I see in today's press that Dr. Alan Finkel has been appointed...

I see in today's press that Dr. Alan Finkel has been appointed as Australia's chief scientist. More recent shareholders in Optiscan may not know of the good doctor's association with OIL in years gone by.

The 1998 Annual Report is the earliest report that I hold and quoting from that we were told "Dr. Alan Finkel, 45, non-executive Director and member of the audit committee, received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at Monash University in 1981. In 1983, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to establish Axon Instruments Inc. In 1987, Dr. Finkel returned to Australia, where he continues in his roles of full-time Chief Executive Officer and Vice President of Research and Development of Axon Instruments. Dr. Finkel was appointed a director of Optiscan Pty. Ltd in March, 1994." Back then, 1998, Axon Instruments Inc. held 10,642,280 shares, being the second largest shareholder in Optiscan, a holding of 22.16%, not far behind the then largest shareholder S.W.R. Harris Pty. Ltd with 22.77%.

Dr. Finkel ceased to be a director in November, 2002 and Axon Instruments Inc no longer a major shareholder in 2004. Axon Instruments in 2004 merged with the U.S. company Molecular Devices Corp and was then delisted from the ASX.

An interesting aside - when looking through the old Annual Reports was that in 2002, Optiscan had a total of seven directors. How times change.

MM