Born in Murrumburrah in 1950 and attended St. Columba’s school in Harden, Barry McCleary went on to head an extremely successful biotechnical company, Megazyme, in Ireland in 1988.

Barry and his wife Eibhilin returned to Harden last month, to reunite with former St. Columba’s students at the Terracotta restaurant, which also has strong Irish roots.

“I have three siblings, David, Ray and Lynette. Our family moved to Sydney in 1965 and I completed my high school education at Marist Brothers Parramatta,” McCleary said.

“Having won a Cadetship with the NSW Department of Agriculture to study Agricultural Science at the University of Sydney, I specialised in Agricultural Chemistry.

“I started my scientific career with the NSW Dept. Agriculture in 1975 at the Biological and Chemical Research Institute, Rydalmere as a biochemist in the Phytochemistry Section under Dr. David Leece.”

McCleary has had an extremely successful career, going on to be the founder of an international company, Megazyme.

“I took leave from the Dept. of Agriculture and worked in Biocon Biochemicals, Cork, Ireland, in 1986-87,” McCleary continued.

“During this time, I developed a passion for small business, so on returning to B&CRI in 1987, my focus was to complete the research I had underway with Dr. Gibson while planning to start a research company.

“At the end of 1988, having reached the level of Principal Research Scientist within the Dept., I resigned and started my new company, Megazyme, in two garages off the side of the family home in North Rocks, Sydney.

“I worked from the garages for 3 years, with income generated from consultancy agreements with companies in various countries.

“In 1993, with just 3 employees, Megazyme was named NSW Small Business of the year, which was quite some surprise to me. That same year we relocated to a factory unit in Warriewood, Sydney and developed some production capabilities.

“We moved again in 1996, but this time to Bray (south of Dublin), Ireland, for both personal and business reasons.”

In 2013, McCleary made another important breakthrough for his business.

“In 2013, an Organic Chemistry research facility was built, equipped and staffed, and our fermentation capabilities were expanded. Over this period of time, the Megazyme team grew to 50 people, approximately half of whom were involved in research,” he said.

“By 2019, Megazyme supplied approx. 700 products, over 100 of which were analytical kits for monitoring quality aspects in the cereals, food, fermentation and dairy industries. Forty kits were developed to support the wine industry.”

In January last year, McCleary sold Megazyme to Neogen Corporation, a billion-dollar public US company, who had approached McCleary several times over the past decade about buying the business.

After reaching the age of 71, and with no family members willing or able to run the company, he decided that it was the right time to sell and retire.

Barry comes back to Harden regularly and is currently travelling around Australia with his two brothers and sister for a six week trip. It was great to have you back in Harden, Barry.

See you all next time.

Tim Warren