NZGCP doubles number of board members

Three new directors have been appointed to the New Zealand Growth Capital Partners (NZGCP) board – Janice Fredric, Grant Straker and Steve O’Connor.

The trio join the three current board members – chair Annabel Cotton, Marcel van den Assum and Nicole Buisson.

Cotton says the new directors take the board to its full complement after Mel Firmin and Guy Royal stepped down last year to focus on other business interests and Buisson was then appointed in March 2022. 

The new directors bring a diverse set of skills and experiences that will further strengthen the board’s capacity, she says.

“NZGCP’s purpose is to support New Zealand early-stage technology businesses and investors to be world class. Together with our management team we look forward to continuing to deliver to the purpose, bringing strong long-term growth and positive outcomes for all our stakeholders.”

The NZGCP board had a major clean out in early 2021 after it had a revolving door of leadership, with two chief executives leaving in quick succession and having been short two directors from its then five-member board since April 2020.

In late 2021 former Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) boss David Smol was brought in to steady the ship, followed by the appointments of Cotton, van den Assum, Firmin and Royal. 

NZGCP manages the government’s $300 million Elevate funds of funds, and the now self-funding Aspire seed fund.
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New directors’ backgrounds

Janice Fredric is a professional director with over 20 years’ governance experience. She’s currently chair of the Civil Aviation Authority and Aviation Security Service, director and chair of the audit and risk committees of NIWA, Aurora Energy, Mainpower NZ, the Lincoln University Council and an independent member of the Timaru District Council audit and risk committee. 

Grant Straker is the CEO and co-founder (with his wife, Merryn) of Straker, an AI-based language company that they built from startup to IPO on the ASX. He and Merrryn won the Master category of the New Zealand Entrepreneur of the Year awards in 2018. He is Ngāti Raukawa, a mechanical engineer by trade with more than 25 years' experience in the technology industry, and a prominent advocate for Māori in technology.

He has extensive capital markets experience in New Zealand and Australia, and was a member of the Startup Advisors Council in 2022-2023.

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Steve O’Connor is an independent director, advisor and investor with a strong background within the startup and technology commercialisation communities in Aotearoa and overseas.  He was the founder and CEO of Flick Electric, which was acquired by Z Energy. Prior to this he was CEO of Creative HQ – Wellington’s innovation hub, incubator and accelerator.

He is a director of Rocketing Ventures, providing advisory services, and an advisory board member at the School of Business and Government at Victoria University. He holds a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Commerce from Victoria University of Wellington and is a member of the Institute of Directors.