Carel Smit is the founder and managing director of Biophile. ​A Cambridge-educated life sciences patent attorney and medtech entrepreneur with masters degrees in genetics, law, and management, he has more than 20 years of experience in bioscience IP, innovation, and commercialisation in Australia and abroad. As a former S&P Global 100 in-house IP counsel, he understands the pressures on innovators and IP counsel, mixed with the interplay of commercial objectives. Having also co-founded an award-winning medical devices company that has helped patients in more than 15 countries, he also appreciates the pressures on founders.

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Carel has served clients in numerous countries and for local clients Carel's knowledge and training in biotechnology, digital health, cell and gene therapy, virology, and biochemistry mean that he is comfortable with many different types of life sciences technologies, either when consulting, assisting with capital raising, or advising on IP monetisation strategies. His IP, commercialisation, and BD strategies have been featured by Forbes, the Australian Institute of Company Directors, ABC, and the Australian federal government. In 2013, Carel combined his love of mountains and charity work by raising money for a women's clinic in Ethiopia by organising and summiting three peaks on three continents in three months.