ANTHONY (TONY) FINNEY PhD

ATTRIBUTES:

  • Draws on careers in both academia and business to provide a range of services to the earliest stages of technology commercialisation.
  • Specialises in accelerating the earliest stages of commercialisation of an emerging technology, where its potential has been seen but no lead application (product or service) has so far been identified.
  • Works with a new technology’s stakeholders to select its most promising lead application and to qualify the first target/beachhead market it will be launched into, bringing technical and market analysis skills to bear on this task.
  • Assists with execution of the steps needed to demonstrate proof-of-concept and/or commercial potential — if this has not already happened — and with development of a commercialisation game-plan to propel the selected lead product/service into its chosen market.
  • Facilitates technology road-mapping exercises where informed choices need to be made between alternative game-plans.
  • Applies guided Delphi, stage-gate and NASA-derived costing methodologies to manage risk and cost during game-plan execution.
  • Where the game-plan calls for a start-up company to be formed, draws on best practice business incubation expertise to assist founders of this enterprise reduce the risk of failure in infancy.
  • Assists with assembly of resources — human capital, key relationships, organisational assets, plant and equipment, finance — needed by this new enterprise acting as a commercialisation vehicle.
  • Where desirable, confers on such a start-up the benefits of the open innovation approach, equipping it with the robust alliances it needs to reduce the risk of enterprise failure.

ACHIEVEMENTS:

  • Recruited to the academic staff of the University of Tasmania in the early 60s, Tony was responsible for teaching in, and the development of senior undergraduate and honours courses in the physical chemistry of the solid state until 1975.
  • Pursued active research in the field of X-ray crystallography, writing a complete suite of computer programs in Algol 60 for processing X-ray diffraction data—programs that play a key role in determining the 3D atomic architecture of crystalline compounds. Computationally intense parts of this suite were written in Elliott 503 machine code. Work in this field led to scientific publications in international journals on the structure of interhalogen compounds and transition metal nitrites (see, for example, Australian Journal of Chemistry, 34, 10, 1981 [10 papers]).
  • In 1975 Tony assisted the founding Director of the Centre for Environmental Studies (the late Dr Richard Jones) to set up this new academic unit offering the first course-work masters qualification in this study area in Australia. As Deputy Director, Tony supervised masters candidates, developed rules for the degree, and procedures to be followed by the Board of Studies that administered the degree for the University, and created new course management tools.
  • Tony became the Director of the University’s Central Science Laboratory (CSL) in 1979. This unique organisation was set up to service the laboratory-based Faculties of the University (at that time: Agricultural Science, Science, Engineering and Medicine) with state-of-the-art instrumentation. These instrument systems support both research projects and teaching activities in a wide range of University departments.
  • Between 1979 and 1989, Tony devised the administrative and reporting arrangements that connect the Laboratory into the University’s governance system, and the mechanisms used to ensure user participation in planning the evolution of the Laboratory’s instrumental facilities. Tony also initiated the formation of instrument purchasing consortia involving his and other public research institutions (other universities, CSIRO, DSTO, etc) where there was an interest in acquiring similar systems at around the same time (see www.utas.edu.au/csl/).
  • In 1989 he left the University, and with Margaret Whelan, established Finney Whelan International; FWI was one of the first technology commercialisation practices in Australia. On its formation, FWI facilitated the establishment of the Tasmanian Earth Resources Satellite Station (TERSS) at Drouthy Point, near Hobart. This is a reception facility for satellite imagery collected over the Southern Ocean by US and European platforms, and was built by a consortium including the CSIRO Division of Oceanography, the Bureau of Meteorology, the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Studies (IASOS). FWI’s role was to act as an intermediary in the assembly of this consortium see - www.terss.org.au
  • In 1993, FWI relocated to La Trobe University’s R&D Park at Bundoora to assist with the formation of that university’s first ever spin-out company: QSR International Pty. Ltd. This company was created to commercialise a highly specialised software tool developed by two of La Trobe’s academics. The company was launched as a “born global” in late 1994, and now employs around 30 IT specialists.
  • This engagement triggered Tony’s ongoing interest in best practice business incubation as a necessary adjunct to the successful formation and launch of commercialisation start-ups. Beginning in the mid-90s, this interest led FWI to investigate the significant differences between business incubation practice in Australia, and the much more professional approach adopted in the USA and the EU.
    Tony drew on this experience to lead feasibility and design work on three of this country’s most successful business incubator projects:
    • The Darebin Enterprise Centre in north-central Melbourne, opened in 1997 as a general-purpose incubator supporting ~45 start-ups at any one time; in May 2008 this organisation achieved international recognition, receiving the Incubator of the Year (Non-technology Category) at the US National Business Incubation Association’s annual conference, San Antonio, Texas—DEC graduates 5-7 companies/year.
    • The Regional Enterprise Centre Network in Central Victoria, the largest business incubator network in Australia, supporting ~90 start-ups in 8 facilities totaling 7,475 sq.m. leasable area, located in 5 adjacent local government jurisdictions — RECN Central Victoria graduates ~12 companies/year.
    • The Innovation Centre on the campus of the University of the Sunshine Coast at Sippy Downs, a technology business incubator fostering start-ups in the ICT, sustainable industries, and sports, health and well-being sectors; opened in late 2002, currently accommodates 20 start-ups but expanding in 2008 to bring its tenancy up to ~50—in four years the Innovation Centre has graduated 12 companies.
  • Since 2000, the FWI partnership has delivered start-up assistance to technology-based start-ups commercialising Internet domain name registration services, a novel technique for chemical synthesis, a new instrument for elemental analysis, fire-resistant polymers and the use of thin-film diamond in microelectronic applications.
  • In 2006, formed an alliance between FWI and the Victorian node of the national Industry Capability Network. ICN is an independent, not-for-profit network assisting Australia’s manufacturing and services sectors with import replacement, business matching and export facilitation; each node is funded by its own state/territory government. In the course of delivering its core service, ICN’s clients often present opportunities for the development and commercialisation of new technologies, and if these meet key commercial criteria, the ICN(Victoria)/FWI Alliance develops these for early-stage investment.


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