Our FOUNDERS

Lucy Haslam - Chair and Co-Founder of AMCA

Dr, Teresa Nicoletti - Company Secretary and Co-Founder or AMCA

Lucy is a retired nurse, mother and grandmother from NSW but now residing in Queensland. Her 20-year nursing career included the establishment of a successful home nursing care agency.

Together with husband Lou (a retired NSW Police officer), they raised three sons in Tamworth. Lucy always considered herself fairly conservative in her views and strict in her parenting style but the diagnosis of stage four bowel cancer for her youngest son Daniel, in 2010, challenged her perceptions around cannabis as it became a miraculous remedy for the extreme side effects of chemotherapy.

With a strong desire to care for her son, Lucy embarked on a mission to educate herself and the Australian audience about the therapeutic properties of cannabis. In 2014 Lucy and Daniel were considered criminals as they accessed cannabis on the black market. Dan sadly lost his battle with cancer in February 2015. Despite this Lucy’s campaign for the re-introduction of Medicinal Cannabis has seen its legal status change at a state and federal level.

Lucy founded United in Compassion in 2014 and she now sees her role as both advocate for other patients and as an educator in Dan’s memory. In her role as UIC Director Lucy strives to keep the emerging industry patient-centric and morally grounded. In 2014 she organised the Inaugural Australian Medicinal Cannabis Symposium and followed up in 2016, 2017 and 2019 with three more international conferences with plans to continue on a regular basis into the future.

Lucy sat on the Advisory Council for the NSW Centre for Medicinal Cannabis Research and Innovation and on the ACT Non-Executive Medicinal Cannabis Advisory Council. She is keen to remain active in the industry to continue to represent patients and keep their needs at the centre of the emerging medicinal cannabis market.

Lucy was nominated and a NSW State finalist in the 2016 Australian of the Year Awards. She has received the Paul Harris Fellowship Rotary Award for her medicinal cannabis advocacy and was named as one of the top 100 Women of Influence in 2016, again for her work in reintroducing medicinal cannabis.

Lucy believes that once you understand the benefits of Medicinal Cannabis and its potential to relieve suffering, you cannot hold on to views that were born of the “war on drugs”. She predicts that Cannabis will one day be viewed as a “wonder drug” and hopes that mothers and nurses can lead the revolution!

https://www.abc.net.au/austory/doing-it-for-dan/6867470

https://www.australianoftheyear.org.au/honour-roll/?view=fullView&recipientID=1409

Dr, Teresa Nicoletti - Company Secretary and Co-Founder or AMCA

Dr Teresa Nicoletti is a dual-qualified PhD-qualified scientist and lawyer, and is recognised as one of Australia’s leading legal practitioners in the health and life sciences sectors, particularly in the therapeutic goods space in which she has operated for more than 25 years.

She holds the highest Band 1 ranking for Life Sciences in Chambers Asia Pacific and is listed in Legal 500 for Intellectual Property and Best Lawyers for Health & Aged Care, Life Sciences and Biotechnology. She is also a dual winner of the Lawyers Weekly Partner of the Year in Health award and numerous other awards relating to her legal practice and training.

In her day-to-day legal practice, Teresa leads Mills Oakley’s Intellectual Property, Health and Life Sciences team, which provides broad advice to clients across their businesses, and draws on her unique mix of legal, regulatory, scientific and commercial expertise to obtain the best possible outcomes. She represents clients regularly in dealings with the TGA, state and territory health and food authorities, the APVMA, NICNAS, ACCC, HCCC, medical and pharmacy boards, AHPRA, VCAT and NCAT.

In addition to her legal practice at Mills Oakley, Teresa has a strong administrative law background, having been a senior member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal since 2006. She is also a board director of a number of companies in the health and life sciences sector, with a strong focus on corporate governance and compliance.

Teresa is well-recognised as one of the pioneers in the developing medicinal cannabis and hemp space in Australia, and since 2014 has strongly advocated for a facilitative legal and regulatory framework which provides access to high quality, safe and affordable medicinal cannabis to patients who may benefit from it.

Teresa also continues to advocate for a more facilitative industrial hemp scheme which provides broader access to hemp products in the cosmetics, food and textiles space.

Our Board

Justin Sinclair - Board Director

Iain McGregor - Interim Board Director

Justin Sinclair - Board Director

Justin has been on the AMCA Board since AMCA was founded in mid-2020.

Justin is Chief Scientific Officer with ANTG. He was previously a Research Fellow at the NICM Health Research Institute at the University of Western Sydney, Justin coordinated the Australian Medicinal Cannabis Research & Education Collaboration (AMCREC).

Justin is a member of the Society of Cannabis Clinicians Australian Chapter (SCCAC) Advisory Panel and has also served as an advisor to United in Compassion, Australia’s leading medicinal cannabis patient advocacy group, in a pro bono capacity, since January 2015.

Justin's scientific background is in pharmacognosy (i.e. drugs that come from plants, fungi and natural sources), but his research interests extend into botany, ethnopharmacology, analytical phytochemistry and psychopharmacology.

He is currently a co-investigator on several medicinal cannabis clinical research projects and has presented over 100 medicinal cannabis lectures to medical practitioners, nurses, pharmacists and the general public since 2016.

Justin has published on the topics of cannabis and the endocannabinoid system, pain management and herb/drug interactions in peer reviewed publications and is currently pursuing research focusing on the safety, tolerability and effectiveness of medicinal cannabis for endometriosis.

Disclosures 1. Research Fellow, NICM Health Research Institute (NICM) at Western Sydney University. 2. Co-ordinator, Australian Medicinal Cannabis Research & Education Collaboration (AMCREC) 3. Lead, Scientific Advisory Board of United in Compassion 4. Former Scientific Advisory Board member, BioCeuticals (Resigned April 2019)

Emily Rigby - Board Director

Iain McGregor - Interim Board Director

Justin Sinclair - Board Director

Emily has been on the AMCA Board since October 2021.

Emily is a research scientist and passionate advocate for medical cannabis – promoting industry development, efficient production methods, education, patient access, research and regulatory reform.

Since 2016, Emily has played an integral role in developing the Australian medicinal cannabis industry, including establishing a licenced medical cannabis cultivation and research facility and releasing Australian grown cannabis medicines into local and export markets.

Following roles within the medicinal cannabis industry, Emily now runs her own consultancy as well as continuing her role as Director of Protected Cropping Australia (PCA), Australia’s peak industry body for hydroponic and greenhouse growers, a position she has held since 2017.

Emily has developed a dedicated Medical Cannabis stream at PCA conferences since 2019, as well as co-developing the first industry program at the Australian Medicinal Cannabis Symposium in 2022.

Emily was recognised as Australia’s 2021 ‘Woman of Weed’ in the Australian Cannabis Awards for her contribution to female leadership in the cannabis space.

She is dedicated to removing the stigma surrounding the Cannabis plant and facilitating the global cannabis industry.

Iain McGregor - Interim Board Director

A/Prof Marc Russo - Interim Board Director

Prof. McGregor was appointed to the AMCA Board as an interim Board Director on 1st September 2022.

He is Academic Director of the Lambert Initiative for Cannabinoid Therapeutics at the University of Sydney.

The Lambert initiative was established by the Lambert family in 2015 with a philanthropic gift of $33.7 million to the University of Sydney. The organization explores the therapeutic potential of medicinal cannabis and cannabinoids in alleviating paediatric epilepsy, cancer, pain, addictions and mental health problems. It is strongly involved in consumer education, regulatory change, compassionate access and legal defence on the grounds of medical needs.

Prof. McGregor is also an NHMRC Principal Research Fellow and Professor of Psychopharmacology at the Brain and Mind Centre at the University of Sydney.

A/Prof Marc Russo - Interim Board Director

Associate Professor Marc Russo was appointed to the AMCA Board as an interim Board Director on 8th September 2022.

He is an internationally-renowned pain management specialist who has treated more than 45,000 patients over the past two decades.

Associate Professor Russo is involved in cutting-edge treatments to advance the field of pain medicine and research. He holds numerous Directorships on various pain management and Medical Advisory Boards across Australia and has been involved in over 74 Research Studies and 80 journal publications.

A/Prof Russo is Founder and Director / Medical Director of the Hunter Pain Clinic in 1999. He believes that a multidisciplinary approach to pain management and clinical diligence, early intervention, education and research in the field of pain management are integral to successfully treating patients suffering from chronic persistent pain.

Bryan Ebstyne - Interim Board Director

A/Prof Marc Russo - Interim Board Director

Bryan Ebstyne - Interim Board Director

Bryan Ebstyne was appointed to the AMCA Board as an interim Board Director on 15th September 2022.

He is CEO of Australia’s largest licensed medical cannabis cultivation companies, Austranna.

