Paul A. Hopper


Paul A. Hopper is an Australian bioentrepreneur who has been associated since 2003 with a number of biotechnology companies, most of them publicly traded.

Background

Born in PNG to a prominent post WW2 Australian colonial family, Hopper was educated in Sydney at the King's School, Parramatta and subsequently received a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in Political Science from the University of New South Wales. In 1988 he cofounded Alpha Healthcare, an Australian private hospital group based in Sydney where was managing director until 1999. He began his career as a bioentrepreneur in the early 2000s.

Australian Cancer Technology, 2003–2005

Hopper's first biotechnology company was the ASX-listed Australian Cancer Technology Ltd, where he was CEO based in Sydney from September 2003 to February 2005. Among the drugs which Australian Cancer Technology worked on during this period was RP101, a small molecule which, by binding to heat shock protein 27, was designed to prevent the induction of resistance to chemotherapy. By early 2005 Hopper had relocated from Sydney to San Diego in order to further developer Australian Cancer Technology, but shortly after the move he resigned.

Investment banking in California, 2005–2014

In California in November 2005 Hopper joined Cappello Global, an investment bank based in Los Angeles. Hopper had been the Australian representative of Cappello since 2002. At Cappello in California he became Head of the Life Sciences and Biotechnology Group as well as the Australia Desk. Over the next nine years Hopper was involved in the corporate development of a number of Life Science companies, including:
Hopper returned to Australia in 2014 in order to further develop a number of biotechnology companies of which was an executive. Hopper is currently on the board of four ASX-listed companies: