The country’s peak science and research body will put more emphasis on work that meets the needs of local­ industry, its new chief executive, ­technology entrepreneur and venture capitalist Larry Marshall, has said.

Dr Marshall said the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation will be more commercially focused under his leader­ship. “If I wanted to be cute, I would say ‘we’re putting the ‘I’ back into CSIRO’," he said after his appointment was announced on Thursday.