2017 Speakers

A selection of local of national and international speakers from Techweek'17.

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Author of 'The Internet of Money'
Andreas is a technologist and serial entrepreneur who has become one of the most well-known and well-respected figures in bitcoin. He is the author of two books: “Mastering Bitcoin” and “The Internet of Money”.
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CEO at Ngai Tahu Farming
Andrew is Chief Executive of Ngai Tahu Farming. Prior to this, he had his own consulting firm focussing on strategy, performance improvement, risk management & organisational alignment, for a range of industries incl. forestry, energy, agriculture, high-tech & the post quake Christchurch rebuild
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NZTE Regional Director, North America
Claudia has spent over fifteen years in the technology sector as a founder, advisor, mentor, board member and enthusiast. Claudia now helps Kiwi companies grow bigger, better, faster in the US. Claudia is a regular speaker on digital innovation, digital media and building businesses of the future.
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CEO and Co-founder of FaceMe
Danny is the CEO and co-founder of FaceMe. Danny Tomsett established his career in the Telecommunications and IT industry giving him a unique perspective and insight for inventing and developing “over-the-top” innovation. As CEO Danny leads the company with an absolute passion to disrupt front line customer service.
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Senior Data Scientist at Xero
Dr Kathryn Hempstalk has an extensive background in machine learning, artificial intelligence and data science. She studied computer science at Waikato university where she gained a doctorate in 2009. Since then she’s worked as a researcher and data scientist in a variety of industries.
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Co-founder, International Space Consultants
Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom is co-founder of International Space Consultants, and space faculty and former Chief Impact Officer of Singularity University. She will showcase her satellite projects and her work building a space ecosystem in New Zealand.
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Founder of Tech Futures Lab
Founder of Tech Futures Lab and Chair of The Mind Lab by Unitec, Frances has spent her career analysing the impact of disruptive tech and the process of innovation. Today she works in NZ and abroad with individuals and organisations navigating rapid technological advances and the future of work.
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Director of Punakaiki Fund
Lance is the founding director of Punakaiki Fund and a director of Lance Wiggs Capital Management, the manager of the fund. He is a director of several Punakaiki Fund investments, including InfluxHQ, Onceit, Weirdly, Vibe Communications, Boardingware, RedSeed, EverEdgeIP, Mindfull and Melon Health.
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Founder of She#
Dr. Mahsa Mohaghegh is a computer engineer with a focus on AI and natural language processing - she has a PhD in statistical machine translation and runs Google Computer Science workshops. With a passion for helping young women find a career in tech, she's the founder and director of the group She#.
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Founder of Magical Park
When the film industry went through a challenging period, Melanie Langlotz saw it as a timely opportunity to reconsider her career choice and move into Augmented Reality which led to Magical Park – a digital app that transforms a normal park into a digital playground.
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Electrical Systems Engineer, Rocket Lab
Naomi Altman is Electrical Systems Engineer at Rocket Lab, a company developing lightweight, cost-effective commercial rocket launch services. Rocket Lab will be delivering payloads with their NZ-built, carbon-composite rocket ‘Electron' for the likes of NASA, Planet, Spire, and Moon Express.
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Chief Futurist Magic Leap
Neal is an American writer, known for his fiction works, which have been variously categorized science fiction, historical fiction, maximalism, cyberpunk, and postcyberpunk.
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Head of Security at Xero
Paul Macpherson, Head of Security at Xero since 2015, has over 25 years experience in information security, compliance, risk management in the finance, law enforcement and professional services industries. He manages a global team of specialists to keep the business and customers safe in the cloud.
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CEO at Assignment Group
Peter is Chief Executive of Assignment Group, strategic advisers for some of NZ’s most successful companies. Peter is also the inaugural Chair of WREDA and Kea World Class New Zealander. Biggsy is an advocate for creativity, the arts & NZ on a global scale and a connector & mentor for NZ business.
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Founder of The Mixing Bowl
Rob Trice is the Founder of The Mixing Bowl. In 2013, he began to leverage his background in telecom, mobile and internet venture capital to the application of information technology to the food and agriculture sectors. He is also the Founder of Better Food Ventures.
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Creator of Ethereum
Vitalik is the creator of Ethereum and 2016 Fortune Magazine "40 under 40". He wrote the Ethereum white paper in November 2013. He is now the Ethereum Foundation Council President and leads Ethereum's research team, working on future versions of the Ethereum protocol.
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Business Development Director at Intranel Consulting
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Adrian is a seasoned media executive who has held senior leadership positions in NZ, Hong Kong, Dubai and South Africa.

He is CEO of the IABNZ, which represents NZ’s interactive advertising industry & holds a set on the t NZ Advertising Standards Authority Governance Board
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Alan has 20 years of experience in ICT and Project Management, and now manages the operational ICT for Environment Canterbury. He was central to the project to design, build and transition to the new building including the installation of a POL networking solution for over 450 staff.

