About Us

Our people

Board of Directors

Debra Hall

Chair

Debra Hall

Chair

Debra is an experienced company director, with over 20 years experience in the technology / innovation sector, working at the earliest stages of the science-based innovation system as a mentor, adviser, angel investor and company director.
She chaired the Investment Committee of the Kiwi Innovation Network, deploying the Pre-Seed Accelerator Fund, for six years, and has been active as an independent and investor director on a number of early stage, growth company boards. She is currently Chair of Mindhive Ltd and Nanobubble Agritech Ltd, and a Member of the Governance Board of the Joint Accreditation Service for NZ and Australia (JASANZ).
A metallurgical engineer by training, and an exited entrepreneur from building her own consulting business, Debra brings to the board table strategic and analytical skills, supporting evidence based decision-making, with courage.
Debra is a Chartered Member of the NZ Institute of Directors.

Steve O'Connor

Deputy Chair

Steve O'Connor

Deputy Chair

Steve is an independent director, advisor and investor with a strong background within the start-up and technology commercialisation community in Aotearoa and overseas. He enjoys working at the axis between R&D, technology, innovation, and the funding and capitalisation of new ventures and growth companies. He was the founder and CEO of Flick Electric which was acquired by Z Energy. Prior to this he was the CEO of Creative HQ, Wellingtons innovation hub, incubator and accelerator.

Steve is a Director of Rocketing Ventures, providing advisory services and an Advisory Board member at the School of Business and Government at Victoria University. He was a Director of Datamine Ltd, Marketview Ltd, Flick Energy Ltd, Mevo Ltd., and was the founder of the Lightening Lab accelerator. He holds a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Commerce from Victoria University of Wellington and is a Member of the Institute of Directors.

Marcel van den Assum

Director

Marcel van den Assum

Director

Marcel is a professional director, independent advisor and angel investor.
His roles include Chairman of Flick Electric Ltd, Sprout Agritech Ltd and Wipster Ltd, and Director of CropX (NZ) Ltd and Education Payroll Ltd, along with Independent Advisory Board positions with New Zealand Inland Revenue and the Ministry of Health. He was Chairman of the Angel Association of NZ, a director of AngelHQ, a founding investor in LightningLab accelerator, and a member of the NZ Institute of Directors.
Prior to his governance career, Marcel was CIO of New Zealand’s largest company Fonterra, and previous to that Managing Principal of Unisys New Zealand holding leadership roles in various global functions. He has worked across many industry sectors, government entities, and in most geographies.
Marcel has a genuine desire to grow companies and New Zealand’s economy, and an interest in NZGCP’s leadership role in market. He has a strong level of understanding of the work of NZGCP, the environment it operates in, the relationship between its stakeholders, and the challenges surrounding its investment and stakeholder relations.
Alongside family and friends, art, music, mountain biking and snowboarding, food and travel are Marcel’s interests.

Paul Hocking

Director

Paul Hocking

Director

Paul is an independent professional director with a career background in funds management and investment banking. Additionally Paul has worked for two professional industry bodies as Executive Director of INFINZ and Director Advocacy for NZICA
Within the funds management industry Paul has been an investment specialist, advisor and director having worked for Shell NZ, Westpac Investments, Chairing Kernel Wealth, and now an independent adviser to two Booster investment committees.
Paul was a director, and chair of the Audit Risk and Compliance committee, for Trustees Executors, chair of Taheke 8C, director of the Campbell Institute, executive director of a licenced crowd funding company, Propellar/Crowd88 as well as being an independent member of the investment advisory sub committee of Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō.
Through his company Esperance Capital Paul has advised companies in a number of industries on capital raises in the private markets as well as on the Catalist marketplace and providing governance advice, advising on acquisitions and the provision of company valuations and undertaking due diligence exercises. Two highlights were providing research services to the Cameron Capital Markets Taskforce and placing an economic value on the contribution of the 13,500 volunteer firefighters who provide the backbone of the fire and emergency services in New Zealand.
Paul has also mentored companies in Creative HQ’s accelerator programmes.

