Global Executive team

Neil Verdal-Austin

Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director

Neil Verdal-Austin was appointed CEO in November 2018 and Managing Director in August 2020. He has more than twenty-five years of experience with various medical distribution and manufacturing companies, where making a difference in people’s lives has become his passion. Prior to this appointment, Neil was SomnoMed’s CFO for 10 years and was instrumental in the company’s development from a small entity with revenues of less than $5 million and total staff of fewer than 50 people to a global company operating in 28 countries, generating some $70 million in revenues and employing over 500 people worldwide. He has not only excelled as CFO, but he also took direct management responsibility for the APAC region, including Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea, for four years from 2014 to 2018.

His experience includes systems development and implementation, business acquisitions, strategic planning, reporting and operations management. Before joining SomnoMed®, Neil worked at LifeHealthcare, the largest Australian healthcare distributor of medical products and devices and served as CFO and a key stakeholder at the Orthomedics Group, a large medical distributor in South Africa. During that appointment, he was a key figure in the leadership team and instrumental in all commercial aspects of that business, its processes, acquisitions, financial performance and operational excellence.

Neil completed his studies at the University of Cape Town, South Africa and is a Chartered Accountant (Australia).

Herve Fiévet

Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

Herve is an Australian citizen with French heritage, having started his career in France in the automotive industry. He was the business unit finance leader for Sogefi Group’s aftermarket division and led a global team across 8 countries until 2012. Mr Fiévet moved to Australia in 2013 and since that time he has worked at Baxter IP (business innovation group that commercializes product concepts and technologies) and more recently at Pierre Fabre (French pharmaceutical business, with dermatalogical and cosmetic brands). Hervé has had extensive experience in managing all aspects of finance, IT, supply chains, global purchasing, legal and HR.

Herve holds a Master of Science in Management, MSc-M, Accounting & Finance from Reims Management School. Herve is a Certified Practicing Accountant (CPA) and is also a Certified Management Accountant (CMA).

Mark Harding

Mark Harding

Senior Vice President | Global Marketing

Mr Harding joined SomnoMed® in July 2019 as Vice President Global Marketing and was promoted to Senior Vice President in January 2021, at which time he gained responsibility for SomnoMed’s R&D team. Prior to this, he worked as a consultant advising on Australian medical device reimbursement strategy, where he and his partner devised and executed the strategy for Ambulatory Blood pressure measurement to be approved by MSAC. As Vice President for Global Marketing, APAC sales and European sales for AtCor Medical (ACG) he forged a strategic partnership with A&D Medical in Japan to open the Japanese market and expand sales globally and developed/launched AtCor’s most successful product. He previously worked for Zimmer (now Zimmer Biomet) as Director of Marketing Asia Pacific (excluding Japan), as a Product Manager for Schering Plough and commenced his career in medical device marketing with Baxter Healthcare.

In his 27 years of healthcare experience, Mr Harding has demonstrated he can develop and execute strategies for global growth. His experience includes strategic planning, new product development, product portfolio management, direct to patient marketing campaigns and day-to-day sales and operations management.

David Lewis

David Lewis

Director | Global IT

Hailing from the UK, David held various roles in IT/IS for the Ministry of Defence (UK) and then in Australia for Telstra and Colonial State Bank. He then joined Resmed in 1999 and supported its international growth as Global IT Infrastructure Director until 2017, having seen the company grow to $2.1bn.

After holding other IT Leadership roles in HealthCare and Financial Services organisations, David joined SomnoMed® in September 2020 to make a decisive contribution to SomnoMed’s growth.

Dorene Markwiese

Dorene Markwiese

Director of Quality and Regulatory Assurance | North America

Dorene Markwiese joined SomnoMed® Ltd. in 2018 as Global Director of Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance, responsible for leading quality, regulatory and compliance programs worldwide.

Prior to joining SomnoMed®, Dorene held various senior management roles in medical device companies such as Carl Zeiss, St. Jude Medical and Cardinal Healthcare. Dorene earned a B.S. degree in Biology and an M.B.A. in management and was awarded RAC certification in 2001.

Jeremy Powers

Jeremy Powers

Director, Global Clinical Affairs | North America

Jeremy has 20 years of Clinical Research experience and was previously the Associate Director of Clinical Operations for Philips where he helped lead the Sleep and Respiratory business to strategically plan, develop, and run clinical trials to prove out clinical evidence to internal and external stakeholders.

He has worked with numerous KOLs in the Sleep industry to produce abstracts, white papers, and publications. His background brings a combined clinical and business perspective to decision making.