor in cardiovascular physiology and ultrasound monitoring in the School of Medicine at The University of Queensland and am a visiting Professor in Cardiovascular Physiology and Critical Care at the Jining University Medical School, in Shandong, China.

I developed the technical and clinical concepts of the USCOM 1A haemodynamic monitor and converted these concepts via translational research into new technologies and global, lifesaving medical devices. I received an Australian Post Graduate Award, the Singaporean Global Entropolis Technology Award, and was a finalist in the CNN, Google, Time, Science, NYSE World Technology Awards in Health and Medicine recognizing technologies most likely to change global health.

I am active in teaching, writing, researching and reviewing in the field of ultrasound, circulation and cardiovascular monitoring, and am an innovator and pioneer in the field of digital Ultrasound having authored over 40 patents, 75 publications and 200 international presentations.
I am the founder of Uscom Limited and took the Company to public listing, and now have more than 15yrs experience as Chairman and CEO of an ASX listed medical technology company. I have grown the company to cover 4 continents, and successfully raised capital and engineered the acquisition and integration of two international medical device companies.

Tell us a bit about your business and how you are commercializing?
Uscom Limited is a medical technology company specialising in non-invasive cardiovascular and pulmonary medical devices. Our mission is to conceive and develop innovative technologies which provide global health solutions that can be utilised at the critical care level all the way through to home care environments. It’s amazing that we depend so critically on the circulation for survival, yet measure and manage it so poorly and infrequently. This also means we know so little about the underlying pathophysiology of heart failure, hypertension, sepsis, asthma, and COPD, diseases which are responsible for more the 75% of global mortality. We believe that the highest quality technologies drive the best quality medical care, and will improve their treatment, and it’s our devices which can lead this clinical charge. Care of the heart, vessels and lungs is critical for survival, and it is our speciality. We have three suites of devices, some developed in house and the others acquired by strategic acquisitions.

Commercialisation is a complex business requiring development of products, technical testing and clinical validation of the technologies, manufacturing logistics, regulatory approvals across global jurisdictions to a variety of specifications. Once the product is complete the development of a business model, global distribution channels, and operational management across multiple legal and commercial jurisdictions is required to convert this science into revenue. Uscom has manufacturing and operational centres in Sydney and Budapest, and has recently opened a wholly owned subsidiary to service the Chinese market. We are committed to the Chinese health system having operated there for over 15 years and see China and SE Asia as our neighbours and regional markets. The recent opening of our Beijing based subsidiary is an exciting step for us, and one which is immediately impacting our profitability.

How are you managing with the current COVID-19 pandemic on both business and personal front?
From a business point of view Uscom creates devices which are critical to the management of infectious diseases, and specifically COVID-19, so we have been busy on the frontline in Wuhan with our Chinese colleagues, as well as supporting our global clinicians as they implement optimal strategies throughout the rest of the world following the spread of the disease. Our USCOM 1A device was specifically recommended as the technology to treat adult and children with severe COVID-19 disease by the Chinese Health and Medicine Commission of the People’s Republic of China and the international Society for Critical Care Medicine Guidelines for treatment of sepsis in Children, so we are definitely at the centre of events in COVID-19. While most people are aware of the risk of COVID-19 pneumonia, the latest data demonstrates that you are 10 times more likely to die from heart failure as you are respiratory failure, so the USCOM 1A, which measures, monitors and guides cardiovascular therapy in sepsis, should be more frequently deployed than ventilators. As hospitals around the world stabilise and recognise the importance of adequately equipping hospitals to deal with the increasing incidence and severity of annual infectious diseases, and with our COVID-19 experience, we expect a significant number of new commissions from health care systems around the world.
At a personal level I’m accustomed to running my business from a computer out of a briefcase in a hotel room before leaping on a plane. So, for me things haven’t changed much, except I’m unit bound, and my home office provides slightly more comfort and permanence than the average airport terminal.