Paul Reid

director

Paul Reid

director

Paul Reid is an experienced governance professional that has served on ASX- and NZX-listed, venture-backed, and crown-owned boards. His current directorships include Canterbury Scientific, Virsae, FlexiTime, NZ Post, Christchurch International Airport, and Foodstuffs South Island. Paul is the immediate past Chair of Volpara Health Technologies, Figured, and Pukeko Pictures Limited.

Independent Members

Dana Settle

Independent Investment Committee Member

Dana Settle

Independent Investment Committee Member

Dana Settle is a Founding Partner with Greycroft, and she heads the firm’s west coast office out of Los Angeles.
Prior to Greycroft, Dana spent several years as a venture capitalist and advisor to start-up companies in the Bay Area, including six years at Mayfield, where she focused on early-stage companies in the mobile communications and consumer Internet markets.
Dana currently manages Greycroft’s investments in Anine Bing, AppAnnie, Bird, Clique, Comparably, Goop, Happiest Baby, Seed, Thrive Market, Versed and WideOrbit. She also
managed the firm’s investments in Awesomeness TV (acquired by Dreamworks), Maker Studios (acquired by Disney), Pulse (acquired by LinkedIn), TheRealReal (IPO), Trunk Club (acquired by Nordstrom), Sometrics (acquired by American Express), Viddy (acquired by Fullscreen), and Voicea (acquired by Cisco).
Dana also serves as a Board of Director to IMAX Corporation. Her additional experience includes business development at Truveo (AOL), investment banking at Lehman Brothers and international business development at McCaw Cellular Communications (AT&T).
Dana holds a BA in Finance and International Studies from the University of Washington and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Danny Lee

Elevate Investment Committee Member

Danny Lee

Elevate Investment Committee Member

Danny is an experienced investor with over 24 years of global private equity experience spanning venture, growth and buyouts. He is currently managing VCA Capital Fund I, helping individuals and family offices manage their private equity portfolio globally through both fund and direct investments.
Danny is also a senior advisor to Blue Pool Capital where he was a partner running global private equity since 2015. Before that he was a managing director at Bain Capital and Vice President at Investor AB, the largest industrial holding company in the Nordic region. He started his career with Lehman Brothers in NY. Danny has a BA in Economics from Columbia and is a CFA Charter holder.
Danny is an Aspen Finance Fellow and Edmund Hillary Fellow. He sits on our investment committee for Elevate, on the board of the HK Venture Capital and Private Equity Association, and is the chairman of Seed Foundation, a youth education NGO sponsored by Alibaba Entrepreneur Fund. He is also the founding patron for the M+ Museum and the HK Palace Museum.

Scott Ramsower

Elevate Investment Committee Member

Scott Ramsower

Elevate Investment Committee Member

Scott leads the Private Equity Funds Team at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS). Through his role at TRS, Scott has oversight responsibilities for the group’s approximately $24 billion NAV private equity fund investment portfolio. In addition, he is a member of the Private Equity Investment Committee and Management Committee, through which he assists in the strategy and development of the overall private equity team and portfolio. Scott is also Chair of the ILPA Board of Directors and an ILPA Faculty Member, helping to educate fellow practitioners in the private equity industry.

Prior to joining TRS in 2010, Scott was in the New York office of AlpInvest Partners, a leading private equity investor with over €35 billion in AUM at the time. At AlpInvest, Scott focused on evaluating new private equity fund commitments to various strategies around the globe. Prior to AlpInvest, Scott was an associate in the equity research department of Morgan Stanley. Previously, he also worked in the consulting practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Scott received a BBA, Finance from Texas A&M University.

Team

James Pinner

Chief Executive Officer

James Pinner

Chief Executive Officer

James was appointed as our CEO from 1 January 2026. Prior to this, James joined NZGCP in 2019 to establish the Elevate fund and acted as Chief Investment Officer from 2022 to 2025. James has over 20 years of corporate finance experience covering venture capital, private equity, corporate M&A and equity capital markets. James’ experience includes 15 years in London, working across North America, Europe, Africa and South-East Asia and more recently working in corporate development in New Zealand for a large family-owned conglomerate. James is a Fellow of Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, holds a BSc (Hons) from Leeds University and is a member of the NZ Institute of Directors.

