Professor Sarah Pearson

Sarah has extensive global executive leadership experience spanning C-suite roles in the public and private sector, including leading brands such as Cadbury and McKinsey. Her career has spanned being an entrepreneur, intrapreneur, innovator and inventor; a scientist, academic and women in STEM advocate; an investor and mentor to start ups; public servant and advisor to governments locally, nationally and internationally; and the development of collaborative innovation ecosystems. Sarah represented Australia globally as the inaugural Chief Innovation Officer and Chief Scientist for the Commonwealth Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade, and continues some of this work through global Board and Advisory roles.

Sarah currently overseas over $1bn of Venture Capital through Investment Committees (Main Sequence Ventures), Boards (Global Innovation Fund), and Advisory Boards (Impact Investment Exchange). The remainder of her portfolio includes roles such as Director at RACQ and Paul Ramsay Foundation Fellow. Her passion is to leverage emerging tech & innovation to accelerate economic growth, disrupt disadvantage, address global challenges, and leave no one behind.

She holds a PhD in Particle Physics from Oxford, is the author on eight international patents, for cancer diagnosis and novel confectionary, and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering.