Mr Haydn Wright
BEco, MTaxLaw, ASIA
Mr Haydn Wright is General Manager – Business Development at The Florey. Haydn has advised the innovation, university and research sectors for over 30 years. A core theme across this time has been facilitating industry engagement, strategic thinking and design, and implementing innovation ecosystems that support collaboration and opportunity. This experience is being used to support The Florey to continue its mission to deliver world-leading science and impact. A key element of Haydn’s role is increasing the global visibility of The Florey and supporting the Future Florey vision.
Haydn commenced his professional career as an investment banker in the mid 1980s with roles across money market operations, credit, and then corporate advisory. Specialising in structured finance and alternate assets, Haydn formed his own consultancy company in the early 1990s with a focus on offshore financing of film trusts, property securitisation and project management of infrastructure feasibilities such as the relocation of the Australian Navy from Sydney to Melbourne.
The ‘entrepreneurial phase’ of Haydn’s career kicked off in the late 1990s with the formation of an advisory group focused on research translation for Australian universities and their research affiliates. He also undertook start-ups across bio-agriculture (e.g., pyrethrum, botanical therapeutics and biofuels), diagnostics such as ovarian cancer markers and advanced manufacturing.
A sabbatical in Italy in 2010 morphed into the role of CEO for Eastern Europe’s largest property development company based in Bucharest. Upon return from Europe Haydn was the project lead for the Australian Education City proposal, a $30 billion Cognitive Innovation District development. This fully funded project involved IBM, Cisco, Honeywell, Jacobs etc., and detailed expressions of interest and engagement from universities in China, UK, Europe and the US. Haydn then supported two further start-ups as well as a Chancellery mandated review of a Go8 university’s innovation ecosystem before joining The Florey.
