Professor Simone Pettigrew is the Head of Food Policy. She has qualifications in Economics, Marketing, and Consumer Psychology. Her broad areas of expertise include behavioural psychology, health promotion, health policy, communications, social marketing, and intervention research.

Along with nutrition, her substantive areas of research include obesity, physical activity, alcohol consumption, smoking, active transport, and healthy ageing. Simone sits on numerous advisory committees and regularly performs research consultancies for NGO and government entities. To date, she has published more than 400 peer-reviewed papers and produced more than 160 technical reports for NGOs and government departments.

See Professor Pettigrew's full CV here.

Sindhu is the Head of Data Management. Following completion of her Master’s degree in Clinical Data Management from the University of Sydney, she has fulfilled a variety of data and systems orientated roles across the research, hospital, pathology, medical device, biotechnology and health charity sectors.

Her expertise includes clinical data management, software implementation, project management, business analysis, gap analysis, process re-engineering, risk management, change management, systems validation, systems integration, privacy and data governance.

One of her key achievements at The George Institute has been leading the development and implementation of the SPoT database which has substantially improved the tracking and reporting of key Institute research activity such as funding, projects and publications.

Dr Sonali Gnanenthiran is a clinician-researcher (cardiologist), with experience spanning basic science to clinical trials. Her research interests include cardiovascular disease prevention, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, blood clotting, and cardiovascular ageing.

She graduated with Honours Class I from the University of NSW in Medicine and obtained fellowships from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, and Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand. She completed her PhD at the University of Sydney, supported by a Heart Foundation/NHMRC scholarship. She is a cardiovascular researcher at the George Institute for Global Health, supported by the John Chalmers and Heart Foundation Fellowships. Additionally, she has honed her leadership in cardiovascular research through involvement in several trials (e.g., LOTUS, NEXTGEN-BP, Shop-to-Stop Hypertension, CO-OPERATE & PAX), which underscore her ability to drive impactful research. She is a member of the Australian Hypertension Taskforce Working Group, which aims to improve blood pressure control rates in Australia. 

Dr Gnanenthiran is a practising cardiologist at Concord Repatriation General Hospital and a senior lecturer at the University of NSW. She has more than 43 publications, 40 national/international conference presentations, and secured >$13.5 million in research funding including from top funding agencies (MRFF, Heart Foundation, NHMRC). Her key achievements include being awarded the 2023 American Heart Association [AHA] Karl Link Investigator Award for Thrombosis, 2023 CLIMB Research Scholars Award, 2020 & 2022 AHA Paul Dudley White International Scholar Awards, and the 2021 Scientific Medal of the Thrombosis and Haemostasis Society of Australia and New Zealand.

Sophia Zoungas is Professional Research Fellow at The George Institute and Head of Clinical Research and Diabetes Research Program  within the School of Public Health, Monash University.  She holds an National Heart Foundation CDA Fellowship and is a practising endocrinologist with clinical appointments at the RPAH Medical Centre, NSW and the Southern Health Care Network, Victoria.  Sophia’s research focuses on the management of Type 2 diabetes and its complications. Sophia is the international coordinator of the ADVANCE-ON study, a global long-term post-trial follow up study of the ADVANCE cohort that seeks to examine the legacy effects of intensive glucose control and routine blood pressure lowering in people with type 2 diabetes.

Dr. Soumyadeep Bhaumik is a medical doctor and international public health research methodologist striving to harness the power of science to drive just transformation for healthier individuals, communities, and nations.

As the Head of the Meta-research and Evidence Synthesis Unit at The George Institute for Global Health, he oversees an agile global team of researchers, specialising in using fit-for-purpose approaches for synthesising evidence to inform policies, practices, and guidelines. He is recognised internationally for his work on evidence synthesis, particularly research priority setting and core outcome sets -- both its conduct and methodological aspects. He also works on the moral and epistemological aspects of meta-research in health and medicine with the intent to transform the evidence ecosystem from justice-blind to pro-justice. Soumyadeep also conducts interpretive policy analysis to understand the societal construction and framing of public health problems. As a methodologist, he works in a disease-agnostic manner, although recent work has had a focus on snakebite.