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Part of the Dexibit team, Alex has always been a professional curious-person, exploring the space between data, storytelling, and design. When she isn’t hustling at start-ups, she is likely coding or designing a side project, flying with the circus, or off investigating the wilderness.
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NZ Cosmeceuticals is a boutique cosmeceutical company dedicated to developing original, top quality, efficacious anti-aging and anti-blemish skin care products based on pollutant-free plant material from Oceania and high-tech biomolecules.
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Aliesha has been working in the media industry for over 12 years with the last 3 being in the VR 360 video industry working with clients from Africa, USA, Europe, Asia and NZ. She has pioneered the NZ VR industry and will be teaching her capture skills to camera technicians alike.
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Alina Siegfried manages communications and content at EHF, and believes in the power of story above almost everything else. A former TEDx speaker, Alina tells stories of impact and entrepreneurship in New Zealand to help solidify our reputation as an incubation nation for global impact.
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Alyona's academic background is in Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning. She specialises in extracting meaning from text and has worked with companies like Google, Cisco and Microsoft. She is CEO of Thematic which helps businesses understand customer feedback and customer sentiment.
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Alyona Medelyan received her PhD in Computer Science from Waikato University, where her research resulted in a popular open-source keyword extraction tool Maui. She left academia to work with startups and to lead R&D projects with multinationals like Google, Cisco and Microsoft. She later founded Thematic, a SaaS solution for customer feedback analysis helping brands around the world improve their customer satisfaction.
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Every design challenge is a chance to learn and collaborate to do something new. Currently, Amelia is combining her knowledge (and love) of intelligence analysis and analytics to the design of customer and user experiences to create smart, measured interactions.#numbercrunch'n4design #lovesthedata
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A 12-year-old Code Club all-star and Youtuber. Amelia teaches you to code in her web series "Amelia Cracks the Code"
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Andreas is a technologist and serial entrepreneur who has become one of the most well-known and well-respected figures in bitcoin. He is the author of two books: “Mastering Bitcoin” and “The Internet of Money”.
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With quite an impressive history, Andrew Blakey has always been on the forefront of IT - taking advantage of modern technologies, products and processes during his time in various roles at different organisations including Navman for more than 10 years. Andrew is now Development Manager at TVNZ.
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Andrew is founder & CEO at Rezare Systems
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Maker, Coder, Tinkerer, Trustee, Robot whisperer. I talk a lot.
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Andrew has been working in ICT since 1989. Over the years he's touched on many aspects of IT from coding to advising financial institutions on how best to invest in infrastructure, and has a broad and indepth knowledge in building and supporting enterprise level infrastructure.
Andrew Kelly
Andrew is broadly experienced & networked across food & agriculture over a 35-year career spanning the spectrum from discovery science to commercial success.
Andrew’s long and unusual career has been focused in equal measures of research, commercialisation and investment.
In 2014 Andrew co-founded BioPacific Partners, partnering with some of the largest global companies investing and engaging with local innovation.
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Andrew is Chief Executive of Ngai Tahu Farming. Prior to this, he had his own consulting firm focussing on strategy, performance improvement, risk management & organisational alignment, for a range of industries incl. forestry, energy, agriculture, high-tech & the post quake Christchurch rebuild
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Andy Symons, Innovation Partner at PwC New Zealand, is also the firm’s Financial Services Sector Leader. Andy is focused on innovation strategy, digital strategy, customer and the development of technology.
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Angeline has more than 20 years of diverse international innovation and leadership experience in markets such as Japan, China, Thailand, New Zealand and Australia. Angeline has led cross- functional teams across innovation, strategy development, market expansion and R&D execution. Her leadership has resulted in over 800 innovations launched across grocery and quick service restaurants with blue chip FMCG companies
Ankita Gangotra
PhD candidate and nanotechnologist, Faculty of Science
Anna Curzon
Chief Partner Officer at Xero, Anna leads the Partner teams globally and
spearheads product management, development, design, and marketing. Anna heads global teams working on Xero HQ and Ecosystem, including the Xero app marketplace, where 500+ apps live to better serve small businesses.
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CEO and Founder of RedSeed. RedSeed is a system that grows sales through giving the team the skills to delight customers. The results speak for themselves; on average we lift sales by 12% over three years.
The RedSeed system brings together your sales associates and your supervisors, to ensure real change of behaviour, so your customers love shopping with you!
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Appointed to the role of Chief Digital Officer, Avi joined Air New Zealand in January 2016 with responsibility for leading the airline’s Digital function. Playing a leading role in the strategy to engage digitally with customers across multiple international markets in a way that is relevant to them through new and emerging channels.
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Bailey Mackey is an award winning New Zealand producer across a wide array of programme genres after starting as a DJ on iwi radio station Radio Ngati Porou (Ruatoria) in 1999. He has a strong focus on Maori content programming for broad audiences.
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An internationally recognized serial entrepreneur, digital imaging expert and visual effects (VFX) pioneer with over 30 patents and 30 years of feature film & TV accomplishments including productions for all the major Hollywood studios, TV networks and several cable networks.
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Barry spent more than 30 years in the technology industry internationally in roles from programming to sales and marketing at global iconic brand companies. Today he works with a portfolio of Māori technology companies at NZTE helping grow them bigger, better, faster for the benefit of Māori and NZ.
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Bernie Wi Neera - Ngati Toa/Ngati Ruanui. Bernie has pursued fulltime research into Digital Currency and Blockchain Technology. Today Bernie is a Stockholder, Shareholder, Trader and International Educator in the Digital Space
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With a background of wiz-bang electronics and firmware, Berwyn brings over 20 years of business experience. Drawing from a depth of involvement with exciting teams, he adds a robust and reliable foundation based on deep knowledge of the industry.
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Bev believes that to bring out the best in diverse individuals and teams we need to cultivate a workplace culture that values difference.
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A qualified accountant in NZ and the USA, with over 30 years' commercial business experience gained in roles as GM, CFO, business investor and advisor in businesses in the US, UK and NZ. My specialties are capital raising, preparing companies for investment, startup valuation and governance.
Brett
Brett is a 20-year veteran in Sales and Marketing for companies such as IBM, Oracle and Wang. With deep knowledge of ERP solutions, Brett spearheads the Halo effort to penetrate the Asia Pacific market with Halo's many supply chain analytics offerings. Brett has a degree in Behavioral Psychology.
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Brett is Associate Director of Datacom's Digital, Customers & Collaboration Group which specialises in delivering business transformation and enablement via strategic advisory services and CX / UX design capability coupled with deep design and build expertise across a broad set of web, mobile, CRM, collaboration and BI / analytics technology platforms.
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Bridget is Investment Director at the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund
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When she isn't working on KidsCoin she spends time travelling, playing tennis and netball and keeping up with the latest trends in technology.
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Bruce comes from a professional engineering background, now actively involved in the angel investment space, particularly start-up's. An exciting example of this is Eye-Fly, a niche piece of technology which captures memento videos for the adventure activity markets worldwide.
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In 2009, Bruce led the company in developing its water and effluent compliance services to the AgriTech sector with M2M and IoT technologies. This area has provided strong growth for the company and offers a number of exciting opportunities going forward both locally and overseas.
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Bryan was the original founder of Brush, and his eye for the artistic is key to our motto, “the art of good design”. His skills in both the design and the database aspects of large-scale web products provide real value for our customers.
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A transmedia producer for over 15 years, Ms. Burns has developed storyworlds and sustainable multiplatform strategies for franchises ranging from global blockbuster feature films, award-winning television shows, AAA console games and Virtual Reality.
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I run WNT Ventures an early stage fund and technology incubator actively establishing and building companies from the ground up. We establish and nurture businesses based on intellectual property and novel technologies, primarily sourced from New Zealand publicly funded research organisations.
Caroline George
BioConsortia are developing microbial consortia for increasing agricultural yields. They have developed a revolutionary Advanced Microbial Selection process, which uses directed selection to discover beneficial teams of microbes to improve trait performance in a crop.
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Cather Simpson joined the University of Auckland in 2007. Her research spans fundamental spectroscopy to applied device development. She is a Principal Investigator two operating national Centres of Research Excellence, on the Executive Committee of one and an Associate Investigator in another.
Chris Saunders
Chris Saunders is a father of 4 Generation Z daughters (4 to 13 years), a technologist and an entrepreneur. He empowers his children to embrace technology, and over the last 6 months:
· Has pitched at the Wellington Lighting Lab Electric Innovation Challenge.
· Has demo-presented at the Christchurch AI Meetup.
· And is involved in Maker Club.
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After studying theoretical physics in Germany, he worked on the protocol and as lead tester for Ethereum, building a blockchain which enables smart contracts as the fundamentals of a new decentralized economy. He authored "The DAO", a decentralized autonomous organization running on the blockchain.
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Creative, crafty kid turned fashion designer turned communications agency co-founder, wife and mother
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Claudia has spent over fifteen years in the technology sector as a founder, advisor, mentor, board member and enthusiast. Claudia now helps Kiwi companies grow bigger, better, faster in the US. Claudia is a regular speaker on digital innovation, digital media and building businesses of the future.
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Claudine is a third year Bachelor of Creative Technologies student that specialises in concept design, visual art, wearable technology, and e-textiles. Her passion is creating visually appealing, innovative pieces of technology that spark imagination, trigger conversation and educate people.
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Craig is the new Country Manager for Xero New Zealand. He has been with Xero for several years, and returns to New Zealand from the United Kingdom, where he led Xero's entrance into the European, Middle Eastern and South Africa markets. Craig is a key member of Xero’s global sales leadership team.
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Responsible for internal and external communications through digital channels for the New Zealand Fire Service.
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Craig is a Solutions Architect at Amazon Web Services, focussed on the public sector in New Zealand. Craig works closely with government agencies in areas such as Data Sovereignty, Privacy, Governance, Confidentiality, Data Integrity, Availability and Incident Response.
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Craig is the Chief Executive of the Telecommunications Association of NZ (TUANZ) which as a member based organisation that has a proud history of providing leadership in representing the views and needs of the people and businesses that rely on communications technology every day.
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Crispin Hales (PhD, CEng, FIMechE) has >45 year's experience in engineering design. Since 1989 he has worked in forensic engineering, investigating a wide range of mechanical failures, explosions and accidents mostly in the USA. He is actively involved in engineering design research internationally.
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Daniel Barber is the VP of Sales at Datanyze. He has a keen interest in cross-cultural management, behavioural science, and leadership development.
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Daniel joined the Locus team in 2015 as Programme Director, with oversight of the full pipeline of work. He quickly picked up responsibility for seeing innovative products become a reality, on time and on budget. One of these was Ubco Bikes, a multi purpose utility bike.
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Danny is the CEO and co-founder of FaceMe. Danny Tomsett established his career in the Telecommunications and IT industry giving him a unique perspective and insight for inventing and developing “over-the-top” innovation. As CEO Danny leads the company with an absolute passion to disrupt front line customer service.
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Darren will MC the panel discussion and will talk through the importance of utilising technology to grow your business.
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Head of design thinking and innovation design at Comvita. Background in sales, marketing and branding.
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David joined Movac as a partner in 2006 and has primary responsibility for deal evaluation, driving our Asia strategy, and contributing to investee company Boards.

