Aki von Roy

Aki von Roy is a bio-entrepreneur who has focused his activities on New Zealand and Australian opportunities. Aki is known in the New Zealand biotechnology community for his role in leading a $12 million Series A fund raising for Proacta and for helping other biotechnology start ups, such as CoDa Therapeutics, Corra Life Science, Biomatters and PhotoNZ to develop their business concepts.

Aki is chairman of Genesis Research and Development Corporation in Auckland and of Phylogica, an Australian company that recently listed on the Australian stock market.

Aki is a director of Biomatters Ltd and a partner of Inventages, a venture capital company based in Switzerland and the Bahamas which manages the recently launched $150 million food, agbiotech and health fund BioPacificVentures in a collaboration with New Zealand based venture capitalist Direct Capital Private Equity Ltd and AgResearch Ltd.

Doug Calhoun

Doug Calhoun has been an intellectual property advisor to many of New Zealand's leading biotech players from the academic, government research and from commercial sectors for over 30 years. He has been a frequent commentator on intellectual property issues in the popular press and in academic journals. He has been a mentor to many younger attorneys at A J Park. He has been an advocate for sensible intellectual property protection, both to government officials and politicians. His highest profile appearance was as an expert witness to the G M Royal Commission in 2001.

Doug has just retired from A J Park after 32 years with the firm. He intends to remain active as a consultant to industry and a commentator on intellectual property issues. He also intends to do some first-hand close up surveys of the durability and persistant of turf grasses used on golf courses throughout New Zealand to advance his practical knowledge in his specialist field of plant variety rights.

Doug Cleverly

Argenta Manufacturing Ltd

Brian Cox

Bioenergy Association of New Zealand

Jilly Evans

Amira Pharmaceuticals

Peter Fennessey

Peter Fennessy is a business consultant with, a director of AbacusBio Limited, a privately-held consultancy and new venture development business with offices in Dunedin and Melbourne.  Peter is also chair of BLIS Technologies Ltd, Chair of the Advisory Board for the Applied Science Programme (University of Otago), a member of the board of directors for the National Research Centre for Growth and Development, and a director of several private companies in the areas of agribusiness, biotechnology and technology in general.

Previous roles include NZBio Inc (director and chair), a number of others including Ovita Ltd (board of directors and chair of the Scientific Advisory Board) and the NZ Expert Science Panel on Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy.

As a consultant, Peter works with clients in development of business strategy, business investment and intellectual property strategy, and in the evaluation and valuation of technologies. This is mainly in the agri-bio, biotechnology and agri-tech areas.

Peter’s original training was in agricultural science. He then worked as a research scientist and held senior management roles until 1997 when he left R&D management to pursue a long-term interest in developing his own business interests. From 2000 to 2010, Peter was managing-director of AbacusBio.
 

Peter Foster

Symansis

Andrew Fletcher

Fonterra

Andrew Kelly

BioPacific Ventures

Peter Landon-Lane

Peter Landon-Lane took up the role of Chief Executive Officer at Plant & Food Research in September 2008, following a number of senior positions in the dairy company Fonterra and the New Zealand Dairy Board, including heading the business in Japan (1998-2004) and Europe (2005-2008). Peter started his career at the former Department of Trade and Industry which included serving as a trade commissioner in China and the Philippines.
 
Peter has a strong background in general management and international business in the food and agri-industry. He has degrees in science from the University of Otago and in economics from Victoria University of Wellington and is currently a board director of several Plant & Food Research subsidiaries and joint ventures, including Prevar Limited, Rhindo International Limited and Seafood Innovations Limited and he is on the governance boards of the Riddet Institute and the Vital Vegetables Research Partnership.
 

Peter Lee

DR PETER LEE PHD, Chief Executive Officer – Auckland UniServices Limited is a wholly owned company of The University of Auckland.  UniServices manages all the University’s commercial research and consultancy partnerships, forms new business ventures based on University research and owns and develops the University’s intellectual property estate.

Peter Lee graduated from Auckland University with a PhD in Chemical and Materials Engineering in 1975.  Since then he has had extensive industrial experience in North America.  Most recently Peter has been Vice President, Global Research and Development for International Paper Company.  This involved worldwide process and product development, including new ventures and spin-offs.  He held a similar role with Mead Paper Company and before that worked for Weyerhaeuser Company and the Institute of Paper Science and Technology.

Prior to joining UniServices, Peter was CEO of AgriGenesis, a company applying modern biotechnology to plants.  He is a member of Industrial Research Institute, and a Fellow of the Technical Association of Pulp and Paper.
 

Jim McLean

Andrew McLeod

Andrew McLeod studied Pharmacy at Otago University, and was then employed at Wellington Hospital Pharmacy.  In order to pursue a career in Research and Development, he completed a PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), in the field of drug delivery.  Returning to New Zealand in 1992, he worked at Zenith Technology and was then employed as a Research Officer at Douglas Pharmaceuticals.  In 1994 he was promoted to New Product Development Manager.  Andrew travelled back to the USA in 1998 to undertake post -doctoral studies at UCSF, followed by employment as a Project Manager overseeing NCE research at Dow Pharmaceutical Sciences in Petaluma.  In 2000 he returned to Douglas Pharmaceuticals, and has since held the position of Director, Research & Development.  Douglas has a team of 63 staff in the R&D and regulatory departments who are undertaking NCE, new formulation and generic product development.

Anne Blackburn

Ten Gracie

Tom Richardson

AgResearch

William Rolleston

Dr Rolleston is Production Director of South Pacific Sera Limited – a biologicals supplier and contract manufacturing company in Timaru, South Canterbury.  SPS supplies products derived from live donor farm animals and animal tissues, and contract manufactures vaccines and proteins in cell culture for supply to pharmaceutical, diagnostic and research organisations. 

William is a qualified medical practitioner and past chairman of Biotenz (predecessor of NZBIO).  He is a director of several companies, chair of the Life Sciences Network and provincial president of Federated Farmers South Canterbury.  He is a past member of the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology Board and currently sits on the Science Board and chairs the Innovation Board of the Ministry for Science and Innovation.
 

Peter Shepherd

University of Auckland

Sean Simpson

LanzaTech

Paul Tan

 Dr Paul L J Tan is a consultant in biotechnology with more than 15 years experience in the transformation of research outcomes for commercialization.  In his roles as chief and senior executive he has managed research, intellectual property, manufacture of therapeutic products, clinical trials, regulatory and corporate affairs.

He was Chief Executive Officer of Living Cell Technologies Limited in Australia and New Zealand, Founding Deputy Director and Head of Health Division at Genesis Research & Development Corporation Limited in Auckland and CEO of CenTec Limited in Sydney.
As CEO, LCT gained regulatory approval for world first human trials in New Zealand and Russia for porcine cell therapeutics under current international regulatory guidelines and the registration of LCT’s cell therapy product and encapsulation technology in Russia. LCT also established the partnership with Jiangsu Aosaikang Medicinal Group, China and listed on the US OTCQX electronic bourse. With Genesis R&D and Corixa Corporation, he developed research products for Phase I/II clinical trials in the USA, New Zealand, Philippines, and Brazil.

Prior to entering the biotechnology industry in 1994, Dr Tan was associate professor in immunology at the University of Auckland and a consultant physician rheumatologist at Auckland Hospital. He holds patents to the therapeutic uses of microbial and mammalian cell-based products.
 

Doug Wilson

Mainz Consulting