Tana van Loggerenberg

Chief Financial Officer / Chief Operating Officer

Tana van Loggerenberg

Chief Financial Officer / Chief Operating Officer

Tana is our CFO / COO and responsible for all accounting, budgeting and forecasting. She has extensive experience in the financial services sector specifically cost management, financial planning and reporting, strategy implementation and leadership. Tana has a Masters in Positive Leadership and Strategy from IE Business School, BCom Hon from the University of North West in South Africa and is a CA with the Chartered Accounts Australia and New Zealand.

Jacques Richter

Investment Director

Jacques Richter

Investment Director

Jacques is an Investment Director responsible for managing our Aspire fund. Jacques obtained experience in consulting engineering in the UK and South Africa before joining a development finance institution. He spent five years in venture capital and industry development roles, pursuing the economic growth and industrial development objectives of the bank. Jacques holds a Bachelors degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Pretoria, an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at the University of Cape Town and is a CFA charterholder.

Jason Roche

Investment Director

Jason Roche

Investment Director

Jason is an Investment Director responsible for managing our Elevate fund. Prior to joining NZGCP, Jason spent six years working in the M&A team at Todd Corporation where he was involved in transactions spanning Energy, Minerals, Property, Agriculture and Technology. Most recently Jason led the acquisition of a Fiji based solar generation company and completed a secondment to Todd Corporation’s Sydney office, where he advised on project finance. Prior to working at Todd, Jason worked as an Energy Market Analyst at NZX Limited and in Corporate Finance at Summerset Group. Jason holds a BCA (HONS) in Finance and Economics from Victoria University in Wellington and is a CFA Charterholder.

John Lee

Investment Manager

John Lee

Investment Manager

John is an Investment Manager supporting investments made through the Elevate fund. Before joining NZGCP, he worked at NZ Treasury’s Balance Sheet and Transactions team providing advice on capital structure, commercial strategy and risk management. Previously, he was a Manager in Deloitte’s Corporate Finance team, involved in financial advisory, valuation, and change management projects across sectors. John has also worked in the commercial and investment teams at MBIE, Ministry for the Environment, and Ministry of Transport. He is a Chartered Accountant and holds a Master of Professional Accounting from Victoria University of Wellington, as well as an LLB and a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Otago.

Sam Butler

Investment Manager

Sam Butler

Investment Manager

Sam is an Investment Manager supporting investments made through our Aspire fund. Prior to joining NZGCP, Sam provided intellectual property and commercialisation advice to early-stage research teams across the horticultural, food and beverage, arable crop, and seafood industries at Plant & Food Research. She has a BSc in Genetics from the University of Otago and a Masters in Bioscience Enterprise from the University of Auckland.

Jordan Kimpton

Investment Manager

Jordan Kimpton

Investment Manager

Jordan is an Investment Manager, supporting investments made through our Aspire fund. Prior to joining NZGCP, Jordan worked as a Product Development Engineer, assisting in the development and release of a number of medical devices. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical) and Bachelor of Science (Physiology) both from the University of Auckland.

Emil Schroder

Investment Manager

Emil Schroder

Investment Manager

Emil is an Investment Manager supporting our Aspire fund. Since studying Physics at the University of Canterbury, Emil has gone into the education and government IT sectors, working in coordination and lead roles across a range of Agile software delivery teams.

Dr Lari Dkhar

Senior Investment Analyst

Dr Lari Dkhar

Senior Investment Analyst

Lari is a Senior Investment Analyst supporting our Aspire fund. She previously worked with AUT researchers and staff to identify, appraise, and develop new commercial ventures that create real-world impact from university research. Before joining AUT Ventures, she was finishing her PhD on an intranasal medical device and was enrolled into the KiwiNet Emerging Innovator programme. This programme ignited her curiosity to learn and understand from a researcher’s perspective as well as a commercialisation perspective, how to facilitate emerging bio-medical technologies from a lab space into reality. Lari holds a PhD degree (Biomedical Science) from AUT and a Master by Research degree (Medical Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) from the University of Glasgow.