What’s the most exciting thing about running your business?
Opportunity; clinical and commercial. We are on the cusp of changing the way medicine is delivered to patients with diseases that kill 75% of the human population. We are saving lives of adults and children around the world and reducing the cost of delivering that care in critical care, paediatrics, emergency care, anaesthesia, maternal health, oncology, and increasingly eHealth. We are developing new digital service delivery models in eHealth, and believe that the future of eHealth is based on the quality of the front-end sensors. While software can be created in a few months and is without barrier to entry, high quality core physiologic sensors take years of development, testing and evolution. It is these advanced sensors which determine the value of results eHealth can deliver, and its Uscom which has the highest quality non-invasive cardiovascular and pulmonary sensors. That is exciting. Commercially of course having the highest quality digital technologies to deal with cardiac, vascular and pulmonary disease creates an almost untappable abundance of opportunity. Bringing clinical and commercial expertise together to create a global health vision creates a unique opportunity to build a great global medical technology business of scale and social impact at a time when the value of world health is perceived as increasingly critical.

How do you measure success?
Corporate success is developing and executing a global strategy to achieve sustained revenue growth to generate shareholder wealth and social benefit. Personal success is the pleasure you get from your life. It differs for each of us and is both endogenous and cultivated; life is a function of your circumstances and what you make of it. Im fortunate, I love my work and have plenty of interests.

What do you think is the most important quality of being a CEO of a listed company?
Bravery. You have to be brave enough to lead, inspire, motivate, and achieve. You have to be brave enough to be decisive and attack, and brave enough to respond to change and retreat if necessary. A perfect decision today may be a fail tomorrow, so knowing your business in detail and monitoring the changes in global culture, economics and sentiment are critical to maintaining a fine-tuned international strategy.

What is your favourite book?
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. A view of the world through the eyes of a tortured soul that asks the questions that make us profoundly uncomfortable and helps explain the world around us.

What message do you want to send to our readership in Asia?
Do good and do well. Uscom is committed to a clear and progressive global vision based on scientific leadership and a sound commercial strategy. Asia is our home, and a perfect market for us with rapidly increasing health expectations and increasingly sophisticated medical systems keen to adopt the most advanced technologies.

How can people connect with you?
Email:
Uscom Website: https://www.uscom.com.au/

The post Uscom Limited (ASX:UCM) – Rob Phillips appeared first on StockPal.

The post iCar Asia (ASX:ICQ) – Hamish Stone appeared first on StockPal.

What’s your journey in becoming a CEO?
I started at iCar Asia (ASX: ICQ) as the CEO in June 2016 at a point where the business was looking to take the next steps of growing the company towards its full potential. I first started working in digital businesses in 2006, when I joined eBay in my home town of Sydney, Australia. Over the course of 10 years working at eBay I was able to get a lot of great experiences across eBay’s portfolio of businesses, including across three global markets and three different brands. These experiences included leading the automotive verticals for the eBay classified businesses of Gumtree.com in the U.K., and Marktplaats.nl in The Netherlands and I was also the Head of Marketing for eBay Australia and New Zealand based in eBay’s Sydney office. This experience and background led to the opportunity for me to relocate to Malaysia to take up the CEO role at iCar Asia.

Tell us a bit about your business and how you are commercialising?
iCar Asia owns and operates the ASEAN’s Number 1 network of digital automotive marketplaces operating in the three largest automotive markets in the region – Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. Currently over 12 million people visit an iCar Asia website every month to research, buy, or sell a car. Our company vision is to be the catalyst that drives the digital transformation of the ASEAN automotive industry, and by doing so empower 600m ASEAN people to have the mobility solution they need through the region’s largest and most trusted digital automotive marketplaces.

iCar Asia provides a full ecosystem to support the automotive industry, including the New Car and Used Car sectors of the industry. Through our platforms we provide solutions to the New Car sector including advertising solutions (digital advertising and paid content), events, and lead generation services for Car Brands and New Car Dealers. On the Used Car side, we provide a full classified marketplace solution. This encompasses subscription payments, listing fees and feature fees. We also provide an auction service, auctioning private cars and fleet cars to dealers and taking a margin on each successful auction.

How are you managing with the current COVID-19 pandemic on both business and personal front?
COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the automotive industry in South East Asia. During March 2020, all three countries that the Group operates in imposed movement control measures starting from the middle of March 2020, causing businesses for both used cars and new cars to be completely shut down (or work from home) in Malaysia and to operate under partial restrictions in Thailand and Indonesia.

At iCar Asia we have implemented material initiatives to reduce Group expenses and cash outflows, whilst maximizing revenue and cash receipts. These leverage the digital nature of the business, so we can still support our key customers during this time, coupled with iCar Asia operations teams being able to continue at full capacity via our work from home programs.

