Michelle Gallaher – Chair

Michelle Gallaher is Managing Director of Inverion, an advisory firm helping health services and research organisations navigate AI governance and integration. She is one of Australia’s most respected health technology entrepreneurs and a leading voice on the responsible adoption of AI in healthcare.

Michelle’s career spans clinical practice, biopharmaceutical executive leadership, peak-body stewardship, and four startups — including founding The Social Science, which she successfully sold into an ASX-listed company in 2018, and leading Opyl Ltd, an ASX-listed AI company applying machine learning to clinical trial design and recruitment. Most recently she served as inaugural CEO of Cerulea Clinical Trials, a Centre for Eye Research Australia spin-out, delivering ophthalmic clinical trials.

A recognised authority on AI ethics, data optimisation, clinical trials, scale strategy, and women in STEMM, Michelle is a sought-after speaker, board director, and policy advocate, serving as a non-executive director and technology advisor across several commercial and not-for-profit organisations.

Michelle holds a Global Executive MBA, postgraduate qualifications in business and product management, and an undergraduate degree in applied science. She is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Fellow of the Australian Institute for Management.

She was inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll for Women in 2018, winner of Westpac’s Businesses of Tomorrow, a Victorian Telstra Businesswoman and Entrepreneur of the Year and a Life Member of the BioMelbourne Network.