Prior to joining Movac, David was an entrepreneur and spent five years running his own SaaS businesses in New Zealand and the UK.
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Klein received a Bachelor of Science from Canterbury University in 2011. After a stint on student radio which led to an interest in presenting, Tour de Science was born. Cycle into town with a bike full of simple props, present a science show in a town hall, then cycle to the next town.
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Deborah advises clients on the protection and commercialisation of their intellectual property, concentrating on branding and trade mark matters. She has a particular interest in working with companies in the ICT industries.
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Dennis is Head of the Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology
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Dr Desi Ramoo has a background in theoretical physics and is a serial entrepreneur. In 2016 the Ministry for Primary Industries engaged Desi to design and implement the Research, Technology and Innovation Practice - where ideas are validated and prototyped in an environment that allows pivoting and fast failure without excessive investment.
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Desiree joined Sysdoc in 1993 and, as CEO New Zealand and Australia, leads all aspects of Sysdoc business in the region. Desiree's inspiring and focussed leadership enables teams to deliver the quality solutions our clients have come to expect.
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SharePoint Administrator and DBA, Ngai Tahu
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Diana, Senior Lecturer, Technology Academy, EDENZ has 17 years experience in the software industry, including programming, software quality management and project management. She has several publications in peer-reviewed journals and conferences.
Diana enjoys teaching and progressing her research.
Diana Kirk
Diana, Senior Lecturer, Technology Academy, EDENZ has 17 years experience in the software industry, including programming, software quality management and project management. She has several publications in peer-reviewed journals and conferences.

Diana enjoys teaching and progressing her research.
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Greg is the Managing Director of Bodeker Scientific, which was the lead organisation in the successful funding bid for CSST (Centre for Space Science Technology). Greg is based in Alexandra, and comes from a background in atmospheric research
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Dr Kathryn Hempstalk has an extensive background in machine learning, artificial intelligence and data science. She studied computer science at Waikato university where she gained a doctorate in 2009. Since then she’s worked as a researcher and data scientist in a variety of industries.
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Dr. O’Sullivan is a doctor, creator of revolutionary health programs, pioneer for equal health care and champion for a fairer New Zealand. He was named New Zealander of the Year 2014 and has received numerous other awards for his commitment to bridging the gap in healthcare using technology.
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A fresh voice in a crowded landscape, Dr Rosie Bosworth is a strategic innovation consultant and communications professional with a penchant for driving competitive business growth through disruptive innovation and game changing technology platforms.
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Taehyun is Senior Lecturer of School of Engineering and Computer Science. His current research activity is focused on perceptually based rendering and lighting, mixed reality rendering, realistic human body modeling and animation.
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Will is experienced in commercialising new technologies through securing IP, and fund-raising. Will works across all aspects of the early stage value chain, to assist technology start-ups, investors, venture capitalists and larger companies looking to partner or engage with start-ups.
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Dr Jen Blank is an astrobiologist working at the NASA Ames Research Center in the heart of Silicon Valley. Currently, she spends part of her time working with the Mars Curiosity science team and has operational responsibilities for ChemCam, the laser instrument on the rover.
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Mark is one of the most widely published researchers in Mixed and Augmented Reality. Prior to joining the University of South Australia he was Director of the HIT Lab NZ at the University of Canterbury and he has previously worked at British Telecom, Nokia, Google and the MIT Media Laboratory.
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Gaming is the gateway to get kids into technology. Duane will talk about setting up NZ’s first secondary school e-sports competition and how it helps encourage youth into the technology sector.
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Duncan specialises in all aspects of patents, registered designs and copyright and their commercialisation. He regularly works with a range of tech companies to understand their needs and business goals and align their intellectual property strategy to match these goals.
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For the last 6 years I've worked with my partner Ben Young, growing Young + Shand into one of New Zealand's leading Digital Agencies. Over this time we've grown a team of over 60 people, set up a joint venture development centre in India and got a software startup up and running in New York.
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Ed is CEO, Spark Ventures
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Edward has worked on some of the biggest VR sets of the last 18months including the likes of Suicide Squad. He is the mind behind our custom camera solutions and built the worlds first fire proof VR camera system used last year by the New Zealand Fire Service.
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Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom is co-founder of International Space Consultants, and space faculty and former Chief Impact Officer of Singularity University. She will showcase her satellite projects and her work building a space ecosystem in New Zealand.
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Emma is an experienced business professional with diverse strategic and operational expertise derived from years as a lawyer, agribusiness executive, entrepreneur, start up mentor, and executive coach. Emma is a co-founder and the CEO of AgriDigital.
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Erica Anderson is a Senior Security Engineer at Xero. Her passion is helping people find their light bulb moment when they understand something new, and volunteer time educating young and not-so-young about information security and other technology related subjects.
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Evan Cummack is a Product Manager at Twilio in San Francisco. Day to day, he drives Product and Engineering for a business unit building global wireless infrastructure for IoT and communications.
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Farhad Mehdipour has a PhD in Computer Systems Architecture. He has participated in many joint projects with the industry in Japan and has initiated several interdisciplinary R&D projects - particularly on IoT-enabled smart cities and systems as well as data analytics.
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Fiona was appointed to the Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation in September 2011. She oversees a portfolio of private equity, private equity real estate, and active return investments. She is responsible for the Guardians’ strategic partnerships, both investment manager and sovereign wealth fund peers. Fiona currently chairs the Investment Committee for the Guardians.
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Founder of Tech Futures Lab and Chair of The Mind Lab by Unitec, Frances has spent her career analysing the impact of disruptive tech and the process of innovation. Today she works in NZ and abroad with individuals and organisations navigating rapid technological advances and the future of work.
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Founder of Tech Futures Lab and Chair of The Mind Lab by Unitec, Frances has spent her career analysing the impact of disruptive tech and the process of innovation. Today she works in NZ and abroad with individuals and organisations navigating rapid technological advances and the future of work.
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Ganeshan has decades of experience teaching in New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and the USA. He loves learning and facilitating learning. He has a holistic approach to engaging all kinds of learners regardless of whether they are learning theory or practical skills.
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Ganeshan, Head of Technology Academy at EDENZ has over 45 years experience in Engineering and Computing. He has taught UG and PG students in Singapore, Australia, USA and New Zealand.

He is a strong advocate and practitioner of blended learning, evolving pedagogies and the use of open course-ware.
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George Gong is Co-founder and General Partner of Zino Ventures. George is a successful tech entrepreneur who has listed a company in China, and is an experienced angel investor and general partner of Jubilee Capital Management - USD$100m growth fund based in Singapore.
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George is the Chair of Onenui Station which is the site where RocketLab will launch its rockets from. George will talk about making the leap from farming sheep and cattle to farming Rockets!!
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Blockchain and cryptocurrency consultant, advisor to global financial institutions, startups and law firms. He recently co-authored a seminal report on blockchain architecture with KPMG and Gilbert & Tobin and worked with Brian Kelly Cap Mgmt, a NYC hedge fund to re-architect Nautiluscoin into NSYS.
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Passionate about disruptive startups, big data, training development and analytics. Speaks globally on innovation in learning analytics, adaptive learning, assessment and measurement. Enjoys strategic and creative thinking and exploring new business models.
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After graduating from WelTec with a Diploma of Engineering electrotechnology, Gordon worked for several years in industry before establishing Fre3formd. Through his business Gordon manufactures and sells rep-rap 3D printers of his own design and offers consulting services related to 3D printing.
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Grant Carter heads up robotics in NZ for global power and automation company ABB. He works to deliver creative solutions by combining local skilled engineering expertise with world leading tech. Bringing together suppliers, integrators and end users, Grant fosters innovation and collaboration.
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Award winning entrepreneur, engineer, paratrooper, ironman, volunteer fire fighter, musician and dad – as one of the founders of Straker Translations, Grant wears many hats and has had an incredibly varied set of experiences over the past 30 years.
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Greg Murphy is the Founder of Unleashed Software, a powerful online inventory management solution used around the world as part of the ever-growing SaaS ecosystem.
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Greg has a background in trade and economic development across the public and private sectors in NZ and overseas. He oversees the development and implementation of Priority One’s strategic projects as well as leading a number of economic development projects in the wider Bay of Plenty region.
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Working with libraries to keep adapting, keep conversing, keep connecting
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Hamish is a Systems Management Specialist with a passion for efficient application deployment using DevOps methodologies.