Bryan has gained extensive experience through his varied career, working in technology and communications, including as World-Wide Industry Director for Microsoft. He first entered the cannabis industry in 2014, when he co-founded, raised venture capital and led Leaph, Seattle‘s first industrial scale cannabis cultivation and processing company.

Before moving to Australia, Bryan co-founded a cannabis consultancy (Ebstyne & Roth) in Düsseldorf, Germany where as Vice President of Operations, he built and led cross-disciplinary teams to compete & successfully winning Germany's 2017 tender for cannabis cultivation licensing on behalf of MedReleaf and Aurora in 2018.

George Moskos - Interim Board Director

A/Prof Marc Russo - Interim Board Director

Bryan Ebstyne - Interim Board Director

Prof. McGregor was appointed to the AMCA Board as an interim Board Director on 1st September 2022.

George Moskos is a Branding and Communications expert in the field of health and wellness. He is the founder of the successful Moskos Communications Agency which supports some of Australia's most loved health, wellness and lifestyle brands and is well known for creating, funding and directing brands such as Kora Organics (with Miranda Kerr) and Luma Beauty (Jess Hart).

George is also the CEO of telehealth clinics, Greencare Clinics, an online medical centre that supports the use of plant-based medicine.

George brings to the role a wealth of industry experience as a

branding, communications and business leader having launched a number of highly successful health and wellness ventures.

George also sits on the board of the Perry Cross Spinal Research Foundation.

Jodie Davis - Interim Board Director

Jodie is Federal Education Officer of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation.

She was a major contributor in development of the first nurses and midwives program during the United In Compassion Medicinal Cannabis Symposium in May 2022.

Jodie is a member of the organising committee for the nurses and midwives program for the next UIC Symposium in August 2023.

Announcement - 9th NOVEMBER 2022

Appointment of George Moskos as interim Board Director

As founder of the successful Moskos Communications Agency, George has supported some of Australia's most loved health, wellness and lifestyle brands and is most well-known for creating, funding and directing Kora Organics (with Miranda Kerr) and Luma Beauty (Jess Hart).

George is also now the CEO of telehealth clinics Greencare Clinics, an online medical centre that supports the use of plant-based medicines. He also sits on the board of the Perry Cross Spinal Research Foundation.

George has a broad mix of skills that will be invaluable to AMCA’s vision for Australia to lead the world in quality, affordable and accessible medicinal cannabis. His

entrepreneurial mindset, experience and industry networks will help AMCA to make important inroads into changing perceptions in Australia about the use of plant-based medicines. An example of this is the Current Affair story on Lauren Jackson that aired on 5th November 2022 and the significant difference that medicinal cannabis has made to her ability to overcome injury and pain and return to a professional basketball career at age 41.

Please join us in welcoming George to the AMCA Board alongside the four other recently announced new interim Board Members, including Professor Iain McGregor, Associate Professor Marc Russo, Bryan Ebstyne, CEO of Austranna and Jodie Davis, Federal Education Officer of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation.

Announcement - 4th november 2022

Appointment of Jodie Davis as interim Board Director

Jodie is, in her own words, a "huge advocate for medicinal cannabis", is very active in this field and was, actually, the first person to sign up for individual membership on the day that AMCA launched - 15th July 2020.

As well as being a long-time member of United in Compassion, Jodie is Federal Education Officer of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation. She was an active participant in the group that developed the nurse and midwives day at the UIC Medicinal Cannabis Symposium in May 2022, and continues to be a member of that group as it develops the dedicated program for nurses and midwives for the 2023 UIC Medicinal Cannabis symposium.

Please join us in welcoming Jodie to the AMCA Board.

Announcement - 15th September 2022

Appointment of Bryan Ebstyne as interim Board Director

Further to our recent announcements of the appointment of Prof Iain McGregor and A/Prof Marc Russo's as interim Directors to the AMCA Board, we are pleased to now also announce the appointment of Bryan Ebstyne to the AMCA Board, also as interim Director.

Bryan is currently responsible for leading one of Australia’s largest licensed medical cannabis cultivation companies. He is responsible for the operations of the under-construction state-of-the-art hybrid indoor/glass-roofed cultivation facility outside Ipswich (QLD) as well as managing financial planning, genetics development and market access channels within Australia and abroad.

