Independent Chair

The organisation

LBT Innovations is a groundbreaking designer of advanced technology solutions for the medical industry. They specialise in bringing advanced medical technologies to market. Core capabilities include artificial intelligence, image analysis and software engineering solutions that improve medical diagnostic workflows.

LBT’s first technology was an automated culture plate streaking system called MicroStreak. It was brought to market as the PREVI® Isola and initiated a new era in automation for clinical laboratories.

Following this success, LBT partnered with the Australian Institute of Machine Learning to develop the Automated Plate Assessment System (APAS®). This technology performs automated image capture, analysis and interpretation of culture plates, delivering efficiencies to the microbiology workflow. In 2016, it became the first artificial intelligence diagnostic medical device to achieve FDA Class II clearance. The technology is currently being commercialised through LBT’s wholly owned subsidiary company, Clever Culture Systems.

The brief

LBT Innovations is exploring opportunities to extend its platform APAS® “intelligent imaging” technology towards new applications, including wound treatment, histopathology and Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing, broadening the scope from practical laboratory processes to cutting-edge computer vision and analysis.

When the company’s founder, Lusia Guthrie, stepped down from her role as CEO to embark on a portfolio career, Brooker Consulting was retained to identify her successor. With the subsequent retirement of LBT’s long-standing Chair, Kate Costello, Brooker was successful in winning this brief in a competitive pitch.

The process

The extensive briefing endorsed a comprehensive executive search, augmented by dissemination of the role through the AICD and Women on Boards.

The outcome

When the shortlist was interviewed by the Board’s Sub-Committee, Joanne Moss emerged as the preferred candidate.

She has a Master’s Degree in Law, and has undertaken formal studies in Governance through the GIA, as well as training in Artificial Intelligence through the MIT Sloan School of Management.