He has 18 years IT experience in managing large scale databases on JADE & SQL Server technologies.


Hannah Read
Research assistant, Bioluminescent Superbugs Lab
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Following graduation in 2016 from the University Auckland (BA/BCOM) Hayley worked part time at KPMG whilst working on a start-up,Clove.Previously, she founded a student organisation called Social Innovation New Zealand. She splits her time between Clove and working in Product Marketing at Microsoft.
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Helen is a front end engineer /creative who works remotely for US healthcare startup Hospital IQ. She co-founded the Mental Health in Tech meetup, through which she hopes to help remove the stigma of speaking up about mental illness.
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Hemi is General Manager Sectors, Māori Economy and Programmes at Callaghan Innovation
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Henry has spent over half a decade leading the design and delivery of digital engagement for the world's top tier entertainment companies such as Disney, DreamWorks and Sony Pictures.

His background enabled him to found the global VRAR Studio 'Corvecto', specialized in delivering professional VR/AR solutions from small to multi-billion dollar organisations around the world in all manner of industry sectors.
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Holly founded Pixc.com and has a background in eCommerce, online marketing, outsourcing and graphic design.
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Minister of Internal Affairs
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Hori-Te-Ariki Mataki. Born, raised and educated in Aranui, Christchurch > Leveled up at Ara in Design and Animation > Started Ariki Creative in 2007 and is now one of the Digital Natives of Te Ao Hangarau... "Ko au te hiko, ko te hiko ko au"
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Ian joined KPMG London in 1992 having obtained a BSc in Industrial Economics from the University of Warwick. He joined KPMG Auckland in 1996 with any role changes over his time, is now the Global Head of Agribusiness for KPMG in 2013. He is a Chartered Accountant and Registered Auditor. Ian is the author of the KPMG Agribusiness Agenda, a series of thought leadership reports which have been produced annually since 2010.
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Ian Rowe is a true legend in the world-renowned Air New Zealand Technical Services Operations department, and is Senior Technical Support Engineer. He'll share stories from his 49 years of fun as an Air New Zealand engineering pioneer.

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Ian will discuss mapping natural resources using drones & photogrammetry and how that technology can be used to help connect the past with the present."Drones are a great innovation and I use them in a number of commercial applications but creating video clips that connect with whanau is the best.”
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Ian Taylor CNZM is a businessman and former television presenter based in Dunedin.

