Uprooting gender bias
Jaala Pulford, Chair, MTPConnect
Jaala is Chair of MTPConnect, Australia’s Growth Centre for the medical technology, biotechnology and pharmaceutical sector. She enjoyed a distinguished career as a senior minister in the Victorian state government, including serving as Minister for Innovation, Medical Research and the Digital Economy until her retirement ahead of last year’s state election. In this key portfolio, she led the establishment of mRNA Victoria and, working with the Australian Government, secured pandemicscale manufacturing capability for Australia through the partnership with Moderna. She was also instrumental in bringing BioNTech to Australia to deliver further R&D and manufacturing capabilities. One of Australia’s leading women, she’s at the forefront when it comes to promoting gender diversity and has been an inspiration to many.
“My first Ministerial appointment broke over a century of tradition when I was appointed the state's first female Minister for Agriculture. Early on the Government decided that all board appointments would be gender balanced, within a year. This came from a commitment to have those boards look more like the communities they serve or represent. This caused women all over the state to consider that perhaps they did have something to offer - on the water board, the hospital board or the local further education board. Many of these people have since gone on to private sector leadership and governance roles. Both the government and cabinet are now gender-balanced, quite the achievement given that when I was elected in 2006, only 77 women had sat in the Victorian Parliament in its first 100 years,” she said.
Throughout her career, she has supported greater gender equality, and this role at MTPConnect, is no different.
“We have countless talented women in our life sciences institutions and universities, in computing, engineering and research but they remain underrepresented in leadership roles and underrepresented in entrepreneurship. Some of this is caused by gaps in knowledge by investors - think about femtech with its massive potential markets and the dispiriting low levels of investment. Our health system undeniably suffers from gender bias and so too, does our life sciences sector,” she concluded.