CHERYL McCAFFERY - Commercial manager
Salary range
AUD$100,000 p.a. plus
What I studied
Bachelor of Science 1976
Bachelor of Science Honours 1st class) in Biochemistry 1977
Master of Business Administration 1991
Graduate Diploma in Intellectual Property Law 1994
Qualified Patent and Trade Mark Attorney 2003
Career path
Biomedical Researcher - 1978-1987
Academic Exchange Scholar in Germany - Biomedical Research 1985-1987
Freelance concert singer - 1987-1989
Intellectual Property Manager for a private Biotechnology Company - 1992-1997
Business Development Manager - Technology Commercialisation 1997-2000
Consultant in Intellectual Property Management and Commercialisation - (own business) 2000-2003
Commercial Manager - Molecular Plant Breeding Cooperative Research Centre 2003 to present
Cheryl McCaffery completed a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology and biochemistry, and worked for several years as a research scientist before taking time out to follow another passion - opera. After several years as a freelance singer she went on to study for her Masters in Business Administration.
Cheryl has since worked for a number of scientific research organisations in the area of intellectual property management and commercialisation.
Today, she is the Commercial Manager for the Molecular Plant Breeding Cooperative Research Centre.
“My job involves identifying potentially commercialisable inventions, protecting them appropriately and seeking to do commercial deals with other parties to transfer the right to use them.”
A lot of Cheryl's work involves negotiating agreements with agricultural businesses and other research groups.
“In general, I enjoy the work I do because it's a mixture of three different aspects being brought together: scientific, legal and commercial. The value that I bring to this job is experience and qualifications in all three areas. I like the variety of having those three areas come together.”
Cheryl also enjoys working with scientists. “I work with a really good team of people. We have really first class researchers who are all committed to achieving the goals that we've set out to achieve. I particularly enjoy working with cutting edge technology and being at the forefront of what's going on.”
“Sometimes it can be stressful. Often there is a general misunderstanding of the amount of time and money that needs to go into protecting and commercialising intellectual property. To really commercialise something properly, you need to commit a lot of time and money, and that can mean long hours.”
My advice for students
“Get advice from as many people in as many different areas as possible. Talk to patent attorneys, business managers, scientists working in start-up companies, and people working in science communication. Try to work out what gives you a buzz. There are quite a number of things that you can do now that weren't available before. To get a feel for what the work involves, you need to go and talk to the people who do it.”
“Once you've worked it out, get a double degree in the areas that are relevant, such as science and intellectual property. These days, to do well, you have to be prepared to study more than one degree.”