Associate Professor Tamara Mackean (MBBS, MPH, FAFPHM) is a Waljen woman of the north-east Goldfields region of Western Australia and a Public Health Medicine Physician. She is the Discipline Lead for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health in the College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University and holds a conjoint appointment as a Senior Research Fellow at the George Institute for Global Health and Associate Professor at UNSW. Dr Mackean conducts a broad range of public health research with a focus on equity and quality in health services and systems, social and emotional wellbeing, and food and nutrition. She applies multiple methods and research designs including indigenous research methodologies and decolonising approaches to implementation science to inform governments, health services, community organisations and health practitioners. Associate Professor Mackean’s keen interest to positively influence the health and well-being of all Australians extends to supervising higher research degree students working in the field of Public Health.

Dr Tim Fountaine is a Senior Partner with McKinsey & Company based in Sydney. He is also Chair of The Digital Sciences Initiative, University of Sydney.

Tim is a medical doctor/PhD and has more than 15 years’ experience working with governments on health policy and program implementation. He established McKinsey’s AI capability, QuantumBlack, in Asia and works with private and public sector organisations to help adapt AI and digital technologies.

Tim joined the Board in November 2023 and is a Member of the Risk Committee.

Timothy Longstaff is a Non-Executive Director of Aurizon, Channel Nine, Ingham and Perenti Global. He is also a Member of the Australian Treasury’s Takeovers Panel.

Tim spent most of his career in global investment banking, leading mergers and acquisitions, capital markets and strategic transformation assignments for organisations including Managing Director of Investment Banking at Deutsche Bank. He also acted as a Senior Advisor to the Australian Minister for Trade and Investment, Simon Birmingham from 2018 to 2021.

Tim joined the Board in January 2022 and is Chair of the Risk Committee and Member of the Audit Committee.

Tina joined The George Institute in June 2011, initially starting as a Clinical Trials Assistant within the Neurological and Mental Health Division. She is now a Project Support Officer and is currently working on the SAVE clinical trial. She has also previously worked on the INTERACT2 trial, which has now been completed. Tina holds a double degree in Exercise and Sport Science and Nutrition (Honours).

Tina leads The George Institute Australia’s media efforts but also oversees and coordinates The Institute’s Sydney events, internal communications, and digital outreach - all critical to achieving the organisation’s Strategy 2025 goals.  

She has over twenty years’ experience in diverse marketing communications roles across pharmaceutical, FMCG and not-for-profit sectors both in Australia and overseas.

Prior to joining The Institute in 2019, Tina held a variety of Sydney-based senior communications and media roles, including as Media and Communications Manager at the National Heart Foundation and as Senior Global Marketing Communications Manager at Cochlear, Ltd.

She holds a BSC (Hons) in Physiology and Biochemistry with Nutrition and a Masters degree in Human Nutrition.

Associate Professor Tom Briffa is an allied health practitioner and advocate who has devoted some 25 years to examining trends and models of care in cardiovascular disease treatment and management in Australia. His research targets the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease and its translation into practice.

Tom works with a network of dynamic health professionals globally from his base at the University of Western Australia. He was a founding member of state, national and international associations for cardiac rehabilitation and has held a variety of honorary positions with the peak health agencies.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX;">

Ty Madden is a proud Gadigal man from the Eora Nation of the Sydney metropolitan area. Ty works on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Program at The George Institute for Global Health. With over a decade working on Aboriginal research projects across NSW, Ty brings valuable community engagement experience to his research.

Over the last 15 years he has gained extensive knowledge and experience working within several Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations in NSW including Education, Health, Children, Family and Community Services and the Public Service sector at both State and Commonwealth levels. Ty has also been involved in research projects with the University of NSW and has worked on projects such as the Buckle Up Safely - Safe travel for Aboriginal children project. He applies Indigenous Research Methods to improve health outcomes by working in collaboration with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities.

Ty sees community engagement as essential and rewarding and as a key to build strong relationships for the research undertaken at The George Institute. His role focuses on bridging the gaps between community awareness and healthcare to inform on policy and care models for better health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Wennie joined the Injury Division of The George Institute for Global Health in February 2017 as a research assistant.

Her main roles are to recruit participants and conduct 12-month follow-up assessments for the PlaTFORM Study – a trial of an individualised exercise program to increase physical function and reduce falls in older adults with vision impairment. Previously, Wennie has delivered exercise programs and provided dietary advice and counselling to older adults in her dual role as a clinical dietitian and trainer. Wennie has an undergraduate in Exercise and Sport Science, and has completed her Masters in Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Sydney.

