Meet our team

Liza Noonan is the Chief Executive Officer of Cicada Innovations, bringing more than two decades of experience at the intersection of science, technology, and impact. Her career has been shaped by a commitment to building vibrant, inclusive, and globally connected innovation ecosystems, a mission that aligns perfectly with Cicada’s role as Australia’s home for deep tech.

Before joining Cicada, Liza was Executive Director of Innovation at Investment NSW, where she helped shape programs that strengthen the state’s innovation landscape. She has also held senior roles at CSIRO, including leading the ON Accelerator, and was the founding CEO of Springboard Australia, supporting high-growth, women-led startups.

Joel leads finance and operations across Cicada’s incubators and programs. His day-to-day role offers a wide variety of problems to solve. Common threads are seeking strategic insights, implementing efficiencies, and building infrastructure to help our deep tech residents grow.

His experience as an equity analyst, investor, and start-up executive provides perspective across many business models. Joel enjoys deep dives on competitive positioning, forecasting, and creating processes that scale. He has also led product and engineering teams, and appreciates the complexity in achieving product market fit.

Alex Shapilsky is our Group Executive - Deep Tech and Head of the National Space Industry Hub. He leads commercialisation programs across critical sectors including aerospace & defence, climate & energy, food & agriculture, and advanced industry.

With a rich background in mechatronics and a diverse commercial career spanning vibrant tech startups to corporates like Jacobs and Macquarie Group, Alex brings a wealth of experience across manufacturing, infrastructure, ICT, IoT, drones, and space. His extensive advisory work and proven ability to bring products to market from inception offer a unique perspective – blending insights from the startup, seller, buyer, user, and investor lens — to help deep tech businesses commercialise and grow.

Sam brings extensive experience in deep technology commercialisation, built across a career at Pollination, Fortescue Future Industries, CSIRO and Ernst & Young. He has worked across the full innovation lifecycle, from early-stage R&D through to bankable, investment-ready projects.

With Pollination, Sam leads the development of several first-of-a-kind energy and industrial decarbonisation projects. Previously at Fortescue Future Industries, he identified, evaluated and invested in technologies across critical industrial supply chains. During five years at CSIRO he worked on technology incubation and research partnerships, and led nationally significant strategies including Australia's National Hydrogen Roadmap and Critical Energy Minerals Roadmap. He began his career at Ernst & Young, advising on large-scale infrastructure projects. Sam holds degrees in Law and Science, specialising in Chemistry and Applied Mathematics.

Jonathan supports Cicada's strategic and commercial goals by developing partnerships and business opportunities that will benefit Cicada and Australia's deep tech ecosystem. With a background leading business development initiatives for the CSIRO and managing large research and technology investments for New Zealand's Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, Jonathan is an experienced enabler of cutting-edge R&D. He's passionate about supporting the deep tech ecosystem to thrive and empowering those working within it.

AJ is responsible for all aspects of facilities management here at Cicada. For over 18 years AJ has overseen the daily operations of building maintenance, suite refurbishments, major infrastructure projects and managing the various trades and services to ensure compliance is met across this awesome heritage building.

AJ collaborates with the Cicada team to ensure our residents needs are met and that Cicada is the place to be if you're a deep tech startup.

Jay is Commercial Finance Manager at Cicada, partnering with leaders across the organisation to turn complex data into clear, decision-ready insight. He brings more than 15 years’ experience across financial services, technology, defence, manufacturing and education, with roles at Wolters Kluwer, CEA Technologies, Telstra, Citibank and American Express, and began his career as an equity research analyst at Deutsche Bank. Jay enjoys looking beyond the numbers to spot the trends, risks and opportunities that shape good commercial decisions. He is a CFA charterholder and a Certified Practising Accountant (CPA).

Denise is passionate about bridging the gap between research and industry, helping deep-tech ventures scale innovative solutions. With over eight years of experience in molecular diagnostics, laboratory management, and commercial service scaling, she specialises in bringing research-based technologies to market. Having worked in both academia, with a PhD in Point-of-Care Diagnostics for Cardiovascular Disease, and industry she understands the challenges of translating scientific innovation into real-world impact and works closely with founders to navigate commercialisation, growth, and scale.

