Wayne Pearson was Managing Director of Cellplex Pty Ltd Australia, a perfusion tubing pack manufacturing company and medical distributor of perfusion products across Australia and New Zealand. Of far greater note Wayne was a champion of perfusion education and was a pivotal force in the success of the Perfusion Downunder Winter Meeting and the Perfusion Downunder Collaboration. Wayne was diagnosed with an aggressive multiple myeloma two and a half years ago at the age of 48. He died on September 4 of this year although few who had any dealings with him were aware of the severity of his illness, such was his huge energy and vigor. He was a full throttle bloke. His quiet leadership orchestrated needed innovation. His ability to recognize young talent and nurture the leaders of the future is a large part of this remarkable man’s legacy. From the early 2000s Wayne regularly attended the Key West Outcomes Meetings to better understand current directions in perfusion research and patient outcomes—his background being finance and corporate management. In 2004, with Jill Futter-Crigan, wanting to put something back into perfusion they proposed to sponsor a perfusion focused meeting and Perfusion Downunder was born. Through to the 11th meeting this year shortly before his untimely death Wayne has provided leadership par excellence for Perfusion Downunder. That Meeting has achieved international recognition for excellence in very large part as a result of Wayne’s leadership and his visionary and entrepreneurial acumen. He brought the same energy to this endeavor as he did to all things and made firm friends with world leaders in the field of cardiac surgery, a strong supporter of the Australia and New Zealand College of Perfusion, and a regular attendee at AMSECT Meetings and other international perfusion symposia. Of special note was Wayne’s devotion to our shared mission of improving patient care and his ongoing support for the work of the International Consortium for Evidence Based Perfusion. His gracious and generous support though Cellplex has cemented a legacy of regional and international perfusion innovation, collaboration and advancement. Throughout the last 12 years of Perfusion Downunder Wayne never sought the limelight, in fact to the contrary was quite retiring when it came to acknowledgements of his contribution. In 2014 Wayne delivered the Professor Merry Lecture and spoke of leadership in a talk entitled “The end of the Beginning”. He said “A leader is defined as an individual who motivates and influences others towards the accomplishment of a pre-defined goal.” Indeed Wayne was a great leader. We don’t all get to anticipate our departure as Wayne did. In his last weeks with us he was instrumental in setting up the pathway for PDU to become an incorporated Association in its own right.
In his own words “Every day, every minute, every moment in life represents the end of the past. More importantly, it heralds the beginning of the future.”