Lucy Law

Senior Investment Analyst

Lucy Law

Senior Investment Analyst

Lucy is a Senior Investment Analyst supporting our Aspire fund. Prior to joining NZGCP, Lucy worked in research commercialisation at both Crown Research Institutes and Universities. She also has experience working at Gobi Partners which manages Alibaba Entrepreneur Fund in Hong Kong.
She holds a PGDip in Bioscience Enterprise from the University of Auckland, and previously obtained a BSc in Biomedical Science and worked in the diagnostic genetics lab at ADHB.

Bryce Lowen

Senior Investment Analyst

Bryce Lowen

Senior Investment Analyst

Bryce is a Senior Investment Analyst, supporting investments made through our Aspire fund. With a background in medical device sales and regulatory affairs, he has supported positive clinical change in New Zealand healthcare and driven market access for medical devices globally. Bryce holds a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Science and Master of Bioscience Enterprise both from the University of Auckland.

Inuka Panditha

Investment Analyst

Inuka Panditha

Investment Analyst

Inuka is an Investment Analyst supporting our Aspire fund. He studied Mechatronics Engineering, focusing on electronics and mechanical systems. Prior to joining NZGCP, he worked as an EBM Additive Manufacturing Engineer in titanium 3D printing, contributing to applications in the aerospace and medical sectors.

Andy Chu

Fund Controller and Reporting Officer

Andy Chu

Fund Controller and Reporting Officer

Andy is our Fund Controller and Reporting Officer responsible for data strategy, reporting and system improvement. He has over 10 years’ experience in industry and company research and 5 years’ experience in fund management with extensive exposure to U.S, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand equities. He has a Master’s degree in professional accountancy and finance from the Massey University and is a Chartered Certified Accountant with Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.

Michelle van Aurich

Senior Accountant

Michelle van Aurich

Senior Accountant

Michelle is our Senior Accountant, managing our accounting, budgeting, forecasting and audit requirements. She has over 10 years’ extensive accounting experience with companies both in New Zealand and overseas and is a Chartered Accountant Australia and New Zealand.

Anna Yue

Senior Accountant

Anna Yue

Senior Accountant

Anna is an Accountant responsible for day-to-day accounting, assisting with improving and streamlining internal business processes and providing support for investment reporting. She has extensive accounting experience with companies in various industries across New Zealand. Anna has a Master of Professional Accounting from AUT and is a Chartered Accountant with the Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand.

Andrew Scott

Data Analyst

Andrew Scott

Data Analyst

Andrew is our Data Analyst, responsible for data collection and reporting for internal and external reporting requirements. He has 16 years’ experience in data analysis and reporting roles, with responsibility for managing ETL processes to ensure data integrity and accuracy. He also has extensive experience in report development for Business Unit and Executive reporting, across a variety of reporting platforms.

Brenda James

Learning & Engagement Specialist

Brenda James

Learning & Engagement Specialist

Brenda James is NZGCP’s Learning and Engagement Specialist, designing and delivering learning initiatives to strengthen capability within Aotearoa’s venture capital community. Before joining NZGCP, Brenda’s career spanned HR, recruitment, and leadership development. She holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Career Development and is passionate about the power of learning to transform individuals, strengthen businesses and enrich communities across Aotearoa.

Caitlin Ashworth (On Parental Leave)

HEAD OF LEGAL

Caitlin Ashworth (On Parental Leave)

HEAD OF LEGAL

Caitlin joined NZGCP in November 2024 as our Head of Legal. Caitlin has over 10 years of legal experience in the corporate and commercial field, with a focus on technology, venture capital, and start-ups. She’s worked in New Zealand and Singapore, with the latter including time at the top law firm for venture capital globally, and at the world’s largest payments company. Now back in NZ she has contributed to a number of incubator and accelerator programmes as a legal advisor, and most recently she was part of the team at a Wellington-based boutique law firm in the technology and innovation space. Caitlin holds an LLB (Hons) from the University of Waikato. In her spare time, she sings in a band, hoards books, and skis (usually not all at the same time).