Hela leads commercial operations across Cicada’s incubators, shaping how deep tech startups join, settle in and grow with us. Her work spans the residency pipeline, resident operations, and the services and expert network that support our founders. Using design thinking methods, she builds the operational backdrop that supports great experiences.

Hela is a Fulbright Scholar with a background in Mechatronics Engineering and a master’s in communication, so she brings both systems thinking and storytelling to her work. Her path has taken her from Tunisia to the United States and now to Australia. Before Cicada, she worked at a not-for-profit supporting startups across the Middle East and Africa. There she drove business development and founder-focused initiatives, working with government agencies and entrepreneurship ecosystems in the United States, Europe, Morocco, Jordan, Senegal, Dubai and Angola.

Alex is a firm believer in the power of events in bringing people together, Alex's role at Cicada is to help make connections happen, and create the spaces for them to grow. 

With over 15 years of experience in events & community building, Alex's last role was as one of the founding team of Forbes Australia, leading their events.

Sanice’s work at Cicada spans marcomms, and in particular, helping the right founders find their way into Cicada’s deep tech programs and supporting those startups to grow. She spent a decade in venture capital across Sydney and New York, building community, platform offerings and communications strategies that went beyond capital to meaningfully shape founders’ growth and ecosystem connections. Sanice is passionate about finding and backing the people doing brave, early-stage work to create a better future.

Mat is your first point of contact when you arrive at Cicada Innovations. He provides concierge support for all our residents needs, as well as looking after the day to day running of the incubator and supporting the entire Cicada.

Previously Mat has worked in sales and supporting roles across film, television, and entertainment and for NBC Universal, Fox, AFTRS.

Naomi works with our Delivery and Experience team to support startups throughout their journey with Cicada. She assists with programs and ensures that all our participants get the most out of their experience, tailoring to their individual needs at various stages in their work. Having studied Psychology and Sociology, she has a strong passion for working with people and helping to see them flourish.

Cheng is the Digital Content Creator at Cicada, supporting the marcomms and programs teams by producing engaging visual content. With a background in media studies, Cheng brings a deep understanding of storytelling through design. Passionate about graphic design and video editing, Cheng crafts compelling visuals that elevate brand communication and connect with audiences across platforms.

Subhaga is the Product Lead at Cicada Innovations, where she leads products that connect the deep tech ecosystem to help ventures grow and scale. She shapes how partners and experts fit together to support founders at each stage of their journey.

Subhaga brings 16 years of experience spanning startups, product, legal, biotechnology and commercial operations. Having co-founded a startup herself, she knows firsthand what it takes to build a venture from the ground up and is passionate about helping other founders thrive.

Lilly manages the Cicada HealthTech Hub, supporting the business needs of the emerging community of bio and medtech startups calling the Hub their home. Lilly also leads the HealthTech Hub team and cultivates and maintains internal and external stakeholder connections with residents across the Westmead Health and Innovation District ecosystem and beyond.
A PhD graduate of the University of Auckland, Lilly has lived and worked in the U.S.A., Canada, Denmark, New Zealand, and Australia.

Angelica, driven by her passion for clinical translation, education, and science communication, leads the training and education programs at the Cicada HealthTech Hub. With a PhD in Medicine and experience as scientist in Immunology and Precision Oncology, Angelica is dedicated to advancing fundamental and clinical research and support translation through her advocacy and mentorship within the broader Australasian scientific community, and firmly believes that multidisciplinary collaboration is crucial for advancing health solutions and achieving impact.

Sam will be your first point of contact upon your arrival at Cicada Innovations Westmead Health Tech Hub and oversees the day-to-day operations of the Hub. Sam is dedicated to providing concierge support for all our residents' needs, including hosting community events and morning teas to foster a supportive and engaging environment within the community. Sam brings a strong background in medical practice administration to her role, having previously worked as a Practice Manager for Interventional Radiology and several specialist clinics throughout Sydney.