Our Team

Dr Robert Powell has 15 years’ experience identifying opportunities, forming and nurturing deep-tech ventures.  

A former academic (PhD, Biochemistry, University of Otago), Robert worked on the academic side of the commercialisation process managing the commercialisation program for a US biotechnology focused research University.  

For the last decade he has worked for investors (Angel and VC) in the US and NZ, while managing a deep-tech due diligence consultancy. He returned to NZ eight years ago after two decades in the US and has been working with Pacific Channel since 2018. Robert brings broad experience having worked with medical, human, animal and aquatic technologies and start-ups. He has experience in forming, financing, operating and staffing deep-tech ventures. 

Dr Gary Pace is an experienced serial entrepreneur, director and senior operations manager of small to large-scale life sciences ventures inAustralia, New Zealand and the USA. He has more than 40 years of experience in the development and commercialization of advanced technologies including in the biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and food industries.

Dr Pace currently serves as a Director of Pacira Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PCRX), Cardiff Oncology (NASDAQ: CRDF), Simavita Ltd (ASX: SVA) and AntisenseTherapeutics (ASX: ANP) as well as several private companies.

He also served as a director of ResMed Inc (NYSE: RMD) from its inception in 1994until 2018. Gary was instrumental in the growth of the company to a market capitalization of US$28bn.

In New Zealand, he is Executive Chairman of Pacific Channel portfolio company InsituGen, which is developing tests to detect performance enhancing drugs in racehorses and humans. Also, he is a director of Upstream Medical Technologies, which is developing biomarker-based tests for rapid and accurate front-line diagnoses of heart disease and associated clinical complications.

He has also previously served as a director of two Pacific Channel portfolio companies that have since been acquired; Somnaceutics and Engender Technologies.

Dr Pace holds a B.Sc. (Hons I) from the University of New South Wales and a Ph.D.from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he was a Fulbright Fellow and General Foods Scholar. He has authored or co-authored over 50 research and review papers as well as 24 patents. He has held visiting academic positions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Queensland. Dr.Pace is an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. In 2003 he was awarded a Centenary Medal by the Australian Government “for service to Australian society in research and development” and was named 2011 Director of the Year (corporate governance) by the San Diego Directors Forum.

Dr Pace was born in Sydney Australia and holds both US and Australian citizenship. He lives in La Jolla, California,USA.

Ngāi Tahu

From connecting and coordinating Māori-led enterprises through to enabling communities to deal with the social, economic and environmental challenges they face, Cherie’s work is centered around helping people become more self-determining.

She is a passionate advocate for hapū, whānau and marae-based development and leads and advises on a multitude of projects that aim to advance economic growth and environmental sustainability, not just for Māori and Pacifica but for everyone in Aotearoa.

Cherie is the CEO of SEED NZ and the founder of Whānau Power, a project aimed to solve Energy Hardship. She is the founder of He Pito Mata Ltd. and has been involved in Māori Media Sector Shift, an initiative to support the revitalisation of te reo Māori and greater awareness and understanding of Māori stories and workforce development within the Māori Media Sector.

Previously, she was COO for Ekos, an international non-profit enterprise focused on sustainable reforestation and carbon farming, CEO of BIZview, and GM of Pentech Communications Ltd.

The community development programs that Cherie has founded, are all designed to help communities improve their quality of life. She is most passionate about helping people realise their potential, and to collectively create tangible solutions and results.

Her kaupapa is widely supported, as she continues her efforts to ensure that everyone in Aotearoa has access to the resources they need so they can grow and help future generations thrive.

Guy Wills is an experienced serial entrepreneur, CEO, director, and marketing and sales professional. His experience is born out of senior leadership background in blue-chip corporates such as Heinz Watties and Carter Holt Harvey Ventures and the founding and commercialisation of several private Equity, Venture Capital, and Corporate ventures. He has 25 years of experience in FMCG, food and biotechnology, nutritional’s, nutraceuticals, dairy and greentech. Mr Wills has expertise in leading businesses through high growth stages to significant value creation and sale, particularly via international expansion in regions such as the Asia Pacific.

The association with Pacific Channel began for Mr Wills in 2010 as the co-founder and CEO of its portfolio company Somnaceutics limited, which successfully developed and sold the intellectual property of a milk protein-based sleep-enhancement tonic and its other business assets to an NZX-listed company.

His recent return to Pacific Channel as Entrepreneur in Residence supports his passion for identifying high growth potential technology-based early-stage businesses. This integral role brings a wealth of experience and expertise to new technologies and aspiring early-stage business to ultimately dedicate to a new venture and lead a passionate, smart team through the commercialisation and value creation journey.

Mr Wills has a BBS from Massey University, majoring in marketing & psychology, and has completed further business, leadership, nutrition, and integrative medicine studies. He is an active private equity investor, was previously a trustee for the Conservation Foundation, and a participant of the SPCA pet therapy programme.

Born in New Zealand and currently residing in Auckland, Mr Wills has lived and worked in Australia, Papua New Guinea, Southeast and North Asia and North America.