On expenses and cash outflows, a number of initiatives have been implemented to reduce expenses and cash outflows including scaling back marketing and infrastructure. On the revenue side, The Company has rolled out a number of initiatives to support New and Used Car customers. For the New Car segment, these include new digital advertising products to drive car bookings through a new product called “Book From Home”, discounted promotions on advertising products, and increased incentives for car manufactures to continue to advertise during this period. For the Used Car segment, we are also providing Group wide support to our dealers through incentives and discounts for account renewals and credit purchases. During this period, videos are also able to be added to listings for free, resulting in a rapid increase in the volume of live video listings now over 7,500 in Malaysia, and over 1,500 in Thailand, with Indonesia also launching this program in the coming weeks.

What’s the most exciting thing about running your business?
Working on a market leading digital business in a region, that’s also in the middle of a digital transformation certainly brings an exciting atmosphere into the business. The previously traditional marketing focused automotive industry is continuing to gather momentum in their adoption of digital channels for their marketing and operational strategies. At iCar Asia, we are lucky to be able to partner with many players across the industry to help influence and educate or clients on how the effective use of digital products can successfully grow a business. Based on these interactions and the feedback received, we’ve needed to be agile and adaptable to the emerging needs of our customers, supporting as a close partner in their digital transformation. Having a great team at iCar Asia that can respond to this opportunity and take on this challenge makes it a great place to work.

How do you measure success?
At iCar we measure the impact of all activities and investment, from small things like a change in the website user experience through to large things like the financial performance of the businesses.

Overall our key measure of success is a balanced scorecard of:
1) Customer and employee feedback and satisfaction;
2) Operational metrics across the consumer and client side of our business; and
3) The financial performance overall of the business

Successfully progressing all of these areas ultimately results in the overall success of the business, and value of the company, which is then reflected in our share price.

What do you think is the most important quality of being a CEO of a listed company?
Dedication and passion for making a difference. Every day you have an opportunity to provide leadership to support the team members, end consumers, business partners and external shareholders. Having the privilege to lead a listed company gives you the influence and accountability to make a difference to a very wide net of individuals and businesses all aligned to a common outcome.

What is your favourite book?
One of my favourite books is “Good to Great” by Jim Collins. I was lucky enough to see Jim Collins speak at an eBay Directors Conference when I worked there. Both in person and in his books, he delivers some great insights into how companies can successfully adapt, grow and last through changing and challenging times.

What message do you want to send to our readership in Asia?
I’ve been based in Kuala Lumpur since June 2016 and personally it has been the best experience of my career, in particular to have the opportunity to lead a business in such a dynamic region. As we all come together to face the challenges of COVID19, it has been great to see ASEAN communities, businesses and governments support each other through these difficult times. I believe the ASEAN economies will accelerate strongly out of this crisis, and digital business are very well positioned to support the economic recovery. Einstein famously said: “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.” We all have the opportunity to assess how we can adapt and change through these challenges and at iCar we are challenging ourselves to come out of this stronger, and with the ability to be an instrument of digital change in a changed world.

How can people connect with you?
Email:
iCar Asia Website: https://www.icarasia.com/

The post iCar Asia (ASX:ICQ) – Hamish Stone appeared first on StockPal.

The post ResApp Health Ltd (ASX:RAP) – Tony Keating appeared first on StockPal.

What’s your journey in becoming a CEO?
After completing my PhD at The University of Queensland, I moved to the US to work at the University of Maryland as a Postdoc. At UM I worked on research projects that were funded by the US DoD and NASA. After two years in Washington DC, I moved to Boston to join Exa Corporation. Over 90 manufacturers in the automotive and aerospace industry used Exa’s engineering software to optimise the performance of their products. At Exa, I started in research and moved quickly into a technical business development role, helping develop and execute our aerospace market entry strategy. I returned to Australia in 2010 and joined UniQuest, the commercialisation company of The University of Queensland. At UniQuest, I led the commercialisation of engineering technologies, including identification and development of opportunities as well as sourcing and negotiating transactions with investors and strategic partners. During that time, I acted as interim CEO for a number of start-up companies. In my portfolio were a number of biomedical engineering technologies, one of which was the technology that become ResApp. Working closely with Brian Leedman, Dr Udantha Abeyratne (the inventor of the technology) and Dr Paul Porter (our clinical partner), we spun the ResApp technology out of the university and raised the first round of funding by listing the company on the ASX.