Dr Xia Wang is a Doctoral Research Fellow at The George Institute who specialises in analyses of large-scale randomised controlled trials and conducting epidemiological study. She has a Master of Medicine in Epidemiology and Statistics from the Peking Union Medical college.

Prior to joining The George Institute, Xia worked at Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention where she was involved in national HIV drug resistance surveillance and national epidemiological studies.

Dr Xiaoying Chen is a Heart Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow and a Senior Research Fellow in the Global Brain Health Program at the George Institute for Global Health. She leads the stroke and technology themes in the Brain Health Program at the George Institute. She has over 19 years’ experience in international multicenter clinical trials and 15 years in designing and conducting large international clinical trials. She has led and been pivotal to the success of multiple international randomised controlled trials which have had significant impact on guidelines, and decision-making in clinical practice. Her research program focuses on treatment in acute stroke care and stroke recovery by designing and implementing innovative large international clinical trials, developing new tools and measures to support stroke care, especially for remote and underserved population.

Dr Chen is an early career researcher in Clinical trials and stroke. She has vast experience in large scale stroke trials and has been pivotal to the success of multiple world-class large international clinical trials, including as one of the Lead PIs of A multi-faCtorial, mulTi-arm, multi-staGe, randomised, gLOBal Adaptive pLatform trial for stroke (ACT-GLOBAL) aiming to be executed through 300+ hospitals in 20+ countries, Global Project Lead of landmark trial - The third, INTEnsive care bundle with blood pressure Reduction in Acute Cerebral haemorrhage Trial (INTERACT3) with 7000+ stroke patients enrolled from 120+ centres from 10 countries, Senior Project Lead of INTEnsive blood pressure Reduction in hyperacute Cerebral haemorrhage Trial (INTERACT4) with 2200+ stroke patients enrolled from 50+ centres in China, Senior Project Lead of Second Enhanced Control of Hypertension and Thrombectomy Stroke Study (ENCHANTED2) with 800+ stroke patients enrolled from 50+ centres in China, Global Project Lead of other large international clinical trials, including ENCHANTED, INTERACT2 and SAVE.

Xu Zhang graduated from Shenyang University with a Bachelor degree in international accounting. Before joining the George Institute China in October 2014, she had three years working experience as an auditor which helped her quickly adapt to a new environment. 

Yangfeng is the Professorial Fellow of the Peking University Clinical Research Institute and Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Peking University School of Public Health. After receiving his undergraduate and graduate training in medicine, public health and epidemiology, Dr Wu started his career as a Research Fellow in the US-PRC Collaborative Study of Cardiovascular and Cardiopulmonary Epidemiology, where he was sent to the US later on through the NIH Scholar Exchange Program for training in epidemiological research.

His research focuses on prevention and control of cardiovascular disease and he has published over 150 peer-reviewed papers in both Chinese and international journals.  As a cardiovascular expert, Professor Wu has made valuable contributions to reduce the impact of cardiovascular disease in China.  

In 2009, he founded the China International Center for Chronic Disease Prevention in Beijing, a network of 12 Chinese and international research institutions, with the funding awarded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the UnitedHealth Group. Through the platform, a large project on low-cost, simple interventions for blood pressure control and stroke prevention involving 120 villages from 10 counties in 5 provinces of China is currently running.

Besides his own research, he made great efforts to develop research platforms for high quality clinical research in China. He is the founding Director of The George Institute for Global Health, China, which is hosting the China International Center for Chronic Disease Prevention. He is also one of the founders of Peking University Clinical Research Institute, the first of its kind in China to provide professional technical support to clinical experts in designing, implementing and analyzing clinical studies.

He is also one of the founders of the Chinese Course on Innovative Drug Development and Regulatory Sciences, an international joint program hosted by Peking University Clinical Research Institute, in collaboration with University of Basal and the University of California at San Francisco. With his advices and suggestions, Peking University Clinical Research Program was launched in 2010, as an innovative model, to support financially, technically and also ethically the innovative ideas in clinical research.

As a Member of the Board, he actively participated in the establishment of the Peking University Health Science Center – University of Michigan Health System Joint Institute of Clinical and Translational Research, another new model of collaboration to promote high quality of clinical research in China. Under his leadership, a new graduate course “Expert Seminar Series on Sciences in Clinical Research” has been launched at Peking University Graduate School in September, 2011 to provide the students the most practice-relevant and advanced knowledge in clinical research. After three years of hard efforts, a system for high quality clinical research including resources for funding, technical supporting, scientific and ethical quality management, training, and administration has been established and started functioning.