Ties that bind: Supporting the community and medical research

Saul Ryan’s family enterprise prides itself on supporting the community and cutting-edge medical research – and it’s both vital and personal.

When he sat down to study commerce and law back in 1993, Saul Ryan had no idea that Monash University would shape the rest of his life. It wasn’t just the education he received, the good times he had, and the longstanding friends he made. Underpinning this affinity is something more practical: the proximity of his office.

“Since leaving Monash I haven’t gone far, despite my efforts.”

“If I threw a stone from where I’m sitting, I’d hit the Clayton campus,” says Ryan, 45, from his desk inside the Omnico Business Centre. He’s managing director of Omnico Corporation, the property investment and project management group founded by his father, Adam, and including his younger brother, Joel. “Since leaving Monash I haven’t gone far, despite my efforts.” 

The married father of three practised as a solicitor and completed a Master of Business Administration at the University of NSW before joining the family business. “In many cultures, this is a highly aspirational thing to do,” offers Ryan, whose Russian-born Polish-Jewish father met his Japanese mother after relocating to Melbourne and then backpacking around Japan. 

“My parents came into Australia, and had to make connections. Community is vital for the family. Through my 20s I sat on the board of my synagogue. I’ve attended alumni events, and was on the advisory committee of the Berwick campus [now operated by Federation University] for three years.” 

Today, that commitment to community continues. Ryan chairs bestchance, a not-for-profit child and family care network that has partnered with Monash to develop an online learning tool for early childhood educators.  

The Ryan family has been generous supporters of the Achieving Potential Scholarship program at Monash, and Omnico is a major contributor to medical science research. It donates to the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences and funds research by the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute’s Dr Michael Lazarou into Parkinson’s disease.

"“In a world where everyone’s tight on intellectual property, there’s a sense of sharing. For us it’s about making a contribution that matters in our own way, at our community level.”

“We realise that effects will be incremental,” says Ryan. “Like offering a scholarship to a student from a disadvantaged background, or contributing to an understanding that might lead to something tremendous. 

The Biomedicine Discovery Institute is designed to be cutting-edge and encourage blue-sky thinking. We decided to back this after walking through it and meeting researchers, including Michael Lazarou.”

For Ryan, this research is close to home. “Unfortunately, my father was diagnosed with Parkinson’s several years ago,” he continues. “While he is as strong as any 75-year-old can be, it is gradually making its impact. The cure for Parkinson’s won’t come from one person; it will come from the global collective that has been working on it for decades. But the University has realised it needs to invest in scientific research to attract the greatest talent.”

That Monash has been able to attract and retain the internationally regarded Lazarou, an Australian-born son of Cypriot immigrants, is a source of pride. “Michael’s team pivoted aspects of its research into COVID-19, which shows how innovative the Biomedicine Discovery Institute is,” Ryan says. “In a world where everyone’s tight on intellectual property, there’s a sense of sharing. For us it’s about making a contribution that matters in our own way, at our community level.”

Being the son of immigrants, Ryan says he has “a simpatico with Michael I wouldn’t have expected to find in clinical research. He has even visited us in the office a couple of times.” He smiles. “Another advantage of being so close to the campus.”