Tell us a bit about your business and how you are commercialising?
ResApp is a digital health company that is focused on respiratory disease. Our core technology uses machine learning algorithms to analyse sounds (such as cough, breathing or snoring sounds) to screen for, diagnose and manage respiratory disease. By using sound, we are able to deploy our technology on an off-the-shelf smartphone, such as an Apple iPhone, without the need for any accessories or other hardware. Since starting the company, we have focused on generating the clinical data and achieving regulatory approvals for our technology. I’m pleased that we now have excellent clinical data from multiple clinical studies and have received CE Mark and TGA approval for two breakthrough products.

ResAppDx uses cough sounds to diagnose respiratory diseases such as pneumonia, asthma exacerbations and COPD exacerbations. It has been demonstrated in large clinical studies to identify these diseases at high sensitivity and specificity. ResAppDx is clinically valuable as a triage tool in traditional settings such as an emergency department, urgent care clinic or GP’s office where it can provide a rapid point-of-care result, but it is in telehealth where we have an extremely strong value proposition. We are able to provide telehealth clinicians with an accurate way to asses a patient’s lungs without a stethoscope or imaging which are obviously not available in the telehealth setting. We are working closely with telehealth providers, including our announced deals with Coviu and Phenix Health, to integrate our algorithms into their platforms to provide a seamless experience for both patients and clinicians.

SleepCheck is a direct-to-consumer screening tool for obstructive sleep apnoea. Sleep apnoea is a major health issue, with 3 in 10 men and 2 in 10 women suffering from sleep apnoea, and up to 80% of those with sleep apnoea being undiagnosed and therefore untreated. Untreated, sleep apnoea doesn’t only result in daytime tiredness, but increases your risk of heart disease significantly. To be diagnosed with sleep apnoea today takes multiple steps, including a referral and a sleep study which involves trying to sleep with multiple contact sensors (chest straps, EGC patches on your skull, etc.), typically in an unfamiliar environment. SleepCheck reduces the barriers to diagnosis, by placing your smartphone on your bedside table when you go to sleep, you wake up to a score which assesses your risk of sleep apnoea, advising you on the next steps you can take.

How are you managing with the current COVID-19 pandemic on both business and personal front?
COVID-19 has changed the way governments, providers and the general public think about healthcare. This pandemic has accelerated the growth of telehealth and remote monitoring of patients. Telehealth providers such as Ping An Good Doctor (China) and Teladoc (USA) have seen huge increases in the number of telehealth consultations so far this year. Our Australian telehealth partners, Coviu and Phenix Health, have seen exponential growth since the Australian government opened up Medicate rebates for telehealth here. With this growth comes the responsibility to deliver quality care and we fill a unique position in providing the only scalable solution for remote respiratory diagnosis. Without a way to know what is happening in a patient’s lungs it is difficult for a telehealth clinician to effectively diagnose a patient who has respiratory symptoms.

COVID-19 itself represents a challenge for the global medical community and there are a number of ways we can assist. We are exploring ways of identifying the virus itself through cough, but also see an immediate opportunity to assist in managing patients with COVID-19 remotely, by identifying mild patients (i.e. patients where the disease has not progressed to a lung infection) and keeping them at home, reducing the load on hospitals and other facilities.

Operationally, our business is working well under the current restrictions. Our team have used Slack for internal comms since we founded the company and continue to make great progress even with the team working from home. Travel restrictions certainly limit our in-person visits to customers and partners, however, like all businesses, we have moved most of our business development efforts online to platforms like Zoom. We recently employed a very experienced sales and marketing leader for Europe who is based in London which certainly increases our capability there.

Personally, I’m spending a lot of time on Zoom rather than in hotels, airports and airplanes. There have been a few Zoom interruptions from kids, but that seems to be something that everybody around the world is getting used to.

What’s the most exciting thing about running your business?
The things our team are able to achieve. Our team has grown quickly and has achieved major milestones such as regulatory approval and our first customer deals, while facing and overcoming some setbacks along the way. Very few companies globally have experience in the areas where we operate. Our small team has developed technology, clinical and regulatory strategies that put us in a very unique position of being one of the very few companies in the world who have achieved what we have achieved.

How do you measure success?
I’ll always measure success by the creating products we create that help patients. These products will help doctors better take care of their patients, or will empower patients themselves to make more informed decisions about their health. If we do this then we will deliver strong returns to our shareholders.

