Aug 10 2023 59 mins
Dr. Larry Marshall is the former CEO of CSIRO, Australia's national science organisation. As part of CSIRO, he has spent the last 5 years championing the role of science and research organisations to not just invent new solutions, but to truly innovate, by taking their inventions from the lab into the marketplace. With this vision in mind, he helped to create two key initiatives within CSIRO - the ON accelerate program to teach scientists how to become entrepreneurs and Main sequence ventures - a venture capital arm of CSIRO to help fund translational research and science into real products and companies. Prior to this, Larry used his knowledge obtained from his PhD in Laser Physics to found 6 different startup companies in Silicon Valley. These startups aimed to commercialise his research in laser technology for a variety of applications, including medical devices, communications and semiconductors. Larry holds 20 patents and was the inventor of the worlds first eyesafe laser. Not only this, but Larry was instrumental in growing the venture capital community in Australia through his work with Blackbird Ventures and Southern Cross Ventures. Now, Larry is continuing his mission to help accelerate innovation and the commercialisation of great Australian science and research. His latest book, “invention to innovation” explores Larrys incredible career, journey and story and dives deep into how we can help solve Australia's innovation dilemma.