A Yale University graduate, Bryan has gained extensive experience through his varied career, working in technology and communications, including as World-Wide Industry Director for Microsoft, as well as running his own consultancies. He first entered the cannabis industry in 2014, when he co-founded, raised venture capital and led Leaph, Seattle‘s first industrial scale cannabis cultivation and processing company.

Before moving to Australia, Bryan co-founded a cannabis consultancy (Ebstyne & Roth) in Düsseldorf, Germany. As Vice President of Operations, he built and led cross-disciplinary teams to compete & successfully winning Germany's 2017 tender for cannabis cultivation licensing on behalf of MedReleaf and Aurora in 2018.

With his substantial knowledge of designing, building, processes and procedures, systems-integration and operations and his knowledge of EU tender law compliance, GACP cultivation, GMP production, EU narcotic and medicinal law, EU import/export licensing, facility design and technology application, Bryan will provide valuable expertise to the AMCA Board and its members in his role as interim Industry Director.

Please join us in welcoming Bryan to the AMCA Board.

Announcement - 8th September 2022

Appointment of A/Professor Marc Russo as interim Board Director

Further to our announcement, last week, of Prof Iain McGregor's appointment to the AMCA Board as interim Director, we are pleased to also announce the appointment to the AMCA Board of A/Prof Marc Russo as interim Director.

After receiving Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degrees from Sydney University, A/Prof Russo gained a Diploma of Anaesthesia in the United Kingdom during 1992-1993. He then returned to Australia and became the Anaesthetic Registrar, Fellow ANZCA at the John Hunter Hospital until 1999 when he completed his Fellow of the Faculty of Pain Medicine, Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (FFPMANZCA).

A/Prof Russo founded the Hunter Pain Clinic in 1999 with a vision of providing a multidisciplinary approach to pain management. With this approach, he believes that clinical diligence, early intervention, education and research in the field of pain management are integral to successfully treating patients suffering from chronic persistent pain. A/Prof Russo is Director/Medical Director of Hunter Pain Specialists, Director and Medical Director of Hamilton Day Surgery Centre, as well as being on its Medical Advisory Board. He is also Director/Medical Director and Principal Investigator – Genesis Research Services, Director/Medical Director of the Innervate Pain Management Program, a Former Director and Medical Director of Sydney Pain Specialists, and is on the Medical Advisory Board of HealtheCare Lingard Private Hospital, Merewether. He is President of the International Neuromodulation Society, examiner for the Faculty of Pain Medicine and co-founder of the Newcastle Anaesthetic Peri-Operative Service Group.

A/Prof Russo's interests in neuromodulation have led him to train pain specialists locally, nationally and internationally and to be invited to join Scientific and Medical Advisory boards of Nevro Corp, St Jude and Boston Scientific the largest spinal cord stimulator companies in the world. He consults for Allergan and Grunenthal to ensure he is at the cutting edge of therapies, and also holds consulting roles for Medtronic, SPR Therapies, Spinal Modulation and Mainstay Medical International. He also has university affiliations with the University of Hong Kong as Associate Professor and the University of Newcastle, Australia as Conjoint Associate Professor in the School of Biomedical Sciences and Clinical Lead of the HMRI Brain Neuromodulation Centre. He has involvement in over 74 Research Studies and 80 plus journal publications.

Please join us in welcoming A/Prof Russo to the AMCA Board. We feel very privileged to have another highly experienced and respected interim Director on the AMCA Board to guide and advise us as we continue with our work for this sector.

Announcement - 1st September 2022

Appointment of Professor Iain McGregor as interim Board Director

AMCA is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Iain McGregor to the position of interim Board Director. Prof. McGregor is a highly respected contributor to the field of medicinal cannabis and we are delighted that he will help to steer the organisation as it continues to work towards more available and affordable access for patients.

Prof. McGregor is Academic Director of the Lambert Initiative for Cannabinoid Therapeutics at the University of Sydney. The Lambert initiative was established by the Lambert family in 2015 with an unprecedented philanthropic gift of $33.7 million to the University of Sydney. The organization explores the therapeutic potential of medicinal cannabis and cannabinoids in alleviating paediatric epilepsy, cancer, pain, addictions and mental health problems. The Lambert initiative is also strongly involved in consumer education, regulatory change, compassionate access and the legal defence of people using medicinal cannabis on the grounds of medical necessity.

Prof. McGregor is also an NHMRC Principal Research Fellow and Professor of Psychopharmacology at the Brain and Mind Centre at the University of Sydney.