What do you think is the most important quality of being a CEO of a listed company?
Time management and communication. It’s important to ensure that I listen to our shareholders and communicate effectively with them, but also balance that with running the business, which is all about listening and communicating with our team.

What is your favourite book?
I don’t think I really have a favourite book, but the most recent book I finished was The Antidote: Inside the World of New Pharma by Barry Werth. The story of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, it describes the ups and downs of healthcare, especially when developing brand new and novel products, and the persistence required to be successful.

What message do you want to send to our readership in Asia?
ResApp has achieved much over the last 5 years, resulting in regulatory approvals for two products, ResAppDx, targeting clinical diagnosis of respiratory disease, and SleepCheck, targeting at-home self-assessment of obstructive sleep apnoea. Both of these products are entering huge global markets in 2020. While the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed global business growth, it has shone a spotlight on respiratory disease and telehealth.

How can people connect with you?
Email:
ResApp Website: https://www.resapphealth.com.au/

The post ResApp Health Ltd (ASX:RAP) – Tony Keating appeared first on StockPal.

The post RareX Limited (ASX:REE) – Jeremy Robinson appeared first on StockPal.

What is your journey in becoming an Executive Director/CEO?
My journey in resources started a long way back having been around mining and exploration my for most of my life with my father being a geologist and in the mining business. After leaving university with a commerce degree from the University of Western Australia I moved to Sydney for a brief stint as a mining analyst with a leading independent stockbroking firm. From there I spent approximately 15 years in junior and mid-cap resource companies across a variety of commodities and in a variety of roles but mostly focussed on Business Development so I got the chance to assess I variety of project which is most enjoyable. So then to cut a long story short I was between roles early last year and was asked to look for Rare Earth projects for an upcoming listing and the more I looked at the industry I decided it was a business I wanted to get involved and as it transpired the company asked me too stay on and run the company.

Tell us a bit about your business and how you are commercializing?
RareX is a Rare Earths developer located in Western Australia planning to deliver rare earth concentrate into refineries based around the world as the Electric Vehicle and Green energy revolution transforms the world with lower polluting technologies with the refined rare earths being used in Rare Earth Permanent Magnets. Since going public late last year RareX has been critically assessing its project at Cummins Range and building a team to assess the best path forward for its project. RareX has also been working with industry leading consultants and players in the rare earth business such as Talaxis Group which is a fully owned subsidiary of Noble Group limited. This relationship will help RareX navigate the Asian landscape and introduce us to end users and refiners of our product.

How are you managing with the current COVID-19 pandemic on both business and personal front?
On a business front COVID -19 has affected market sentiment in the short term although we all know how quick that can turn. Practically it has limited our ability to access certain areas of the state easily without certain practices and procedures in place designed to protect the communities in which we operate that have a higher indigenous population than say Perth does for instance. RareX has been preparing these procedures and all in all has probably delayed our proposed exploration program by 2 months but the field season is only just beginning so it won’t affect us in the long term. On a personal level I must admit I find it very hard working from home as I have two young children and also my wife is currently working from home.

What’s the most exciting thing about running your business?
Working in Rare Earths you are forced to be across all the latest technological developments as rare earths are critical components in a lot of these technologies – I quite enjoy that. I also like the time I get to spend in the Kimberley where our project is located as it is such an ancient and beautiful landscape. And then there is all the people you get to meet and interact with from the contractors and consultants we use to the shareholders we report to and keep up to date with the companies it’s all good stuff.

How do you measure success?
As a publicly listed company there is only one true measure of success and that is share price appreciation. Simple as that.

What do you think is the most important quality of being an Executive Director/CEO of a listed company?
Hard to say as haven’t been at it long but I guess what strikes me is the variety of people in the role and the ones I find most impressive are the CEO’s that have built their businesses from the ground up. But I guess I would have to say tenacity and the ability to just keep going. Communication is also important, if you can’t explain to people what you are doing then it probably isn’t going to work.

What is your favourite book?
I am currently reading a book called Rare Earth Frontiers by Julie Michelle Klinger which examines the history and geopolitical importance of the Rare Earths business across the globe. It is particularly good at explaining how the industry got to where it is today as essentially a Chinese monopoly which is something the west is now trying to address. I have not finished it yet as generally takes me awhile to get through a book so hopefully am a bit more enlightened at the end of it

What message do you want to send to our readership in Asia?
Asia is the epicentre of the Rare earths business so RareX so we hope to build a presence their both with attracting shareholders and ultimately selling our products. Stay tuned.