Taylor founded Taylormade Media in 1989 as a television production company. The following year he established Animation Research Limited,
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Ivan is founder and CEO of Promapp Solutions. Promapp is cloud based process improvement software used by 500+ organisations globally including Toyota, Coca Cola and Uber. Ivan owns overall revenue targets and is the Promapp product owner.
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Jade is Founder & Director of social enterprise Kakano Cafe & Cookery school in Christchurch, with the kaupapa of engaging food sovereignty & food resilience and working with whanau. Jade is passionate about preserving the quality of the whenua/land and protecting food systems for future generations
James Obern
Avertana has developed a patented process to refine valuable minerals and chemicals from industrial waste. Avertana’s process uses innovative chemistry, advanced materials, and novel process design to make raw materials for everyday products at lower cost, with less environmental impact.
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James is a connector, working on leading edge projects and pioneering new paths with an eye for trends in our exponential world. Following on from two years of building a national grassroots network for Transition Towns Aotearoa (2008-9), James had the pleasure of being part of the early conversations and experiments that founded Ooooby (out of our own back yards).
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Jane Hwang is passionate about people and cares deeply about building successful teams and culture. In her past, she has worked in various technical delivery roles and is currently Operations Manager, Northern Region at Solnet Solutions.
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Jason has been working as an on set capture technical and VR operator and is one of the most skilled operators in the country. He will be going through all the different camera specifications and why you would select each for projects.
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Jason is Co-founder and Managing Partner of Zino Ventures, who have launched New Zealand's first Chinese Angel Fund. While seeking investment opportunities and helping startups​ to acquire funding, Jason is pushing to break the barriers that hold back New Zealand’s startup growth in China.
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Technology is rapidly changing. Jay will share TechCafé plans to ensure NZ businesses stay up to date with the latest offerings and their plans to have eight super locations in the North Island – Gisborne, Hamilton, Hastings, Napier, New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Rotorua and Tauranga.
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Jeremy is a teaching fellow for VUW and has a wealth of Private Sector experience in Cyber Security as well as being formerly the Head of ICT Security for the Ministry of Justice.
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Originally from Bristol in the UK with experience in a wide range of roles in the tech sector, Jessica has been working at Beyond for the past two years. With a passion for supporting women in the tech space through sharing knowledge.
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Jo is co-founder and president of Fuel50, a HR SaaS product delivering value to clients such as eBay, MasterCard, Citibank and more. Fuel50 has successfully secured a foundation of US, UK, LATAM, and Australasian clients over the last 4 years, leveraging local angel investment to build a scalable sales model.
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Joanne has been with IAG since July 2015. Based in Wellington, her role is focusing on leading her team to provide exceptional customer support for our IAG staff.
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Jodie completed a Bachelor of Biomedical Science in Human Genetics in 2012, followed by honours research in intracellular mitochondrial transfer in a brain cancer model. In 2015 Jodie joined the Malaghan Institute as a Research Officer in the Allergy and Parasitic Diseases Programme.
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John D. Halamka, MD, MS, International Healthcare Innovation Professor at Harvard Medical, CIO of the Beth Israel Deaconess System, and a practicing emergency physician. He has written 5 books, articles, and the Geekdoctor blog. Halamka has been responsible for health care data standards in the US, under the Bush and then the Obama administration.
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John Heard is first and foremost a technologist who thinks a lot about how that will impact everyone in the future. In his current role as CTO at Smart Parking Technology, he's envisioning the next (and beyond) version of a real time data processing and visualisation platform.
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Johnny is the CEO of PreviewMe, a private media platform bringing together video and data features from social platforms into the online recruitment space.
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Partnering with the world’s leading software vendors, such as Microsoft, Adobe, HP Jonathan will share Xcerio’s training, software packages and internationally recognised certifications. Ideal for people and businesses that want to upskill to drive productivity, performance and results.
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Josh is an Educational Technology Advisor at Toi Ohomai Institute of TechnologyJosh is currently interested in adding interactive elements into 360 video to give students content rich spatial learning experiences.
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Josh has an enviable track record and with 90 Seconds Josh implements great customer engagements across multiple platforms. 90 Seconds is a NZ success story providing cloud video creation platform anywhere on the planet with over 1,000 global brands in over 70 countries
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Judy Ryan is the Sustainability Programme Advisor in Z Energy’s Sustainability Team. At Z, they understand that they are part of the problem, so they’re determined to be part of the solution.Z Energy is looking at what they are doing now, what can be done better, and what the holds.
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Kaidi is former CEO of Nasdaq Tallinn Stock Exchange and of the Central Securities Depository. Member of Startup Europe Advisory Board at European Commission. She co-authored the Estonian Digital Signatures Act of 2000. She is founder of the blockchain based global stock exchange Funderbeam.
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Kaila is the New Zealand Ambassador for Singularity University. She is also co-founder and Chair of Ministry of Awesome, Curator of TEDxChristchurch, Chair of the New York-based Natural Gourmet Institute, Deputy Chair of CORE Education Ltd, a board member of CDCH Ltd and a Certified ExO Consultant.
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Kaila is the New Zealand Ambassador for Singularity University. She is also co-founder and Chair of Ministry of Awesome, Curator of TEDxChristchurch, Chair of the New York-based Natural Gourmet Institute, Deputy Chair of CORE Education Ltd, a board member of CDCH Ltd and a Certified ExO Consultant
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Karl has had a passion for technology. At University his research was on how the internet can bring communities together. He then moved on to NZ's largest website, helping to create the #1 real estate portal in the country. Now his aim is to help shape the next generation to tech graduates.
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Kate Pearce is a Senior Security Consultant for Cisco. She has spoken at many security conferences and has recently been awarded the iSANZ’s Best International Superstar. Her true loves are application security enablement, complex systems security, and cross-discipline security analogues.
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Keith is responsible for Business Tax new initiatives in light of the opportunities arising through the IR Business Transformation. He would welcome discussion on the future of business tax and especially tax returns. Keith is also addicted to investing random Kick-starter projects.
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Kerry Topp is the General Manager, Transformation & Innovation, at Datacom Limited.
He has been working in the Technology industry for almost 20 years covering such diverse roles of project management, programme directorship, consulting and general management. After moving from Air New Zealand in 2010, Kerry joined Datacom as General Manager where he led the team to grow from 3 business units to 4 and from 70 to 120 people over 4 years.
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Kevin is an industry veteran with more than thirty years’ experience in the energy sector. In his role as Country Leader for GE New Zealand, his focus is on growing GE’s business offerings, while helping to transform its business to be the world’s largest digital industrial company.
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Kevin Park is Vodafone's xone Manager, responsible for “combining Vodafone’s capability with the vision of each individual company to identify and unlock commercial opportunities.” He has supported and advised in over 200 technology startups and is an investor in a number of Kiwi Startups.
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Kieron will talk from the perspective of a Software Developer who has managed to tune into a variety of industry application areas and how exciting it can be to work in truly Agile teams. He will put an end to the myth that Programmers are ‘backroom’ nerds and enlighten you on the activities that are going on in a creative team environment.
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Kirsti has 8 years of start-up experience with some of NZ's best success stories like TradeMe & Vend. During her time as VP Talent at Vend she helped grow the team from 37 people all in Auckland to 250 across 7 locations and 6 countries.
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Krystal is the mind behind our interactive 360 video experience and managed the team that create the patient preparation hospital game released in March fro Auckland District Health Board. She will be going over the ins and outs of game development in live action vr and photogrammetry workflows
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Lance is an Independent investment and business advisor providing investment readiness consultancy through Better by Capital and Return on Science investment committees, direct investments through LWCM and Punakaiki Fund and advice and directorships through LWCM and Lance Wiggs Consulting.
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Lance is the founding director of Punakaiki Fund and a director of Lance Wiggs Capital Management, the manager of the fund. He is a director of several Punakaiki Fund investments, including InfluxHQ, Onceit, Weirdly, Vibe Communications, Boardingware, RedSeed, EverEdgeIP, Mindfull and Melon Health.
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Lanita is a freelance producer/director/writer/presenter across multi-platforms in screen production. As an independent producer, director, writer and presenter/MC, she has delivered various projects across screens of all sizes for the past 20 years.
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Lauder is a partner in Audit, Enterprise. He has a portfolio of audit clients in the small and medium enterprise sector and is passionate about helping entrepreneurial companies succeed.
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Lauren Peate leads candidate attraction at EHF, bringing vast experience working with startups in Silicon Valley, Arizona, the Middle East and Latin America. Lauren believes that startups will solve the world’s problems only when they represent the diversity of the world’s people.
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Lauren became a Security Operations Analyst at BNZ while studying towards a Batchelor of Information Technology, majoring in Information Security. She’s now putting her learning into practice while working in a team that monitors and manages the operational side of Information Security.
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Lee has been with IAG since Oct 2015. Based in Christchurch, her role is to deliver customer-led improvements to the AMI and STATE insurance brands.
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Leigh Flounders is CEO of Latipay, a fast-growing Auckland-based FinTech company targeting Asian markets. Leigh leads a multicultural team and has been involved at both client and vendor levels across central government, banking and finance, insurance, media, utilities and charity verticals.
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Leigh is CEO of Latipay, winner of Australia NZ Internet Awards Tech Start Up Of The Year 2016. Over the last 15yrs he's worked at client & vendor levels across government, banking/finance, insurance, media, utilities & charity verticals. Prior to Latipay he founded first to market disruptor Switch.
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Lewis is Head of Ventures at Westpac NZ. Ventures’ role at Westpac is twofold – to pioneer innovative thinking within a traditional environment and create tangible ventures for customer and Westpac benefit.
Lillian Grace
Lillian is CEO and Founder of Figure.NZ, on the Data Futures Partnership Working Group, on the Expert Advisory Panel of the Open Government Partnership, as well as on the board of the NZ Innovation Partnership and of NZ’s Centre of Research Excellence Te Pūnaha Matatini.
Linda Jenkinson
Social entrepreneur committed to making the world a better place with social venture Wow for Africa. Linda has developed and sold businesses for over $750 million. Linda is currently a director of Air NZ and recipient of multiple awards including Most Influential Women in the US and NZ.
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Linda Jenkinson is a serial entrepreneur who has built three multi-million dollar companies, is now engaged in developing a global approach to relationship based concierge and social ventures. Linda is the Chairman and Owner of LesConcierges and currently serves as a Director for Air New Zealand and The Grid.
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Linda is the Result 9 Better for Business Manager of Strategic Directions at the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment. In this role, Linda is a leader at the forefront of moving government into more customer-centric service delivery, using innovative tools and digital channels.
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Linton is the Head of Forestry and Resource Management at Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology. He has worked in the tertiary sector for over 25 years in the UK, Fiji and New Zealand. At Toi Ohomai he is focused on developing innovative educational programmes to meet forestry industry needs.
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Lisa Chu, Program Manager from HTC Vive Ecosystem. Lisa will be the keynote speaker at our Vive-themed AR/VR Meetup.

