Funding and Capital raising

Blair Harrison is Senior Manager, Listings & Issuer Services (New Zealand) at the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) and heads the ASX New Zealand office, based in Auckland. He has over 20 years’ experience in financial markets internationally across New Zealand, UK, Japan and Sydney. Blair Harrison qualified as a barrister and solicitor in New Zealand in 1998 and later as a solicitor in the UK, moving to London in 2000 to work at Allen & Overy LLP in their International Capital Markets department. Blair then worked at Deutsche Bank, London and then for 9 years with J.P. Morgan, holding various roles first in London, Tokyo and then Sydney, Australia. Blair joined ASX in 2013 and was in the in the Derivatives and OTC Markets team before relocating home to New Zealand in June 2019 to open the ASX, New Zealand office in Auckland. Blair holds a Commerce degree and a Law degree from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand and is fluent in Japanese.

Gavan has over 15 years’ experience in investment banking and financial markets, focusing on telecommunications, media and technology (TMT). He previously worked at Credit Suisse, leading their TMT Investment Banking team for emerging companies, was also twice voted Australia’s top specialist Hedge Fund Salesperson (AsiaMoney) and covered media at Credit Suisse in equity research. Prior to this he worked in London at Royal Bank of Scotland and Credit Suisse in their structured products and exotic derivative teams, and as a Senior Accountant in KPMG’s Financial Services Division.

Ross’s previous role was General Manager, Agri for ANZ where he had responsibility for the development and implementation of Agri business strategy between 2011 and 2016. Prior to that, he held several senior Commercial Banking roles that were focused on providing solutions, services and support for Privately-Owned and Family businesses. Ross is a Chartered Accountant and member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors. He is currently a Director of Allied Farmers, Chair of THE Enterprises, a large scale, family owned dairy farming business, and a Director of Gold Creek Farm Management and the NZ Cricket Players Association. As well as discussing observations as a facilitator of capital raising, Ross can talk to Syndex’s own experiences of accessing growth capital.

Colin is the Executive Director of the New Zealand Private Capital Association. In the role since May 2008, Colin is responsible for driving the strategy for development of the New Zealand private equity and venture capital industry, communications with members, sponsors and industry participants, coordinating the NZ Private Capital active government lobbying programme and supporting the Council Chairman and members. Previous roles included Chief Advisor for government involved with policy development for capital markets, issues of “access to finance” for fast-growth businesses and the commercialisation of innovation. With a background in corporate banking and strategic marketing for National Australia Bank and Bank of New Zealand, Colin has held leadership roles in business development, digital transaction management tools and institutional banking relationships with many of New Zealand’s largest corporations. Colin is an Economics graduate of Canterbury University and holds a master’s degree in management from Auckland University.

Nina comes from a background in Investment Banking, having worked in the European Transactions Group at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in London for six years and in the Equity Capital Markets team at Craigs Investment Partners in Tauranga for three years. In 2013 Nina joined Enterprise Angels as Manager and has been immersed in angel investing since then, working with prospective and existing portfolio companies, guiding due diligence teams, negotiating deals, launching, raising and managing EA Funds 1, 2 & 3 and managing the angel network. In July 2019, she was promoted to the CEO role.

During my time in the financial services industry I managed mid to large-scale technology adoption initiatives, including as part of a team that introduced the first online origination, credit risk assessment and pricing vehicle finance platform in NZ for MTF (www.mtf.co.nz), in 2005, in collaboration with FiNZsoft (www.finzsoft.com), a world leading FinTech solutions provider based in Auckland. At Wintec I was involved in student supervision, coordinating research projects and strategic relationships with the not-for-profit sector, programme and courseware development, teaching, and leading the development and delivery of their first micro-credentials in collaboration with industry.