Posted on Jun 05, 2020

Rotarians and friends of Perth Rotary,

In less than a month we close the Rotary year of 2019-2020.

As we will have the opportunity to refer to the activities and the highlights of this year in the coming weeks, at this point I’d like only to focus on this month’s ZOOM IN meetings which also touch upon the attributes that shape the profile of our Club: Community Service -  Career and Family – Innovation and Growth

Under the Community Service, last Wednesday, Rick Ferdinands Managing Director of Bioactive Laboratories presented a  ground breaking Innovation: Bioactive Laboratories have identified very different, new active molecules to existing anti-malarial drugs and confirmed a new mode of action that will bring us close to the world’s first anti-malarial from a new plant species since the early 1970’s! The company is at a stage of having to conduct clinical trials and Perth Rotary appreciates the opportunity to support an endeavour like this which is as big as the fight against polio.

Under the Career and Family, on Wednesday 10/6, Karalee Katsambanis, an accomplished Australian TV journalist, author, commentator, broadcaster, columnist and media trainer will discuss about the media scene before and after COVID-19.

Karalee has worked across Australia on mainstream TV, radio, newspapers, magazines and online for the past 25 years. She is currently a weekly news and current affairs commentator on Sky TV News Australia on Hardgrave; 6PR Perth on both afternoons and Perth Tonight; a columnist for The Spectator Australia and a senior executive media trainer for Corporate Media Services. Karalee is a mother of 3 children and stepmother of 2 young adults. Her book Step Parenting with Purpose; Everything you wanted to know but were too afraid to ask” attained the Number 1 Ranking on Amazon in the Step Parenting Blended Families within 48 hours of release in March. It provides invaluable insights and advice to those beginning or already on their journey in the step parenting/blended family world.

Under the Innovation and Growth, on Wednesday 17/6, the good friend of our Club Mike Kyriacou will travel us to the future and will present a topic with a very unique title:

“Finding opportunities to the unicorn in the room”.

Mike has a background of studies, research and academic work in some of the best universities in the world while businesswise he has designed “elegant, user-oriented products, crunched data, invested in ventures & projects, entertained crowds, raised capital and assembled successful LBO teams”.

His mastery is in crafting new technologies, connecting people and advising multiple ventures and accelerators around the globe.

Mike will show us the future and how to take control of it!

I’m inviting you to attend our meetings with Karalee Katsambanis and Mike Kyriacou and to spread the word to your friends and networks to join us too. Both speakers will provide precious knowledge and information!

Regarding the traditional transition to the new Board of our Club in our changeover, we have considered the available options under the current environment and you will receive an announcement soon.

I look forward to seeing you next Wednesday at the ZOOM IN!

Yours in Perth Rotary,

Vangelis Katsaitis
Perth Rotary President 2019-2020