Eastern Innovation helps an innovator keep improving
A lifelong innovator, Simon West has spent his career inventing ways to extract valuable products from organisms that grow in lakes.
Simon’s initial bioscience success came in the early 1980s, while working with the CSIRO to invent the process that extracts highly sought-after orange colouring carotene from a microalgae.
Carotene is what makes carrots orange, and the colouring is used by food manufacturers for products like soft drinks.
He achieved great success in this field but said he’d become a bit bored in semi-retirement, which led him to start a new project - WRS Bioproducts - where he is a director and the Chief Scientific Officer.
Simon and his colleagues conduct their science work out of Eastern Innovation in Mulgrave while the farming operation that extracts the carotene from the Dunaliella salina algae takes place in northern Western Australia. The salty lakes where the algae grows, take on a spectacular pink colour as the red-orange pigment seeps from the organisms.
“About four years ago, I spoke with a former colleague, and he asked if I’d like to do a new project with him. I said, ‘yes, I've been wanting to do something because I'm a bit bored’,” Simon said.
The business Simon set up all those years ago was bought by an overseas company, but they hadn’t improved on the process that he’d invented. And so WRS Bioproducts was born, with three directors including himself.
"I’m modifying the process that I invented such a long time ago, and it’s a lot of fun,” he said.
“I've had a lot of new ideas about reviewing the original process. It's a nice way to keep me busy in my semi-retirement.”
Eastern Innovation CEO Danielle Storey said the work WRS Bioproducts is doing is a real coup for Australia.
“WRS Bioproducts is a great example of improving on something because you can, and that really lights you up,” Danielle said.
“They are lifelong innovators and it’s an inspiring story for entrepreneurs of all ages.”
So, what keeps Simon interested in pushing the boundaries of his own invention and making it the best it can be?
“It’s curiosity that drives me,” he said. “I've never stopped innovating. I sort of can't help myself. It's nice to make a bit of money, but it's not really a requirement,” he said.