How can people connect with you?
Email:
RareX Website: https://www.rarex.com.au/

The post RareX Limited (ASX:REE) – Jeremy Robinson appeared first on StockPal.

The post Dotz Nano Ltd (ASX:DTZ) – Uzi Breier appeared first on StockPal.

What’s your journey in becoming a CEO?
I served 7 years in the Israeli Air Force (IAF) and then studied in New York Computer Science and Industrial Engineering. Later completed my MBA in California, USA. Coming from a non-privilege background, I worked full time while carrying out my studies. My first important opportunity was with National Semiconductor where during 8 year of tenure, I grew from junior positions to senior ones and learned how the industry really spins. As a product-manager I interfaced with developers, sales & marketing personnel, customers, prospects, finance, legal and senior management, which turned to be a great opportunity to deeply comprehend the interfaces between these disciplines. After serving in senior sales and marketing positions at companies like Orbit Semiconductor, Flextronics and more, I was given my first CEO position and since then managed quite a few – both start-ups and larger listed companies till I arrived at Dotz Nano about 2 years ago.

Tell us a bit about your business and how you are commercializing?
Dotz is a technology leader, specializing in the development and marketing of advanced materials used for anti-counterfeiting, tracing, and product-liability solutions, providing comprehensive tagging, tracing and detection solutions to brands and manufacturers in different markets. When counterfeiters are acting with more than ever sophistication, producers are looking to provide their customers the certainty and peace of mind that their products are genuine and perform exactly as promised according to their high standards.

In essence we provide invisible unique fingerprint, embedded in the product (plastic, lubricants etc.) and a matching detector.

Dotz is selling its material (molecular markers) and special detectors as a “lock-and-key” solution both directly to customers, using sophisticated lead-generation and fulfilment mechanisms, as well as via various channels.

One example for such a channel, in the area of plastic products, is the use of compounders who prepare the mix, and sell to their clients products already containing the Dotz solution.

How are you managing with the current COVID-19 pandemic on both business and personal front?
The COVID-19 pandemic is definitely a major challenge for us. When entire economies ate coming to a halt, it is becoming very difficult to continue the research, manufacturing and selling activities. Having said that, this mega-crisis also brings about new opportunities for Dotz. It seems that the pandemic is driving many countries in Europe and USA to re-think their manufacturing strategy. When every country is struggling to buy its own face-masks, protective gear and ventilating machines – all manufactured in China and in great shortage at this time, many of them are now planning to move back home some essential manufacturing capacity. When this happens, they will need new and innovative ways to differentiate their brands and products, and Dotz is perfectly equipped to implement its embedded, eco-friendly and economical solutions to accomplish this task.

What’s the most exciting thing about running your business?
Most exciting thing about running this business is the ability to harness the talented team to solve customers’ technical and commercial difficulties, such that both customers and employees feel content and satisfied. When my employees are not only making a living but also reaching self-actualization, while producing happy customers – I feel excited and fulfilled.

How do you measure success?
Success is naturally measured in monetary terms, but in my eyes, it is also a function of contributing to society and for creating a better world.
By preventing some of the US $2.2 Trillion annual worth of counterfeiting activity worldwide, we are contributing to having a better society.

Think of a child car safety seat that with our markers can be identified as a fake one, hence saving the life of a child in case of an accident (as the counterfeited one didn’t go through the rigorous crash tests like the genuine one).

What do you think is the most important quality of being a CEO of a listed company?
The ability to read the market needs and re-invent yourself over and over, directing the skills and know-how of the team at the right vector. A good CEO is measured in times of crisis and this time is definitely qualifies as such.

What is your favourite book?
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Prof’ Yuval Noah Harari –
The author spans the whole of human history, from the very first humans to walk the earth to the radical, and sometimes devastating, breakthroughs of the Cognitive, Agricultural, and Scientific Revolutions. I believe that there is lots to learn about our future by fully understanding where we come from and how we developed as cognitive modern human beings.

What message do you want to send to our readership in Asia?
The Corona Virus will be defeated soon. The world may go through some associated difficulties but hopefully it will eventually turn to be a healthier one.

We at Dotz are fully prepared to contribute our small share in making it a better place to live in.

