About the Company

HEARD Systems Pty Ltd is an Australian private company.  Our primary focus is developing and commercialising a ‘real-time any time’ handheld device suitable for farmers or contractors to pregnancy test cows on farm.  The final product will incorporate a radio frequency identification reader for electronic eartags, and integrate with farm software and websites to provide useful and timely reproductive data.

Management and Key People

CEO Ed Catherwood has substantial experience in developing and launching new agribusiness products, and ongoing business development in the agritech and animal health markets.

Head of Research Dr Richard Shephard has been central to the development of this pregnancy diagnostic product. He first worked as a veterinarian (mainly cattle), then operated a farm management, agri-business and epidemiology consultancy. He has a special interest in reproductive programs for cattle

Product Development Manager George Mark has considerable experience with productisation and new product development both in Australia and overseas from his work at Cochlear, Electrolux, and Seimens.

Senior Engineer Prof. Jonathan Tapson is an expert in signal processing and electrical / electronic engineering, and already has expereince with three early stage companies.

Biomedical Design Engineer Gaetano Gargiulo has particular expertise in measurement of electrical body signals (ECGs, EMGs, and EEGs) and experience in biomedical devices and prototype design.

History

Cattle veterinarian Dr Shephard invented the HEARD pregnancy diagnosis device from concerns about internally-based testing systems and from discussions with farmers (in Australia and beyond) who routinely expressed concerns about the difficulties of securing timely pregnancy testing for their herds and an inability to pregnancy test individual cows on demand. It became increasingly clear there was a substantial unmet need for a portable handheld device to detect pregnancy in cows, which could be operated by a relatively unskilled operator on farm.

The Company founders remain closely involved with development of the product. They include inventor Dr Richard Shephard, leading University of Sydney scientists from disciplines including electrical and electronic engineering, signal processing, and acoustics, along with experienced early stage company facilitator Jonathon Wolfe (currently HEARD Chairman).