Lisa is looking to connect with talented teams and to explore the opportunities on how we can collaborate to cultivate the VR/AR ecosystem together.
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Lukasz is an international speaker and thought leader. As CIO of NZQA, Lukasz fully realises the benefits of doing business in the Cloud. Lukasz brings his passion and experience to talk about his latest interest in Serverless technologies.
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Luke Van Zeller is a General Manager (Business Development) for Infratec. Infratech designs and delivers projects in renewable energy, HV networks and alternative fuels across the world. Luke has nearly 18 years of experience in energy and international development fields.
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Maes is a BEng (Hons) graduate in Civil and Environmental Engineering from UoA. Her career choice was driven by her passion to improve the quality of life of her community. She pushes for environmentally sustainable and innovative design, and volunteers to teach children science in her spare time.
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Dr. Mahsa Mohaghegh is a computer engineer with a focus on AI and natural language processing - she has a PhD in statistical machine translation and runs Google Computer Science workshops. With a passion for helping young women find a career in tech, she's the founder and director of the group She#.
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Her passion is promoting careers in technology to young women. She has been awarded at the Westpac Women of Influence Awards.
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Malcolm Hardy is the Head of School of Applied Technology at Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology. Malcolm ran his own project management company for 25 years before entering education in 2000. He is responsible for over 65 staff,programme development and the senior leadership of the institute.
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Malcolm has been the Chief Executive of Christchurch International Airport since January 2014. He is part of the Tourism Industry Senior Leaders Group (with the CEs of Air New Zealand, Auckland Airport and Tourism Holdings), has just stepped down from the Board of the Tourism Industry Association after three years and was Deputy Chair (and chair of RAF) of Tourism New Zealand for seven years.
mandy simpson
Mandy is a finance & technology leader with a passion for growing businesses and exploring opportunities created by exponential technologies. She is a Singularity University speaker on information security & blockchain technology; and is passionate about lifelong learning and the benefits it brings
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CEO of Cyber Toa, who help companies to dramatically improve their cyber security. Mandy has expertise in regulated markets, having served as COO at NZX, and CFO at Fronde. Mandy is on the boards of Punakaiki Fund and NZTech, and is an advisory board member at BraveNewCoin.
Marc Nicholson
Marc is a Security Monitoring Specialist, specialising in Security Incident Event Management (SIEM) at BNZ. He has specialist certifications and knowledge on the Cyber Kill Chain and Incident response.
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MTech Games uses VR and leading edge technology to create serious games for rehabilitation, training and educational purposes and Margaret will demonstrate the technologies and vision for using their products and the many uses they can have outside pure gaming pleasure.
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Marie -Claire Andrews is the founder of leading event app ShowGizmo. She is a business development, networking and capital-raising specialist.
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Marisa co-founded The Madison Group in 1998, successfully growing it to become New Zealand’s largest, privately owned Recruitment Company. It was acquired in 2013 by a public company in a textbook deal that has set a precedent for the industry. Since then, Marisa has invested in a portfolio of angel investments, and supports causes close to her heart. She is currently Chair for Professionelle Charitable Foundation, Advisory Board member for NZ Work Research Institute.
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Mark is Global Marketing Manager – Animal Management, at Gallagher
Mark Hartstone
Hydroxsys is a clean-tech company founded on unique water extraction technologies aimed at the mining, dairy and other industries requiring water extraction or remediation.
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Future-focused education; innovative and inclusive learning environments.
My mission: to help all schools become awesomeness incubators.
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Senior Product Manager at Nyriad sharing his expertise on Blockchain
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I have brought together a top performing team and together we devise our strategy, manage our multi-million dollar budget, select and realise new technologies and solutions then manage the asset lifecycle.
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Mat Rowe is CEO and Co-founder of Dotterel Technologies, a company who have developed award-winning noise-reducing drone technology. Dotterel won Most Innovative Product at last year's NAB Show (the largest showcase of media technology in the world).
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With operations in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, Matt will share TechCafe’s latest move into the regions with opening a site in Rotorua. He will talk about what this means for Rotorua businesses and how they deliver technology solutions that can reduce overheads and increase productivity.
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Matt Kennedy-Good will be moderating the webinar. He is head of business.govt.nz, the first stop for small businesses online. Before busnes.govt.nz, Matt was a small business owner, starting, running and selling technology and writing businesses. His background is in commercial law and compliance.
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Matt Watkins is the co-founder of Sound Switch, technology to give D.J's the ability to seamlessly integrate DMX lighting with live audio.
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Colart is pursuing his passion for helping kiwi organizations to speed up innovation and to find new futures.
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PhD candidate and research officer at Objective Acuity
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When the film industry went through a challenging period, Melanie Langlotz saw it as a timely opportunity to reconsider her career choice and move into Augmented Reality which led to Magical Park – a digital app that transforms a normal park into a digital playground.
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Melissa Clark-Reynolds is widely recognised as an inspirational role model, digital specialist & entrepreneur. She represented NZ at the APEC Forum on encouraging Women Entrepreneurs, featured in Her Business magazine's Hall of Fame and was named as one of the 150 most powerful women in NZ Business.
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Melita has over 17 years experience as an instructional designer, trainer and educator. She has a B.A in Linguistics and Political Philosophy, a Graduate Diploma in Arts (Psychology), and is studying towards a Masters Degree in Education and Community Development.
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Mike Lovegrove is the Co-founder and CEO of Bot the Builder, a product exploring how we utilise artificial intelligence and conversational automation to enhance and redefine the customer relationship. Bot the Builder allows its customers to analyse and group entire segments of users based on their interests and responses with sentiment analysis and machine learning capabilities.
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Co-Founder and General Manager of Code Club Aotearoa
Michael
President and founder of WhereScape. Started in tech, moved into sales, and now doing what it takes to help grow a global big data and data warehouse automation software company. WhereScape now has a sustainable sales model with over 120 employees and an appreciation of how to get there
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Running her businesses from home using online tools has had a massive positive impact on her life and the members of Network NZ.
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Mikayla is a year 12 student at Western Springs College.She enjoys studying STEM subjects at school, building robots and making science projects.She is a volunteer for OMG tech and a youth representative on their board.Last year she won the the female Supreme winner of the ASB Bright Sparks Awards.
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My background is explaining stuff, connecting people and getting things done.
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Mohsen Pashna has a PhD in swarm robotics and the formation of algorithms of mobile sensor networks. He has been part of many projects in the field and has invented strategies for mobile robot configurations used in autonomous tracking of hard-to-predict objects like algae and rain forest fires.
Myles Henaghan
As Technology Innovation Manager at Accordo, Myles is responsible for the technology roadmap, ensuring that the company is building for tomorrow as well as today. He has a particular interest in cloud architecture, DevOps, APIs and cost reduction. His motto: Write less code, get more done.
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Naga, Associate Lecturer, NZ Technology Academy, Edenz Colleges is a data analyst and and trainer with local and international experience in the corporate and educational sector. His interest is in business data analytics and business intelligence.
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Nancy is a consultant in EY's Cyber Security Team. She began her career as a software developer however acquired an interest in Cyber Security. Consequently she enrolled as a student at the Wellington Institute of Technology and graduated with a Graduate Diploma in Information Assurance and Security
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Naomi Altman is Electrical Systems Engineer at Rocket Lab, a company developing lightweight, cost-effective commercial rocket launch services. Rocket Lab will be delivering payloads with their NZ-built, carbon-composite rocket ‘Electron' for the likes of NASA, Planet, Spire, and Moon Express.
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Naomi has 33 years experience in the New Zealand Life Insurance Industry. She was the founding employee and Chief Operating Officer of Sovereign which is currently the largest player in the NZ marketplace by both new business market share and inforce book.
Naomi was recently awarded an ANZIIF Lifetime achievement award for her services to the New Zealand life insurance market.
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Nathaniel sits on the Global Impact Faculty of Singularity University, helping to guide the institution’s strategy and curriculum around creating massive, positive global change. He founded CODE Innovation to help organisations like UNICEF and DFiD to use technologies more effectively.
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Neal is an American writer, known for his fiction works, which have been variously categorized science fiction, historical fiction, maximalism, cyberpunk, and postcyberpunk.
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Nick is a Marlborough-based catalyst and social entrepreneur. He specialises in developing technology propositions from the ground up, and has been one of the pioneering leaders promoting New Zealand innovation globally for over a decade.
Nicole Connolly
Nicole serves as Executive Director at IPIF Management, an unlisted infrastructure fund’s management business she created in 2014. Nicole is also Director, Investor Relations at Allegro Funds, an Australian based restructuring/turnaround private equity manager targeting mid-market transactions across Australia and New Zealand.
Nicole also represents Northgate Capital in Australia and New Zealand, a San Francisco based venture capital manager.
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Nurain is a passionate advocate for young people and women of colour in the context of work, entrepreneurship, leadership and beyond.
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I have experience in the NZ technology industry, in technical, sales & marketing roles. My career has involved helping businesses successfully develop, use or commercialise technology-based products & services.

