Bakers Delight When Lesley Gillespie was a science undergraduate at Monash in the mid–‘70s, she had no idea that she would family rises to return to become a major donor to a global research program driven from the faculty in which she studied. the challenge in But then nor could she have foreseen possibilities and look forward to a long that she would marry baker Roger association.” Gillespie and form the hugely successful Bakers Delight business which turns The Gillespies are enthused by the dengue program over $600 million annually. potential of the project. The Gillespie Family Foundation has Roger Gillespie says: “Scott O’Neill’s made a generous donation to the done so much work, and he appears, from Eliminate Dengue: Our Challenge my perspective, to be on the cusp of a program, headed by the Dean of the major breakthrough – if we can accelerate Faculty of Science, Professor Scott that to help make it happen it would be a O’Neill. The Gillespies hope to be great thing for the world at this time.” ongoing supporters of the breakthrough research and the O’Neill group believing strongly in the approach. “What I like is that it’s

The Eliminate Dengue program aims to brilliant in its simplicity,” curb the spread of the disease, which says Lesley Gillespie. affects millions of people each year in “We just all thought more than 100 countries. Dengue fever is ranked by the World Health Organization it was a good way of (WHO) as the most rapidly spreading getting it out there.” viral disease, with a 30-fold increase over the past 50 years. It estimates that more than 2.5 billion people are at risk of The Gillespie Family Foundation is run acquiring the disease. by the couple, their children, Elise, 33, and Aaron, 35, and their spouses David The program uses naturally occurring Christie and Meghan Gillespie. bacteria, Wolbachia, that reduce the ability of mosquitoes to pass dengue Formed in 2013, it was a natural between people. The program scientists progression in giving for Lesley and hope to seed wild mosquito populations Roger Gillespie who had been donating with the bacteria through controlled to various causes for years, either releases of Wolbachia-infected personally or through Bakers Delight. mosquitoes that will then breed with the wild mosquito population. Bakers Delight, which turns over almost $600 million annually – ranking 63rd on the The program is currently field testing IBIS Top 500 list – has 700 franchisees in four countries and is expanding and spread throughout , New gearing up for large scale efficacy trials Zealand, and as far afield as Saskatoon over the next few years. Canada, a rural community where one customer turns up to the highly popular Professor O’Neill says: “We are very on his tractor. Theirs is a private grateful to have the Gillespie Family company with no plans to go public. join our program as key philanthropic partners. Without philanthropy, Aaron Gillespie oversees the family’s research programs such as ours, would 78 Canadian stores, COBS , while struggle to continue their work. The Elise and David are both managers family is supporting us in developing working in the headquarters. a means of getting mosquito larvae into communities in the developing Bakers Delight will soon open a store in world. We are all very excited by the east coast America.

If you would like to discuss giving to the Eliminate Dengue program or Science Photo Credit: Julian Kingma (The Australian) at Monash call Enrica Longo, Director External Engagement, +61 3 9903 4855. www.eliminatedengue.com/program www.monash.edu/science/alumni/graduates/leslie-gillespie.html