Maria Cook, Chair

Maria has more than 30 years’ experience in a wide range of positions and industries including local government, higher education, charities and corporate experience as Executive Director at Ronald McDonald House Charities and Executive Officer of a Business Enterprise Centre. In 2000, Maria was a finalist in the NSW Telstra Business Women of the Year.

As an Executive and Non Executive Board Member of commercial and charity Boards, Maria also has extensive Board experience. Throughout her career, she has led teams of 90 staff over multiple sites, as well as provided coaching, networking and training services to hundreds of small businesses. Maria holds a Bachelor in Social Work and as well as an IBM Management Program for Charity Executives.

Bob Christiansen, Non-Executive Director

BEcon (Queensland), DipInfmProc (Queensland), DipFinServices (AFMA)

Bob is the founding managing director of Southern Cross Venture Partners, one of Australia’s largest technology venture capital firms. He is also a director of several early and later-stage technology companies in Australia and the US. He has been a member of the former Queensland Government’s Science and Innovation Advisory Council, and its predecessor, The Smart State Council. He is also an advisory board member of the UQ-owned technology incubator, iLab and in 2015 was selected by the Knowledge Society and the Office of the Australian Chief Scientist as a member of the “Knowledge Nation 100”. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at the University of Queensland.

Bob spent over 20 years in the US technology sector, where he founded two start-up companies. Prior to returning to Australia, he spent time as chief technology officer for the advisor services group of Fidelity Investments in Boston.

Previously, Bob was a general partner of venture capital firm Allen & Buckeridge. He brings over 40 years of experience in entrepreneurship and the international technology sector, with an emphasis on commercialization and financing, business management and operations, and system design and development. 

Andreas Sohmen-Pao, Non-Executvie Director

Andreas is Chairman of BW Group, a global maritime group involved in oil and gas production and shipping. He is also Chairman of two publicly listed affiliates in Norway, BW LPG and BW Offshore.Mr Sohmen-Pao was previously Chief Executive Officer of BW Group. Under his leadership, the group grew substantially over the past fifteen years, successfully completing multiple acquisitions.

Today, the BW Group spans numerous business segments including crude oil, refined products, LNG, LPG, dry bulk and chemicals transportation, deepwater oil and gas production, and floating LNG storage.Mr Sohmen-Pao is currently non-executive Chairman of the Singapore Maritime Foundation and a non-executive director of Sport Singapore, Singapore National Parks Board and Singapore Symphonia Company. He has also served as non-executive director of The Hongkong Shanghai Banking Corporation, The London P&I Club, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore and The Esplanade Co Ltd amongst others.

Mr Sohmen-Pao was educated at Oxford University in England, from which he graduated in 1993 with an honours degree in Oriental Studies. He also holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Jennifer McFarlane, Non-Executive Director

With a wealth of experience as a public company board director, Jennifer brings strategic and financial management expertise to the BioGill Board. Jennifer has held executive management positions, including both CEO and CFO, primarily with clean-tech and med-tech companies commercializing solar, medical diagnostic and waste-to-fuel technologies. In her prior CFO roles, predominately in technology driven companies in the US and Australia, she has developed a track record that includes implementing financial systems to drive high growth, establishing global operations and developing innovative business models.

Based in Palo Alto, USA, Jennifer is currently a consulting CFO, partnering with high growth early stage businesses and financial advisory firms. Career highlights include capital raising expertise in excess of USD600M, the commercialization of multimillion dollar projects in China and India and recognition with the Centenary Medal for Business Contributions awarded in Australia, as well as a member of the NY-based Council on Foreign Relations.

Jennifer holds a Master of Business, Stanford University, as well as a Bachelor of Law and Bachelor of Science Organic Chemistry/ Biochemistry, University of New South Wales, Australia.

Paul Hatten, Group CEO & Executive Director

Paul is a technology driven, senior executive with a track record of accomplishment in strategic international business management roles within the water and wastewater sectors. With more than 25 years’ experience driving corporate strategy, vision, product validation, channels to market, operations implementation, and execution management, Paul has held senior executive roles within various high value Australian and US companies.

Specialist areas for Paul include Agile and Change Management, Open Book and Lead Management, Capacity Restraint Process Development and Cross Functional Team Development and product market fit ensuring financial viability. Paul holds an Associate of Engineering Applied Science Construction Hydraulics from Technical and Further Education Queensland and is currently completing a Masters of Business Administration at La Trobe University.

John West, Company Founder

As BioGill's Founder, John is responsible for driving strategy, application innovation and global market expansion. John is an entrepreneur committed to sustainability and clean technologies. Prior to establishing BioGill, he founded a water, solar and energy savings company. Under his leadership, this company grew substantially from start up to multi million dollar turnover, winning large government contracts.

One of John’s outstanding abilities is to motivate and inspire his teams. He has driven revenue growth for many organisations such as White International, Stegbar, Siddons Ramset Industrial and Cromford.

John holds a Graduate Certificate and Post Graduate Certificate in Management from Deakin University. He maintains memberships with the Australian Institute of Management, Australian Institute of Company Directors and the Australian Water Association.

Martin Diernisse, Board Observer

Martin is part of BW Group, a global maritime company involved in oil and gas production and shipping. Based in Copenhagen, he is responsible for a portfolio clean-tech venture investments through Board positions. In addition, he works with the CEO of BW to execute high-impact projects across the group.

With a background in management consulting, Martin brings extensive experience in strategy development and execution including hands-on management of scaleup companies.

Martin holds a Master in Finance and Strategic Management from Copenhagen Business School.