Jayesh Desai is a Medical Oncologist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre with extensive experience in translational research applied to Drug Development. He is Associate Director for Clinical Research and Heads Early Drug Development, internationally recognised as being in the top tier of Global Phase I cancer trials programs. Prof Desai has played a lead role in the dramatic growth and evolution in the Australian Phase I trials landscape, through chairing the Cancer Trials Australia Phase I Group for over 10 years, before taking on the role as Chair of the Board of Directors in 2021- collaborating closely with other major cancer centres, Biotech and Pharma. He has been a PI on over 70 Clinical Trials including 50 Phase I trials. Over his career he has helped lead/translate the development of 6 cancer agents from Phase I to successful registration, as well as multiple other practice-changing trials. He has over 200 publications, >32,000 citations and published in high impact journals including the NEJM, Nature, The Lancet, Nat Med, JCO. He has obtained over $50M in competitive research funding as a CI to develop programs in translational and clinical research. Prof Desai has served on a number of leading international committees including ASCO, AACR, ESMO in Developmental Therapeutics and serves on a number of journal editorial boards including the JCO (3rd term) and has recently been appointed as a Senior Editor for Clinical Cancer Research. He is particularly passionate about training and mentoring younger investigators in developing their skills as clinical researchers and trialists.