How can people connect with you?
Email:
Dotz Nano Website: https://www.dotz.tech/

The post Dotz Nano Ltd (ASX:DTZ) – Uzi Breier appeared first on StockPal.

The post Aptorum Group (NASDAQ:APM) – Ian Huen appeared first on StockPal.

What’s your journey in becoming a CEO?
I graduated from Princeton University with an A.B. degree in Economics in June 2001, subsequently completed a postgraduate MA program in Comparative and Public History from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in June 2016. I also attained Chartered Financial Analyst (“CFA”) designation during my time at formerly Janus Capital (currently renamed to Janus Henderson Group plc) as an equity research analyst covering the U.S. healthcare sector. Following which, I was a global asset manager for over 15 years for our proprietary family office funds and others. During that time, I was also the sell-side financial advisor in the sale of Seng Heng Bank Limited (Macau) to Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in 2007. After that, I founded Aptorum Group, a biopharmaceutical company focused on unmet medical needs, in 2016 and became its Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director with initial seeding capital c. USD$25m.

Tell us a bit about your business and how you are commercializing?
Aptorum Group Limited (Nasdaq: APM) is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to tackle unmet medical needs. Our pipeline currently focuses on indications including orphan diseases, infectious diseases and metabolic diseases, a number of which are targeted to enter various phases of clinical trials in 2020. Our company also operates a woman’s health supplement business whose Chinese Yam Nutraceutical Tablets is currently being manufactured in Canada and targeted for commercialization this Q2/3 2020.

The first of our three major pillars of drug discovery and development is the Smart-ACTTM platform. Under the platform, we target to systematically identify and repurpose existing approved drugs for selected orphan disease, thus significantly cutting short development timeline and resources of bringing the molecule into late-stage clinical trials. In our case, we target to bring a new repurposed drug to phase 1b/2a trials on average between 12-18 months per program from initial screening. As a first proof-of-concept, the Smart-ACTTM platform has successfully screened over 1,615 approved drugs against 3 therapeutic target proteins related to poor prognosis of neuroblastoma (“NB”) and selected one candidate for further development with an aim to entering clinical trials. This lead program, SACT-1, for the treatment of neuroblastoma, is targeted for an IND submission via the US FDA 505(b)(2) pathway in second half of 2020 to enter proof of concept human trials in North America.
Our second major pillar is the Acticule platform, targeting infectious diseases which is a hot area right now. One of our leading programs is ALS-4 targeting infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus using an anti-virulence (non-bactericidal) approach. ALS-4 is a small molecule anti-virulence non-bactericidal drug for the treatment of infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus including Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA), one of the “superbugs” estimated to cause at least 150,000 infections in the US along with between 30-55% mortality rate. ALS-4 drug is a first-in-class oral drug which disarms the bacteria by inhibiting the production of Staphyloxanthin, the golden pigment covering the bacteria, which make it resistant to attack from reactive oxygen species (ROS) employed by our phagocytic cells and neutrophils as an immune defense. By inhibiting the pigment production, our data clearly indicated the remarkable efficacy of ALS-4 against Staphylococcus aureus including MRSA. ALS-4 is currently undergoing IND enabling studies and is targeted for IND submission in second half of 2020 to commence phase 1 trials in North America.

Our third major pillar is the Claves platform which targets metabolic diseases. The lead program under Claves platform, CLS-1, is a macromolecule that modulates the chemical signaling of gut microbiota for the treatment of obesity. CLS-1 is an orally administered non-absorbable macromolecule that binds a specific metabolite related to obesity excreted by gut microbiota with high affinity and specificity. In a preclinical study employing an animal model, we successfully demonstrated that CLS-1 significantly reduced body weight without any major side-effects such as liver toxicity. CLS-1 is currently in preclinical development, targeted for IND submission in 2021.

We also have a dietary supplement, NLS-2, targeted for the relief of women undergoing menopause or post-menopausal cycles and experiencing related symptoms such as flushes and even osteoporosis. The supplement is made from Chinese yam containing an active bioactive ingredient called “DOI”, which is Aptorum Group’s non-hormonal approach intended to meet certain growing $17 billion per year global women’s health consumer nutritional market. We have entered into a regional distribution agreement with Multipak Limited, a local company holding the famous tea brand “Luk Yu” and other health products. The supplement will initially be sold in Hong Kong and we are seeking regulatory clearance to market the product in other major jurisdictions. At this stage, the production of Aptorum Group’s NLS-2 DOI based bioactive nutraceutical tablets has commenced in Canada and will be marketed under the brand name NativusWellTM. The product is expected to be revenue generating in 2020.

