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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.
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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.
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Dr. Garth Smith MSc (Hons), PhD, DSc is a co-founder of the company and 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.
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Mr. David Thorrold BMus (Hons), DipAcc, CA. David has been a director and the CEO of the Company during the last 3 years.
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™.
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Mr Christopher Sinclair held senior management positions in the US and Asia with PepsiCo., Inc., including Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Pepsi-Cola Company; President and CEO of PepsiCo Foods & Beverages International, and President and Chief Executive Officer of Pepsi-Cola International.
Chris has over 30 years of experience leading and managing large complex organisations. He recently served as Executive Chairman of Scandent Holdings, a private investment group which controlled Cambridge Solutions Ltd., a global IT Services and Business Process Outsourcing company. Cambridge Solutions is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and operates in nine countries with over 4,000 employees. The company was recently acquired by Xchanging Plc in the United Kingdom.
Prior to the sale, Chris also served as Executive Chairman and CEO of Cambridge Solutions. Formerly, Chris served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Caribiner International Inc., (NYSE) where he led the financial restructuring of this global business communications company, sponsored by Warburg Pincus. He also served as President and CEO of Quality Food Centers, Inc., (NYSE) a multi-regional supermarket chain that he helped build through consolidation and then successfully sold in 1998 to Fred Meyer, Inc. Early in his career, Chris also served in various marketing roles at General Foods and Newsweek, Inc.
Chris is currently a member of the board of directors of Mattel, Inc., an operating partner of Tri-Artisan Capital Partners and is a member of the Board of Advisors for The Water Initiative, Inc. Previously, Chris has served on boards including: eMerge Interactive Inc., Foot Locker Inc., Merisant (Equal), Perdue Farms Inc. and PepsiCo Inc.
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Neville Jordan CNZM is a graduate engineer and also holds an honorary Doctorate in Engineering, both from Canterbury University. In 1975 Neville founded MAS Technology Ltd, a telecommunications microwave company which he grew from start-up to a significant multinational company and achieved a successful IPO on the NASDAQ main board. Neville then founded Endeavour Capital which invests in companies based on science and technology. Endeavour’s Investments span over 30 international companies, large and small, with many successful exits achieved.
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