A regular columnist in The Press, I am on the board of the New Zealand Hi-Tech Trust and Enable Services, the company responsible for building an UFB for Christchurch.
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Patrick Hull is a serial entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience launching successful companies. His innovative approach and integration of technology transformed the trucking sector.
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Paul Bingham has seen marketing at all levels gaining experience in agencies, major corporates and small business. In 2003 he was named Young Tourism Professional of the year and in 2008 was appointed as the youngest ever director of Air New Zealand. Paul is a shareholder and Chair of Black Cat Cruises and is a director of Ngai Tahu Tourism.
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Paul Macpherson, Head of Security at Xero since 2015, has over 25 years experience in information security, compliance, risk management in the finance, law enforcement and professional services industries. He manages a global team of specialists to keep the business and customers safe in the cloud.
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Paul is an Associate Director within the EY Cyber Risk Advisory practice. As an Information Security professional with over 18 years security experience, he has a successful record of managing both operational teams and security transformation programmes with multi-million dollar budgets.
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Pauline is the co-founder and CEO of InsuredHQ, an innovative software solution for the insurance industry.
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Penny is working with Inland Revenue to shape and lead the new AIM initiative. A major change to how small businesses pay tax - one of the biggest changes in tax in New Zealand since the introduction of GST and a leading example of collaboration across the public service.
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Peter is Chief Executive of Assignment Group, strategic advisers for some of NZ’s most successful companies. Peter is also the inaugural Chair of WREDA and Kea World Class New Zealander. Biggsy is an advocate for creativity, the arts & NZ on a global scale and a connector & mentor for NZ business.
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PhD candidate and Project Manager for Engender Technologies
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Peter Vandaele is a pre-sales engineer for Fixed Access Networks at Nokia, based in Melbourne. His focus is on Passive Optical LAN – the application of GPON as an alternative LAN solution.

His previous roles include Technical Trainer and Research and Development.
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Pip works as a lead industrial designer for Brand Developers Ltd where she is the link between engineers and designers. Holding a Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Industrial Design from Massey University, she now specialises in creating household items that combine clever engineering with aesthetics.
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Priscilla is NZTE's Singapore-based Investment Manager. She has over 7 years in mid-market M&A and has successfully closed 13 deals, valued over SGD 370M, across the region.
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Priti is an engineer who has spent the last six years working with global teams to grow early stage start-ups, for-profit and non-profit entities creating impact through digital collaboration and crowds. Priti is also co-founder of The Next Billion, which enables women business leaders.
David Hutchinson
David holds a BSc & PhD from Exeter Uni, UK, plus a PGDip(Arts) in Philosophy from Otago. Previously he worked in Ireland, Canada and at the University of Oxford. A Fellow & President of the NZ Institute of Physics; Fellow of the Institute of Physics (UK) & member of the Institute of Directors, NZ.
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Thomas is Director of the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials & Nanotechnology. Previously Chair of Nanoscience at the University of East Anglia, UK & Professor at the Ian Wark Research Institute (University of South Australia). In 2011 he was awarded the prestigious ARC Future Fellowship.
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Quinn’s 16 years’ experience in the ICT sector began with a CompTIA A+ certification, he is the first Māori trained in Aotearoa with the International Fibre Optic Association as a “Certified Fibre Optic Technician”.
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Raelene has been with IAG since February 1992, based in Auckland, she is a Platform Lead in the Customer & Digital – Core division.

She has a wide background in all aspects of programme, project and change management across IAG NZ.
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My background is in film, design, media and making things happen.
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PhD candidate - Blood spatter research, PhD candidate, Faculty of Science

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Squadron Leader Rebecca Magdalinos joined the RNZAF in 1998 as an Aircraft Technician. She holds a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering, and is now responsible for 145 people across 8 different technical trade groups all striving to keep the RNZAF’s fleets of fixed wing aircraft in a fit flying state.
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Sr Technical Evangelist Developer Experience & Evangelism
Microsoft New Zealand
Richard
A multi disciplined and passionate business professional with a well balanced background of People Leadership, Business Strategy, IT Project Management, Technology Strategy and Commercial Operations Management experience.
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Richard is Chief Scientist at LIC
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Richard has an extensive background in live action and animation direction, production design, special effects, computer-generated imaging for feature films, commercials, computer games, special venues and new media. He’s been a member of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) for over thirty years.
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With over 17 years experience in the digital & media business, having held numerous senior roles in the UK, across Europe and within NZ, Richard joined KPEX in early 2016. Richard is an ambitious business leader with a proven track record of building successful digital teams.
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Rob is General Manager – Innovation and Technology, Landcorp
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Rob is Founder of The Mixing Bowl & Valley-based Better Food Ventures
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Rob Trice is the Founder of The Mixing Bowl. In 2013, he began to leverage his background in telecom, mobile and internet venture capital to the application of information technology to the food and agriculture sectors. He is also the Founder of Better Food Ventures.
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Rob Trice is the Founder of The Mixing Bowl, leveraging his background in telecom, mobile and internet venture capital to the application of information technology to the food and agriculture sectors. He is also the Founder of Better Food Ventures, making seed-stage investments in food and Ag IT.
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Rob Bollard is the General Manager of the Rights in One (RIO) Program and Business Futures Group.  The group has been tasked with the largest business transformation and information and communication technology Program undertaken by the organisation. It is responsible for developing a new IP Rights management system, developing a new search solution and providing richer and more timely business intelligence.
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Roland Pomana is the current Chairman for the New Zealand ESRI User Group and believes that Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are integral to making this happen.

He has worked within the NZ geospatial industry for over 10 years.
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Ross Young manages public policy and government affairs for Google in New Zealand. After training in law and psychology, he worked in New Zealand and overseas, including at the BBC, Minority Rights International, Vodafone, TelstraClear and the Commerce Commission. He is a father of one and is currently reading a biography of William Gladstone
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Ruby completed a BScHon in Genetics with first class honours from Otago University before taking up a role in my hometown of Wellington at the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research as a Research Officer in the Immune Cell Biology Group.
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Rudi Bublitz of Auckland-based angel investors Flying Kiwi Angels has built and sold an SAP consulting business in the 10 years before the dot.com and Y2K bubble burst.
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Originally from the United States, Sai currently sits on the international board of ISC2 (www.isc2.org). Moving to New Zealand in 2014, Sai has worked at Waikato District Health Board. She is currently a security consultant for cloud-based accounting software company, Xero, in Wellington.
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CE of Roholm. Roholm is new technology that means no chemical and no heat for healthy hair technology.
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One of the founders of Method, Sam has over 15 years’ experience working with NZ and international brands to implement successful and award winning digital strategies and campaigns.
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Sam is a global media executive with over fifteen years’ experience leading and building b2b and b2c entertainment businesses for media companies such as Viacom, Lionsgate Film Studios, Tribeca Enterprises, National Geographic.
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Sampson has a background in journalism and is a former correspondent for Māori TV. He is passionate about storytelling and that drove him to start Manu Media in 2013, a video production company that works with education providers, local government, Iwi and many more national brands in the commercial and charitable sectors.
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Sarah is a Director and Co-founder of Information Leadership Consulting, New Zealand's pre-eminent consulting organisation in the areas of information, records and knowledge management. In April 2017, Information Leadership won the Microsoft Government Partner of the Year award.
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Sarah has spent her professional career advising CEOs and their teams how to develop and exploit a competitive advantage in the face of complex and rapid change.

Sarah’s experience stretches from Norway, to New York, to New Zealand. She has worked in London in banking, utilities, direct marketing, digital media and wine and spirits. She is also an experienced and qualified commercial litigator.

A recent returnee from the UK, Sarah sought a role where she could be part of the future. The General Manager role at Tech Futures Lab immediately appealed as her next career progression with the focus on technology and its impact on the human condition.