How are you managing with the current COVID-19 pandemic on both business and personal front?
The SARS-COV-2 virus that causes the COVID-19 disease is highly infectious and requires a multi-dimensional approach from the worldwide communities to bring this under control. Aptorum Group has made announcements at the end of March on our SACT-COV19 program, where we have identified, under our Smart-ACT platform, at least 3 FDA approved small molecule drugs that we will investigate further for repurposing against the COVID-19 virus. We are partnering with Toronto based pharma development company Covar Pharmaceuticals and also contracted University of Hong Kong’s Microbiology team to conduct further preclinical investigations. The merit about drug repurposing is that these are usually previously approved and marketed drugs that have already undergone rigorous clinical trials, therefore these candidates can potentially benefit from a shortened development timeline to reach proof-of-concept clinical trials (usually bypassing or conducting abbreviated preclinical and phase 1 studies subject to regulatory approvals). We hope to report back our progress in this Q2 prior to seeking regulatory approval to initiate clinical trials on our selected candidates.

Based on the current situation, we expect this disease may not be fully eradicated and may well continue for the medium term. Although the current SARS-COV-2 virus (current mortality rate 4.1%) has a lower mortality rate than that of the 2003 SARS-COV-1 virus strain (mortality rate 9.6%) or the 2012 MERS-COV virus strain (mortality rate 37%), the current SARS-COV-2 virus has a more resilient survival period and higher infection rate. Our strategy is to tackle this disease from a therapeutic standpoint and we will continue to investigate and develop our SACT-COV19 drug candidates under our Smart-ACTTM platform for the treatment of COVID-19, and hope to work with our collaborators to speedily deliver a workable therapeutic solution to the world.

On the personal front, I strongly recommend abiding by government guidelines in maintaining personal hygiene as well as the practice of social distancing until such time the government considers it safe to do otherwise.

What’s the most exciting thing about running your business?
The pharmaceutical industry is undergoing expansion, driven by the unmet medical needs in various diseases areas. For Aptorum Group, it is exciting to catalyze the development and improvement of a broad portfolio of projects under development from preclinical to clinical stages of novel therapeutics and diagnostics across a wide range of disease/therapeutic areas, specifically orphan disease area. I particularly enjoy the process of successfully transforming clinical outcomes to create value, sustainable business growth and the most important thing, saving patients.

How do you measure success?
The definition of success is different for everyone, and my definition of success is to achieve success for different stakeholders of the Aptorum Group. For investors, success can be the value creation of the enterprise. For employees, success can be the positive development of an individual’s career path or the award from the job. For Aptorum Group’s business, I like to see through the successful development of our drugs to tackle unmet medical needs and save more lives.

What do you think is the most important quality of being a CEO of a listed company?
First, the CEO needs to have the farsightedness so that he can foresee the strategic steps required for the company in the long term. Second, as the business market evolves rapidly due to external factors, so the company needs to be nimble and flexible enough in adapting to such changes in the market. Finally, perseverance is also crucial and critical in driving the success of pharmaceutical companies, drug research and development may not always be smooth, as CEO, must have confidence and embrace the changes.

What is your favourite book?
My favourite book is “Qi Wu Lun” written by Chuang Tzu. The text formulates that the universe is of one entity and humans are part of that structure. As with our ALS-4 program, a natural approach are used to disarm the bacteria by inhibition of the production of staphyloxanthin aureus including MRSA, the golden pigment covering bacteria, which allow our immune system to eliminate the bacteria on its own without using antibiotic.

What message do you want to send to our readership in Asia?
This year 2020 is proving to be an exciting year for Aptorum Group which will transform into a full-fledged clinical stage biopharmaceutical company driven by our three major platforms. Despite the challenges arising due to the COVID-19, our development progress and recent expansion of pipeline continue to operate on a business-as-usual basis. With the recent capital raise completed and supported by our US institutional fund shareholders, our fundamentals remain strong and we will continue to target to deliver those key catalysts and drive shareholder value as we have planned and communicated to our investors so far.

How can people connect with you?
Email:
Aptorum Group Website: https://www.aptorumgroup.com/

The post Aptorum Group (NASDAQ:APM) – Ian Huen appeared first on StockPal.