At Solar D, we wanted to change the SPF landscape and help people improve their lives with new technologies, whilst still protecting them with old ones. As over 1 billion people world-wide are considered vitamin D deficient and traditional broad-spectrum SPF was designed to screen out up to 99% of the UV light from the sun, including the UVB light we use to make vitamin D, we wanted to change the status quo.
Mathew has over 30 years’ experience across Start-ups, Banking, Corporate Advisory, FMCG and Business Development. Mathew spent over 20 years in corporate banking and financial markets where he developed a key understanding of financial instruments, business management and client relationships. Mathew was a former Director at JBWere (now Goldman Sachs Australia) and Managing Director of ICAP Australia where he specialised in fixed income, private equity, venture capital investments and corporate advisory for early stage business across multiple sectors. He was also co-founder of Australia’s oldest and largest Lime Farm, Lime Grove, which created a large range of Lime based FMCG products which sold over 75% through Australia’s largest grocery chain, Woolworth’s. Prior to Solar D, he helped fund, build and commercialise Cocoon Data (now Covata), a data security company now listed on the ASX (CVT). Courtney is an experienced Creative Executive who has worked in the marketing and entertainment industry for over 20 years with a focus on business development, strategy, creative direction, digital marketing and promotion. Courtney has also vast experience as an executive producer for TV, live events and recordings.
Courtney also has strong ties and relationships across media and public relations companies across Australia and the US and has a strong track record of media relations. Mr. Ernest Armstrong’s background is in global pharmaceutical development and global business development. He is the inventor of the award-wining Solar D Sunscreen and Solar D Brightening technology and has worked in the fields of vitamin D and cosmetics development for over a decade. He has developed a cancer drug, was awarded a patent on a headache treatment, and co-invented an allergy treatment that won the “Best New Product” award by chain pharmacies. Mr. Armstrong has managed pharmaceutical business development, including his interfacing with some 200 pharmaceutical and biotech companies, and has directed many clinical research programs. He was an Associate Professor of international business in Japan. Mr. Armstrong’s undergraduate education was at Humboldt State University, CA, USA with a BA degree in International Business and Biology studies. Spanish/economics studies in Guatemala. French studies University Laval, Quebec, Canada. BA in French, in France. Graduate school at University of California at Santa Barbara, Statistics studies. Management program in Japan. San Francisco State University, CA, USA, with an MBA in International Business. Professor of Medicine, Physiology and Biophysics; Director of the General Clinical Research Unit; and Director of the Bone Health Care Clinic and the Director of the Heliotherapy, Light, and Skin Research Center at Boston University Medical Center. Dr. Holick has made numerous contributions to the field of the biochemistry, physiology, metabolism, and photobiology of vitamin D for human nutrition. Dr. Holick has established global recommendations advising sunlight exposure as an integral source of vitamin D. He has helped increase awareness in the pediatric and medical communities regarding vitamin D deficiency pandemic, and its role in causing not only metabolic bone disease, and osteoporosis in adults, but increasing risk of children and adults developing preeclampsia, common deadly cancers, schizophrenia, infectious diseases including TB and influenza, autoimmune diseases including type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis, type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease. Dr. Holick is a Diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine, a Fellow of the American College of Nutrition, and a member of the American Association of Physicians. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the General Clinical Research Centers Program Award for Excellence in Clinical Research from NIH, American College of Nutrition’s Communication Media Award, Best Docs in America, the Linus Pauling Functional Medicine Award from the Institute for Functional Medicine and the Linus Pauling Prize for Human Nutrition. Dr. Holick serves on a number of national committees and editorial boards and has organized and/or co-chaired several international symposia. He served as the chair for the Endocrine Society’s Practice Guidelines on Vitamin D. He has authored more than 400 peer-reviewed publications, and written more than 200 review articles, as well as numerous book chapters. He has acted as editor and/or co-editor on 13 books, and has written The UV Advantage in 2004 and The Vitamin D Solution in 2010 and helped develop the dminder.info app
Our Team
Mathew Collett
Director, Co-founder & CEO
Courtney Hard
Head of Design and Marketing
Ernest Armstrong
Inventor – Head of Technology and Product Development
Michael F. Holick, Ph.D., M.D
Expert Vitamin D & Science Consultant
