Biotech boss v George W in Mission Accomplished stakes

Anyway, iQ Group’s four main listed entities, once valued at almost $200 million, called in administrators Riad Tayeh, Antony Resnick and Mark Robinson of dVT Group at 12.34pm on a Thursday in March this year.

“In making the appointments, the directors had formed the view that all four companies were either insolvent or shortly likely to become insolvent,” the administrators noted in creditor minutes.

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George Syrmalis. 

Syrmalis was a director of three of those entities, and had resigned from the fourth as executive director in November last year. Now, with those entities fizzled – although its sales division Farmaforce was saved and resold – Syrmalis has moved on to other pastures.

He is founder and head of new operation Bioscience Equity Partners, an “international investment banking-financial services firm focusing exclusively on compelling med-tech and biosciences investment themes and ventures”.

But its website’s kicker is the Syrmalis profile: “In 2022, considering George had fulfilled his mission with The iQ Group Global, he established Bioscience Equity Partners.”

So, one of his last steps as a director is calling in corporate insolvency folk. That’s after raising funds from investors by touting returns of up to 15 per cent annually, and Syrmalis pulling in more than $12 million in remuneration from the listed companies in nine years. Mission fulfilled indeed.

Syrmalis hasn’t responded to our queries but is looking clear-eyed into the camera on his profile shot on the new venture.

That’s better than when cops pulled him over on a Thursday at 12.20am in June 2020 from behind the wheel of his 2019 AMG Mercedes on Anzac Bridge in Sydney’s Pyrmont. The boys in blue noted the “accused eyes were glazed and bloodshot”, which is what having a blood alcohol reading almost double the legal limit at 0.097 will do to you.

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The iQ Group tweeted its backing of this Bathurst endurance race car. 

Syrmalis copped to a guilty plea to drink-driving that year, making the iQ Group’s sponsorship of a blue-yellow Porsche at Bathurst endurance racing all the more ironic.

At least the Syrmalis profile at his new gig has tighter wording. It notes he is a “member” of institutions including the American College of Nuclear Physicians.

While at iQ Group, he unfortunately had listed himself as a “fellow” – a prestigious designation – of institutions including that college. He changed that wording after the organisation overseeing its successor told us in 2020 he was “not listed as a fellow”.

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