Sarah holds degrees in Law and Arts, as well as an MBA from BI Norwegian School of Management.
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WELLINGTON | CHRISTCHURCH
Savannah Peterson is a 2016 Forbes 30 Under 30 in Consumer Technology and known voice in the startup space. Savannah is the Founder of Savvy Millennial where she helps the people, products and brands she loves grow.
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Scott is is an international speaker, community leader, and die hard serverless evangelist: He runs the AWS user group in Wellington, presented at ServerlessConf London and has recently been invited into the Amazon APN Cloud Warrior program. Scott is a Principal Cloud Architect at API Talent.
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Scott Pollard leads Vodafone New Zealand’s Internet of Things line of business. Scott has experience in operations, marketing and sales leadership across large organisations in the retail, telecommunications, financial services and energy sectors.
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Sean helps companies structure their business and operations in order to protect, commercialise and otherwise best use their assets. He has particular expertise in advising on IT and IP contracts, including large scale outsourcing and service agreements.
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Serge van Dam is a director of various start ups across multiple industries, including Wipster, Montoux and Common Ledger.
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Dotterel develop noise reduction solutions for drones. Noise is a particular problem in cinematography, with drone noise adding time and money to post-processing of footage; and for live streaming news, sporting events and nature filming it is a disturbance which can restrict use.
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Shaun Maloney has been ARANZ Geo’s Chief Executive Officer since 2011 and was formerly Global Sales Channel Manager. Christchurch born New Zealander Shaun is from an international banking background and has worked in the UK providing strategic direction to NZ technology companies. In 2014 he was awarded a Prime Minister’s Business Scholarship to study at Harvard and London Business Schools.
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Simon leads KPMG’s Performance Consulting practice in Auckland and is engaged in their focus on fuelling NZ’s shared prosperity and the need to regain our position as a competitive, high wealth country. He believes NZ is a fantastic place to build high performing private & public sector enterprises.
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Simon Morton presents & co-produces Radio New Zealand National’s award winning weekly consumer sci-tech programme 'This Way Up', which he established in 2005. He also contributes to the BBC World Service technology programme, 'Click' He's won numerous awards & has a deep understanding of innovation.
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Siobhan is Founder & CEO of Melon Health, a patient-centric SAAS and app business, providing patients, medical professionals and supporters with web and mobile applications. The service helps with tracking, remote monitoring, behaviour change and provides peer and professional support to patients.
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Stacey Tomasoni is a passionate advocate in customer service excellence and leading transformational change through innovation and automation.
As Director of Datacom Connect’s Australia/New Zealand Business, Stacey is a thought leader combining emergent automation technologies, cognitive experiences, human centred design, operational mastery and an ability to provide actionable insights to improve the customer experience.
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Steve is Head of Product Development at LIC Automation
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Managing Director, Stratos Technology Partners
Microsoft MVP for Office Servers and Services
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As a partner in the PwC Cyber practice, Steve is responsible for the delivery of security and privacy services to clients across multiple sectors like health, education, utilities, financial services and telecommunications. He's passionate about the protection of information to enable them to succeed.
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Dr Stuart Charters is the Director of SIGNAL ICT Graduate School.

He loves to play with gadgets and technology and to help others learn.
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Stuart is a specialist in the development of digital strategies in New Zealand. He is the founder of Digital Journey, the digital assessment service that helps businesses increase their digital skills and knowledge of the Internet. It helps thousands of businesses maximise online technologies.
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Suzi Kerr is currently a Senior Fellow at Motu and an Adjunct Professor at Victoria University. She graduated from Harvard University in 1995 with a PhD in Economics. Her current research work focuses on climate change, which involves investigating impacts and adaption in New Zealand.
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Tami's areas of expertise center on field marketing, go-to-market brand strategy, public relations and corporate communications, and account-based initiatives across multiple platforms.
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Teri has 20 + years specializing in The Economics of Behaviour- within a classroom context and its impact on future generations.
Currently she is writing an e-book "How to Tame a Prince' - which offers practical solutions to building positive classroom environments
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AUCKLAND | WELLINGTON | CHRISTCHURCH
Tobias is an entrepreneur with specialist experience in management and communications of creative businesses. He brings over 15 years’ experience with leading advertising agencies, brand strategists, clients and brands.
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Toby is an entrepreneur and roboticist. In 2006 he founded a NZ start-up focused on bringing autonomy to lift trucks, winning the 2008 NZ Young Engineer engineering excellence award. He has worked globally on smart home tech and has a PhD in applying Augmented Reality to robots and humans.
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From ‘Stay at Home Mum’ to Software Engineer. Toni completed a Computer Science degree at the University of Canterbury, won the Google Anita Borg Scholarship for her work in supporting women studying technology, and recently published her research paper on Gender Diversity in Software Engineering Teams.
Toni Moyes
Toni Moyes is Chief Operations Officer at 8i, a holographic technology company that enables photorealistic 3D human holograms for virtual, augmented and mixed reality. In 2016, Startup Daily named Toni #4 on the list of “Top 50 Women in Australia and New Zealand Tech."
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Tui Te Hau - Rongomaiwahine, Te Arawa & Tuwharetoa
GM Innovation Hub, Mahuki, Te Papa Tongarewa

As Mahuki's General Manager, Tui has extensive experience working with entrepreneurs and early stage companies.



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Tui heads up Mahuki where she works with teams to develop next generation innovation for the global and culture sector. At this event she is your head tour guide - make sure you have your ticket with you!
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Vanessa is a Senior Information Security Consultant and has over 5 years of experience. She has delivered numerous initiatives involving the implementation of Information Security to support business strategy.

She has led Information Security projects overseas and in New Zealand.
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Victoria’s day job is Managing Director of data and information specialists OptimalBI, she is also an investor in start ups and holds numerous mentoring, advisory and board appointments.
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Victoria is a 3D Artist working at PikPok and an independent game developer in her spare time. She has worked on a handful of PC and mobile titles, including Top Gear: Drift Legends, and has been enthusiastically involved in game communities around the country for many years.

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Vincent Egan - Maui Studios Aotearoa – we are a diverse creative and innovative design studio immersed in Te Ao Māori and the burgeoning Taniwha Economy. We live the Myths and Legends that we create and are committed to the strengthening of a modern and steezy bi-cultural Aotearoa.
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Vitalik is the creator of Ethereum and 2016 Fortune Magazine "40 under 40". He wrote the Ethereum white paper in November 2013. He is now the Ethereum Foundation Council President and leads Ethereum's research team, working on future versions of the Ethereum protocol.
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Vivian started her life as a physics major and then moved to the world of IT. She recently completed a Masters in Sociology talking about #everydaysexism. She specialises in creative innovative solutions, and is passionate about helping people work with technology to do their best work.
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Vivienne completed Bachelor and Master degrees in Computer Systems Engineering from Massey University in the 1990’s. Upon completion of a PGDip CIS and MCIS degree in Bioinformatics at AUT, she is completing a PhD in KEDRI. Her fields of interest include bioinformatics and personalised modelling.
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Product Engineering Manager of Delta Strike International
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Yogesh joined Movac as an Associate in 2014. He concentrates on generating deal flow, analysing investment proposals, conducting due diligence, and supporting portfolio companies.

Prior to joining Movac, Yogesh was a solicitor at Russell McVeagh in their corporate advisory and litigation teams.
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Yoseph Ayele is Chief Executive Officer of EHF. Yoseph has lived in six different countries, speaks five languages and considers himself a global citizen. Yoseph works closely with the entrepreneurship community across NZ, Silicon Valley, and a number of other hubs around the world.
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Zane has previously worked with multiple ad exchanges, ad networks, DSP’s, DMP’s and SSP’s as a digital marketer. He is a member of the IAB Board and frequently lectures at Unitech on programmatic topics. Zane brings his overseas experience in media planning and traffic management along with a strong knowledge of social media strategy.
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Strategy and operations specialist. Has unique combination of analytical thinking and organisational skills.