What Alan Finkel did next

Ruth Beran discovers how one of Australia's great bioentrepreneurs has moved from inspiring shareholders to inspiring a nation.

Since he sold his company, Axon Instruments, to US firm Molecular Devices last year, one of the great unanswered questions around the Australian biotech scene has been 'What will Alan Finkel do next?'

Finkel is one of the few figures in Australian biotech to make the BRW rich list -- which in itself would be enough to generate an aura around him. Armed with a postdoc in electrical engineering and biophysics, Finkel started Axon in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1983 as a one-man neurosciences medical devices company, manufacturing voltage clamp amplifiers. The company was profitable every year but one and expanded its operations into imaging technology and hardware and software for data capture and analysis.

In 2004, Axon Instruments was acquired by Molecular Devices for US$140 million, and Finkel became the firm's chief technology officer. Few imagined he would keep a low profile for long, but there was surprise when he reappeared in the public view as the backer of a new science magazine, Cosmos, to be launched this June.

Accepting a Clunies Ross Science and Technology Award in late April, Finkel used the stage to call for a national effort to increase general awareness and appreciation of the role of science and technology.

"Australia needs a new generation of science entrepreneurs who can harvest scientific knowledge and turn it into new jobs and industries," he said "And we need a level of science literacy that will help us make rational decisions about the introduction of new technologies. As a child and student I loved good science writing. But there's not enough of it, especially in Australia."

Deeper into technology Spending time with Finkel, it's evident that he is having a very good time. To begin with, he loves his new role. "The integration of Axon and Molecular Devices has gone smoothly," he says. "I'm well tolerated in the company at the moment, which is good.

"I'm getting to do things I never did as a CEO. I've had a deeper involvement with the science and technology of what we're developing and I don't have to worry about arguing with investors and sales. I get time to go to conferences, spend more time in design reviews, give talks at conferences. I'm participating at the senior scientist/senior engineering level, which I could never do for 20 years when I was CEO."

More importantly, he's having fun. And that's something that Finkel strongly believes in: that science can be fun.

Through a private foundation, Finkel has provided more than AUD$100,000 as the principal funder and initiator of the Australian Advanced Neurosciences Research Initiative (AANRI). A national course, it gives young scientists who are well into their PhDs or postdocs the opportunity to learn latest research techniques from the best of the best.

AANRI's inaugural course was held in April, at University of Queensland facilities on North Stradbroke Island. Locating the course on a sand island 45 minutes by car ferry from Brisbane was a deliberate choice, says Finkel. "It sends a nice message to the participants that science can be fun. You work hard and you can enjoy yourself at the same time. You can go for a walk along a sand beach and go back to your work. It's great."

His investment in Cosmos was born out of the same principle (see 'Inspiring with science', below). But he makes it blatantly clear that he is not involved in the magazine in a day-to-day capacity. "I'm working full time with Molecular Devices," he says.

Molecular Devices' two main areas of interest are drug discovery and life sciences. The company's FLIPR reagent system is now being expanded into its fourth generation, and it is also focusing on high-content imaging and high-throughput electrophysiology.

"Some of the things I'm doing in imaging are things that I initiated personally when I was at Axon, and they've come across to be developed [at Molecular Devices]," Finkel says. One of them is the IonWorks Quattro, which Finkel says is "by a huge margin, the fastest machine for companies that are screening potential medicines in ion change targets."

Traveller's tips

When Australian Biotechnology News last caught up with Finkel, soon after Molecular Devices acquired Axon, he said he expected to make 10 trips a year to the US. "My travel schedule has actually increased, not decreased," he says now. "I used to travel nine or 10 times a year, but now I go about a dozen times a year because there's so much happening."

How does he cope with all the travelling? "Melatonin when you travel east and coffee when you travel west -- that's patent-free information," he jokes. "It actually works."

Despite all his work and travel commitments, Finkel makes it clear that he is also committed to his family and that he gets time with his children. "I'm in the office by 6 every morning but I'm home by 6.30pm."

And Finkel is obviously just as keen to inspire his own children about science as he is to inspire the youth of today, although he regrets that safety precautions mean that the science activities he can do with his children aren't as exciting as they once were. "When I was a kid we could get chemistry sets with muscles. You could blow yourself up with a chemistry set, it was great. It had acids and sulphur and aluminium powder and you could do anything. You can't get that now."

What does Finkel see himself doing in the future? "In the long term, when I'm no longer at Molecular Devices, whenever that should be, I certainly want to concentrate my attention in Australia, through commercial and voluntary activities," he says. "I enjoy being Australian. Australia has been good to me. I want to put back into the broader community, especially the science community."

Inspiring with science

Talking with Alan Finkel, one aspect of his character comes through loud and clear: he loves science. "I used to devour science magazines when I was a kid," he says. "National Geographic in the 1960s caught my attention with a whole series on the space efforts. Every month I followed the flights: the Mercury flights, the Gemini flights and the Apollo flights -- I loved it. Then they did the Jacques Cousteau series, discovery of the oceans. It inspired me. I wanted to be something scientific. Medicine, engineering, straight science -- it didn't matter, but I wanted to be something in those areas."

Finkel's aim in investing in Cosmos is to get others, especially young people, similarly inspired about the breadth and possibilities of science.

"The real reward will be the first time someone comes up to me and says 'I chose to do biological sciences or physics because I got inspired to read Cosmos magazine'," he says. Initially, the magazine will target the Australian market, but, Finkel says, "with a name like Cosmos we can legitimately take it anywhere".