THE QSTL YEARS

In 1983 Alan was invited to evaluate projects being offered by UniQuest Limited, the newly established commercial arm of the University of Queensland.

He subsequently chose to invest in two biotechnology projects being developed by Dr Horst Doelle (top left) and Dr Peter Henry (lower left). With a small band of North Queensland investors he purchased the worldwide rights.

He then set about to establish a public company called Queensland Science & Technology Limited (QSTL).

Queensland oil exploration pioneer Bill Siller gave Alan considerable assistance to find an underwriter for the QSTL float.

Nevitts of Brisbane finally agreed but they were unable to raise the $A5 million required. But they raised $A3 million and QSTL was born with a reduced program.

In four years however, under Alan's management, QSTL expanded throughout the world and the share price rose from $0.50 to $5.20 at its high in 1987 before the "October Crash".

The success of QSTL was largely due to its move into the US gasoline market where Alan was positioning the company to win a slice of the lucrative octane market based on the production of ethanal based ETBE.

A chance meeting with Washington ethanol and Clean Air lobbyists Fred Potter and David Hallberg in 1985 opened the door to this opportunity. Through these connections Mary and Alan ultimately got to meet President George Bush and later President Bill Clinton. Mary and Alan attended the inaugeral for George Bush in Washington in 1988.

At the time of the October crash Alan was negotiating to gain control of QSTL. However, because of the downturn in stock prices he was unable to complete the transaction and subsequently resigned from the Company to pursue other opportunities in America.

Mary with Fred and Michelle Potter and Fred's mum from Buffalo.

Through Fred and Dave and our work on the US Clean Act we got to meet two US Presidents. Not bad for a Hungarian refugee and a kid from Kuridala!