Soumyadeep' s work has impacted the way research is conducted --through the Cochrane Handbook Chapter, which provides guidance on framing the scope of systematic reviews, development of reporting guidelines for research, and through methodological research. His work routinely influences guidelines, and policies of governments and multi-laterals. They have consistently been listed as one of the top 2% lifetime cited researchers (Stanford University analysis in General & Internal Medicine and Public Health field) since 2021.

Dr Kotwal is a clinical nephrologist at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney; Program Head of the Renal and Metabolic Division at The George Institute for Global Health and a Conjoint Senior Lecturer at UNSW. Her research interests include novel and pragmatic clinical trials and she is passionate about increasing clinical trial access for patients with kidney disease and personalised medicine. Dr Kotwal is the Academic Project Director for the GKPTN and the principal investigator for the Glomerular Disease Registry and Biobank in Sydney. She has expertise in translating research into clinical practice and in-depth knowledge of statistical techniques, epidemiology and clinical trial design.

Srini Akkaraju, based in the US, is the Founder and Managing General Partner of Samsara BioCapital, a biotech investment firm. He is currently Director of vTv Therapeutics, Syros Pharmaceuticals, Mineralys Therapeutics, Scholar Rock and Alumis Inc.

Srini has served as a Director on many biotech boards. He was formerly a General Partner of Sonfinnova Venturers, Managing Director of New Leaf Venture Partners, Founding Managing Director at Panorama Capital and Partner with JP Morgan Partners.

Srini joined the Board in February 2016 and is Chair of George Health Enterprises.

Stacey Jankelowitz is a staff specialist neurologist and clinical neurophysiologist at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Stacey was recently awarded an NHMRC TRIP fellowship. She implemented NHMRC guidelines for secondary prevention of stroke as her TRIP project. She is currently participating in a study to implement changes in care for patients with intracranial haemorrhage.

Her research interests include stroke, implementation science and neurophysiological testing of the central and peripheral nervous system in stroke and motor function.

Stacey has worked in the clinical research industry for over 20 years. A nurse by profession, Stacey began her clinical research career in central laboratory operations moving into a global role managing operations across Asia Pacific and South America.  She then moved into a Project Management role at a Phase 1 unit before joining the CRO industry where she gained substantial experience in project managing Healthy Volunteer and patient population early phase studies in multiple therapeutic areas.  

Stacie is a PhD student at UNSW and works in the Injury Division at The George Institute for Global Health. Stacie has been educating communities and advocating for better health outcomes in vulnerable groups since 2000, specifically in child injury prevention. She holds a Master of Public Health and is dedicated reducing unintentional childhood injury due to road trauma.

Stephen Jan is Head of the Health Economics and Process Evaluation Program and Co-Director, Health System Science at the George Institute for Global Health and Conjoint Professor at the University of New South Wales.

He is an Honorary Professor at the University of Sydney, a Director of the Sax Institute and an Associate at both the Menzies Centre for Health Policy and the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health. He is a current NHMRC Principal Research Fellow and has previously held posts at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation (CHERE) in Sydney. Stephen has over 20 years of experience in health economics, has published over 200 scientific articles and authored two textbooks in health economics.

He has worked closely with various governments of different levels, both in Australia (Commonwealth and State) and overseas, with international agencies such as the WHO and industry. His areas of expertise are economic evaluation, health financing, health sector priority setting, Indigenous and global health issues and the economics of chronic disease. 

Stephen is one of the two founders of The George Institute for Global Health and an architect of its global expansion.  He was joint Principal Director (CEO) of The George until 2023 when he stood down after 25 years in the role.  He continues to hold an appointment as Founding Director.

He also holds professorial appointments in medicine at UNSW Sydney and Imperial College of London. Prior to these appointments, he held positions as professor of medicine at the University of Sydney and the University of Oxford.  Stephen is an international authority on the causes, prevention, and treatment of cardiovascular diseases and has a special interest in the treatment of chronic and complex conditions in resource-poor settings, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.

Stephen was the architect of the Institute’s commercial program (George Health Enterprises) established to develop health-related services and products for the global market.  He was instrumental in raising capital for these developments, as well as the sale of a major commercial asset.

In addition to his Institute and university appointments, Stephen has held several external appointments as an advisor to major charities and life science companies worldwide.  He was chair of the International Scientific Board of the UK BioBank throughout the early stages of its design and implementation.

Stephen has received numerous awards and prizes for his achievements and contributions to medical sciences and social entrepreneurship.  He was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the 2017 Queen's Birthday Honours List.