AMCA BOARD NEWS

Dr. Tamara Nation joins AMCA Board as Clinical Director, 24 Nov 2021

On behalf of the AMCA Board, we are delighted to announce that Dr. Tamara Nation has been appointed as the Clinical Board Director for AMCA.

Tamara is passionate about patient-centred care and sees her special interest in education as a means to ensure that clinicians feel both comfortable and safe to provide high quality patient care. As well as providing education through several channels, she is also an accredited assessor and examiner for AHPRA, MCCC and the RACGP.

Tamara has been on the Advisory Panel of the Society of Cannabis Clinicians Australian Chapter (SCCAC) since its foundation and will provide an important link between AMCA and SCCAC, as well as providing clinical expertise to the AMCA Board and leadership for AMCA clinical initiatives.

Emily Rigby joins AMCA Board, 21 October 2021

Under the terms of the AMCA constitution, due to her extensive experience and strong support in the voting at the last AGM, we are delighted that Emily Rigby accepted an offer to join the AMCA Board in October following the resignation of James Gaskell due to the pressure of his commitments with ANTG.

Emily will be interim Industry Board Director at least until the next AGM, planned for early 2022, when voting for the longer term role by members will take place.

LEADING MEDICINAL CANNABIS SCIENTIST JOINS ANTG

Media release courtesy of Mitchell Sariovski, Publicist, inthemedia PR, 17 March 2021

Leading scientist Justin Sinclair, an Adjunct Research Fellow at NICM Health Research Institute at Western Sydney University, has just joined medicinal cannabis company Australian Natural Therapeutics Group as Chief Scientific Officer, where he will move into a front-line, product development role after decades of study, research, education and advocacy in the field of medicinal cannabis.

“‘Facta non verba. Deeds, not words’, is my one of my favourite Latin sayings,” says Mr Sinclair.

“One of the things I first noticed about Australian Natural Therapeutics Group (ANTG) is they are very deeds focused,” he adds.

ANTG was recently issued the country’s first GACP & GMP-accreditation, meaning it has the highest level of growing and production in the Southern Hemisphere; it produces four high-quality strains of cannabis flower as well as oil extract for research and clinical trials and is working on a $92 million, 10-year export deal with the European Union.

“Quality assurance is absolutely imperative and it’s something I’m very passionate about,” says Mr Sinclair.

Mr Sinclair will be working on projects which include pre-clinical research with the University of Newcastle around ANTGs Eve Cannabis’ potential to kill or inhibit cancer cells, and a partnership with the Western Sydney University’s NICM Health Research Institute on using cannabis-based medicine for cognitive function in people with mild cognitive impairment.

He will also continue his own doctoral research on medicinal cannabis for endometriosis and will head up the development of a compassionate access program at ANTG.

“Attracting Mr Sinclair to the team is a real win for the company, he is one of the leading educators in Australia on the topics of cannabis and the endocannabinoid system,” says ANTG chief executive officer Matt Cantelo.

“There is about to be a big shift away from Canadian medicinal cannabis products in Australia and Mr Sinclair’s move will expedite that,” he says.

“One option is to continue importing sub-standard products from Canada, or we can level the playing field in Australia and bring the best possible person in to do that - and that’s what we have done.”

“Our intention is to lower the cost of this medicine for the Australian consumer, without lowering quality. We have already beaten the price where we can.”

“Now as we are scaling up, we will be in more of a position to pass on those savings in the future.”

But to do that, Mr Sinclair says the current stigma surrounding medicinal cannabis consumption needs to change.

“The first step is going to be the de-stigmatisation of medicinal cannabis. In the not-too-distant future we will see it accepted as an everyday medical treatment,” says Mr Sinclair.

“Because of the high standards in Australia it will also be a major export.”

Justin’s passion for herbal medicines began in the 1990s after spending years in the United States learning from the Native American’s use of plants as medicine.

Soon after he began studying at the University of New England, completing a Bachelor of Health Sciences and a Master of Herbal Medicine with the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Pharmacy – and would end up playing a part in shaping the Australian medicinal cannabis industry as we know it today.

About Australian Natural Therapeutics Group

Formed in 2015, ANTG came about following personal experiences of the founder and CEO. It now produces four strains of medicinal cannabis flower, and is about to start production of four oil combinations. It was issued the country’s first GACP & GMP-accreditation and partners with research organisations including CSIRO, University of Newcastle and University of Western Sydney, to unlock the potential of cannabis in the fight against cancer, dementia and inflammation. For more information visit https://australiannatural.com