Leadership Team

Our Leadership Team is comprised of dedicated cell and gene therapy experts with the GMP manufacturing know-how and regulatory understanding to drive your product from clinical trial to commercial supply for the global market.

Peter Giannopoulos

Peter Giannopoulos
Chief Executive Officer

Peter has over 20 years’ experience in executive leadership, strategic business development, organizational advocacy, financial and operational governance in the healthcare space. He has a deep understanding of financial and operational governance requirements developed and honed within an ASX setting to optimize business processes and create accountable, scalable, and competitive operations.

Peter has demonstrable experience navigating the M&A and regulatory landscapes, being able to identify where and how to invest to deliver the most optimal patient and client outcomes whilst continuing to deliver high business value. He is a strong proponent of building and leading collaborative company cultures, supporting employee development, training, and growth opportunities necessary to deliver a high-performing team.

Dominic Wall

A/Prof Dominic Wall
Chief Scientific Officer

Dominic oversees the quality and production nominees for the purposes of licensing by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).
At the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Dominic has a joint appointment as the Executive Director for Business Ventures, leading its enterprises such as the external Pathology services. He also provides executive oversight to the national Centre of Excellence in Cellular Immunotherapy which was established in 2019 with an $80 million contribution from the Commonwealth Government.

Dominic’s academic background and interests are primarily in cancer immunotherapy, in vivo cell tracking in human cell therapy (using nuclear medicine and MRI) and regulation of the developing cell and gene therapy field. He has published more than 80 manuscripts, abstracts and presentations in these areas, and has previously been the ANZ regional president of the International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy (ISCT).

In 1999 Dominic developed the cell therapy program at Peter Mac and was one of the founders of Cell Therapies in 2003, leading it to becoming the first TGA licensed service in this field in Australia.

Sven Straub

Sven Straub
Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary
Sven Straub was appointed as Chief Financial Officer in August 2014. Over the course of his career, Sven has provided financial and commercial leadership and governance to a wide range of international businesses for almost 20 years. With experiences and expertise spanning Australia, UK and Singapore for Novartis (8 years) and a number of FTSE listed companies (Associated British Foods, PZ Cussons and G4S), Sven is a knowledgeable and trusted business executive.

Sven’s most relevant experience includes company start-ups, process development and improvement, long-term financial planning and analysis, and multiple IT system implementations. In addition, Sven has led the design and delivery of HR systems and processes, managed industrial relations and equal opportunity matters, whilst also strategically aligning corporate remuneration to business deliverables.

Sven graduated from RMIT in 1989 (Bachelor of Business), and completed his CPA qualification in 1993, followed by a Master of Business Administration at Deakin University (2009).

Dr Wendy Fleming

Dr Wendy Fleming
Director of Production

Wendy is responsible for the delivery of projects manufactured within the Cell Therapies cGMP facility.

Wendy graduated from the University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology and Pathology with Honours, and worked at the Western Australian Institute of Medical Research prior to undertaking a PhD in Molecular Biology at the University of Queensland in conjunction with the Queensland Institute of Medical Research. After completing her postgraduate degree Wendy went on to further her career working at cGMP facilities in academic research institutes before moving to Melbourne in 2010 to take up her position at Cell Therapies.

In addition to the many projects she has managed in Australia, Wendy has also successfully managed client projects in South East Asia, and in particular, was the Project Manager responsible for the design and specification of a cGMP PIC/S Clean room facility in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. As part of this project, Wendy implemented a TGA compliant quality system, conducted training for manufacturing staff and facilitated the commencement of a Phase I clinical trial. The facility has since been accredited by the national regulatory agency.

Wendy’s main interests are process development, continuous improvement strategies and technology transfers. Her other interests include the design, specification and commissioning of cGMP facilities and was directly involved in the development of the cGMP clean room facilities for the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre (VCCC) in Parkville.

Gerry McKiernan


Gerry McKiernan
Director of Quality
Gerry ensures the development, implementation and maintenance of the Quality Management System to deliver complex cell therapies to patients. Gerry has 20 years’ experience in various Quality roles in research and development and cGMP manufacturing in Europe, Asia and Australia.

He is tertiary qualified in Applied Chemistry from the Institute of Technology Tallaght, Ireland.

Since graduating, Gerry’s career has included biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device industries, where he was overseeing quality systems for product development, clinical trials, validation and contract manufacturing. He has led large Quality Management System implementation projects for cell therapy manufacturing in China and Japan and was the project lead for the TGA generic clinical trials and commercial GMP manufacturing licences for Cell Therapies.

Gerry is passionate about continuous improvement within regulated industries and has successfully made it part of the culture in the organisations he has been involved with.

Nathan Smith


Nathan Smith
Business Development Manager
Nathan oversees business development, collaboration activities, and manages the client pipeline at Cell Therapies. He has over 20 years’ experience within the cell therapy and biopharma industries, with strong expertise in cGMP clinical and commercial manufacturing.

Before moving to Australia in 2015 and joining Cell Therapies, Nathan made several career stops at multinational companies in the US. He worked at GlaxoSmithKline’s U.S. Biopharmaceuticals facility, participating in multiple technical transfer projects, before joining BioReliance, where he led the expansion of their cell banking business. Subsequently, Nathan worked at Mesoblast, managing process development and manufacturing support of phase II and III clinical trials for an allogeneic cell therapy product. Finally, he worked at Genzyme as the Associate Director of Global Cell Banking Operations before joining Cell Therapies.

Nathan graduated from Pennsylvania State University in the US with a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering. He now calls Australia home.

Vy Nguyen


Vy Nguyen
Contract Relationship Manager
Vy is a key point of contact between Cell Therapies Pty Ltd and our clients. He is responsible for building and maintaining collaborative relationships with clients while working with internal stakeholders to deliver our clients’ business needs.

Vy had spent 24 years working for Bayer HealthCare in various managerial roles relating to the development, process transfer, clinical and commercial manufacturing of recombinant blood coagulation therapeutics. Prior to joining Cell Therapies in 2020, he had spent 4 years at AGC Biologics. His achievements include establishing a large-scale monoclonal antibody manufacturing facility, leadership of the day-to-day operations’ function, and client management as general manager and site head.

Vy holds a Bachelor of Science in Business from Dominical University of California, USA.

Behind the Scenes

Our team of experts spans the medical, healthcare, and scientific communities, driving the development and commercialization of groundbreaking cell and gene therapies.

Our Board

Extensive experience across the Australian healthcare and medical sector, and biotechnology industry.

Meet Our Board

Scientific Advisors

Expertise and knowledge from across the cell and gene therapy, health, and medical sectors

Meet our Advisors