Mr.
Robert Stringer
MBA
(Chairman) is a founding General Partner of
Sherbrooke Capital LLC (SherCap), a venture capital firm based in Newton Lower
Falls, MA, US, specialising in providing growth capital to companies in the
health and wellness industry. SherCap has successfully managed a US$101 million
portfolio of investments and has supervised significant liquidity events in such
companies as Izze Beverages, Oregon Chai and Cook Pharma.
Bob is the president and founder of RAS Consulting, LLC. He is also a former
partner of Oliver Wyman, Inc., and the former president and founder of
Sherbrooke Associates, Inc., a consulting firm that provided strategic planning
and executive development services to companies in the US and abroad. Bob’s
consulting assignments have included multiple engagements in New Zealand and
Australia where he worked with such companies as Arnott’s, Western Mining,
Carter Holt Harvey, ENZA, Lion Nathan, Telecom NZ, SKYCITY Entertainment,
Fonterra and Auckland Healthcare. Bob’s most recent US engagements have been
with the Bank of America, Pepsi International, CitiGroup, Scholastic, Inc.,
ConAgra Foods, Fidelity Investments and General Mills.
Bob currently serves on the boards of several of Sherbrooke
Capital’s portfolio companies, and has served on the boards of three additional
private companies: The Brookeside Group, Inc., (chairman of the board),
Georgetown Associates, Inc., (chairman of the board) and LaunchPad, Inc. Bob has
extensive experience in advising clients how to build high performing
organisations in the US, the UK, Australia and New Zealand. He has served on the
faculty of the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration and is
currently teaching at Babson College. Starting in June 2009, he has a three year
appointment to the faculty of Auckland University’s Business School.
Ms
Bridget Liddell
MA Hons, BCom, CFA
has significant governance experience across a range of sectors through Board
positions in a number of public and non-profit companies. Bridget is currently
the Managing Principal of New York-based company, Fahrenheit Ventures, which
commercialises products and processes of new companies within the US market.
Bridget is a Director of the New Zealand Superannuation
Fund. Bridget is also the Chair of the US Beachhead Program (run by New Zealand
Trade and Enterprise) and a Board member of KEA, a global organisation which
helps New Zealanders around the world promote and contribute to New Zealand’s
interests abroad. She chairs the US Friends of the University of Auckland, is a
member of the University of Auckland Business School Advisory Board and is a
Director of the US/NZ Council.
Bridget has previously held positions as a Director of Sky
City Ltd and Fisher & Paykel Appliances Holdings Ltd. Her other past governance
roles include membership of The University of Auckland Council and directorships
of New Zealand Apple and Pear Marketing Board, Industry New Zealand (the
predecessor to New Zealand Trade and Enterprise), Competitive Auckland Limited
(regional economic development) and Auckland Uniservices Limited (technology
transfer).
Bridget has graduate and post-graduate qualifications in
Finance and Marketing and holds the CFA qualification. She has had extensive
experience in financial markets and in operations through her role as Director
of CS First Boston NZ and as CEO Carter Holt Harvey Plastic Products. Bridget
currently serves on the Investment Committee and Capital Markets Committee of
Grameen USA.
Mr.
Stuart McKenzieBE (Civil)
Dip.Bus
MBA
is a General Partner of Endeavour Capital, one of the six major venture capital
funds in New Zealand, and initial investors in BioVittoria. Stuart has been a
venture capital investor for the past seven years. In addition to his work as a
venture capitalist, Stuart is a member of the Government/ Industry Capitalising
on Research and Development Action Group (CRAG), sits on the Board of the NZ
Trade and Enterprise Beachheads Programme, and is a Council Member of the NZ
Venture Capital Association. Qualifications include a Bachelor of Engineering
and MBA .
Dr.
Garth SmithMSc (Hons),
PhD, DSc
was previously General
Manager Bioactives and Biomedical for HortResearch New Zealand, where he led a
team of 150 scientists. Garth has gained international recognition for
research and development of high value horticultural and botanical products and
functional foods. He has published over 200 articles in peer reviewed scientific
journals and contributed chapters to six books on plant science.
Garth
is regarded as one of the pioneers in the New Zealand kiwifruit
industry and was a key figure in developing the industry during the intense
scale-up of the 1980s and 1990s. To this day the New Zealand kiwifruit industry
retains a deserved reputation as a world leader in innovation and quality and
much of this reputation can be traced back to work done by Garth and research
teams which he directed or was a member of.
Garth
was a founding board member of Innovation Park in Hamilton, New Zealand
and B2H (Business to Hamilton). In 1996 Garth was asked by the New Zealand
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to lead a project based in Ulaanbaatar,
Mongolia, to restructure 120 state owned research institutes. The
recommendations from this project have been implemented by the Government of
Mongolia. A similar project was also carried out in Indonesia. Over the past 18
years he has developed
an extensive network in China, especially within the Chinese medicinal plant
industry which he continues to develop during his continuing presence in that
country.
Mr.
David Thorrold
BMus (Hons), DipAcc, CA. David has been a
director and the CEO of the Company during the last 3 years. He resigned as a
director of the Company as from, and conditional on, listing of the Shares on
NZSX, but will continue as CEO of the Company.
He has 17 years’ experience in
accounting, finance and management. He began his accountancy career in Hamilton
Chartered Accountancy firm Beattie Rickman where he worked for four years. In
his last year there, David was recognised by the New Zealand Institute of
Chartered Accountants for achieving one of the top five results nationally in
the Final Qualifying Professional Examinations for that year.
David then worked for a period on
project assignments in London for Deutsche Bank, Bankers Trust and the BBC. He
then spent five years as Managing Director of a UK based software company. On
returning to New Zealand David spent two years as a consultant, again with
Beattie Rickman (now PriceWaterhouseCoopers), working particularly with early
stage technology and Agri-tech companies. David joined BioVittoria in January
2006, and has subsequently developed an extensive network of contacts in the US
and European food and beverage industries while leading the commercialisation
effort for Fruit-Sweetness™.