Lifei Wang joined Pacific Channel in 2017 as part of the Greater China Team. Lifei is involved in marketing and attracting investment, acquirers, and strategic parties from the Greater China region to our portfolio companies. Lifei has connections with Chinese media outlets, which allow for publicity of Pacific Channel and our portfolio.

Lifei has extensive experience in marketing, with aNew Zealand Level 7 Diploma in Business & Marketing.

While working in China, Lifei gained extensive experience in journalism and developing marketing campaigns for a large local news outlet in Beijing.

Dr Roland Toder has extensive life sciences and international business development expertise. He has previously worked as a manager, board member and consultant to numerous successful companies in NZ and in Europe. Roland brings a wealth of knowledge to Pacific Channel and helps the team with technical due diligence, scientific validation, valuation of early-stage startups, technology transfer, international licensing as well as advising on the commercial arrangements of our portfolio companies.

Roland resides in Golden Bay, NZ and holds dual Citizenship in Germany & New Zealand.

Robert McPhail joined our team as an Investment Analyst in 2019.

Robert’s primary role is to provide support to management with capital raising activities, deal-structuring and syndications with co-investors where Pacific Channel is the lead investor or an existing shareholder.

His entrepreneurial flair assists our portfolio companies with business development advisory work particular around corporate growth strategy.

Robert is heavily involved in the due-diligence investment process for Pacific Channel Fund II, assisting with economic and financial analysis of our investments.

Robert has a passion for technology companies, particularly ones that can have significant global impact. Outside of work Robert enjoys golf and socializing with his friends and family.

Dr Ashwath Sundaresan leads Pacific Channel’s investments into cleantech/ advanced engineering opportunities and supports work in medical devices. Ashwath joined Pacific Channel in July 2021 and has over 10 years' experience across technology and deep IP based business.

Immediately before to joining Pacific Channel, Ashwath spent three years as a Senior Commercialisation Manager at Wellington UniVentures (the commercialisation company of Victoria University of Wellington) focussing on developing academic entrepreneurs and university spinouts. Prior to that, Ashwath was a strategy and technology advisor with Accenture and Google with significant expertise in the healthcare and energy industry.

Ashwath is passionate about early-stage deep technologies and businesses and is also a director of Vortex Power Systems (a Pacific Channel portfolio company). Ashwath holds a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering and PhD in mechanical engineering from University of Canterbury and an MBA from INSEAD.

Kieran Jina joined Pacific Channel in 2015 and manages the investment process and post-investment support. His approach is to ensure that R&D, product development, IP and business development strategies align with market needs, competitive whitespace and liquidity strategy. Kieran takes an active role to guide the formation, investment, development and commercialisation of technologies and companies, and to empower their teams.

Kieran has held a range of operational, management and governance roles across medical devices, diagnostics, therapeutics, agritech. He is currently seconded part time as CEO of Upstream Medical Technologies, which is developing novel biomarkers to enable the triage of cardiac ischemia within emergency departments. He is also an Executive Director of Orbis Diagnostics, which is developing a rapid and scalable quantitative ELISA testing platform to be deployed to the point of need and is being initially applied for COVID-19 immunity testing; Director of CertusBio, which is increasing the efficiency and reducing the environmental impact of food processing; and Director of Diasense, which is developing diagnostics for early detection prior to pre-diabetes.

Kieran commenced his career at the now ASX-listed device company, Aroa Biosurgery. Subsequently he became chief operating officer of Engender Technologies, which was developing a novel cytometry system for sorting bull semen by sex chromosome content. He led its product development planning and drove the process for the company to be strategically acquired. He was also General Manager of Breathe Easy Therapeutics, leading the development of a candidate drug to treat the symptoms of cystic fibrosis through a phase I/IIa dose escalation study. He also led the formation of portfolio company,Vortex Power Systems.

Kieran holds degrees in Master of Science (Hons) and Master of Bioscience Enterprise (Hons).

Lachlan Nixon is an integral part of the Pacific Channel team and assists Pacific Channel and its portfolio companies with a wide variety of activities. He has a genuine passion for helping early stage and high growth New Zealand companies to achieve success and has added great value to our work to create value and impact for our stakeholders and New Zealand.

Lachlan is a key member of the investment team and has made investments in several successful companies during his time at Pacific Channel including Quantifi Photonics, OPUM Technologies, Terax and A1.  

He is particularly adept at the technology transfer process of forming new private companies around ground-breaking technologies developed at research institutions and setting them up for initial investment and long-term success. Subsequent to investment, Lachlan works with portfolio companies to secure further resources (other investors, people, synergistic technologies and commercial partners) . He is experienced in conceptualizing and structuring transactions to secure these resources to the benefit of all stakeholders. He also works with his portfolio companies to support their business development, recruitment, commercial strategy, M&A and further capital raising.

Lachlan also leads Pacific Channel’s fund-raising strategy, having been a key person in strategizing, structuring, raising and operationalising both Pacific Channel Fund I and Fund II.

Lachlan is well connected within the early-stage investment industry in Australasia and works to syndicate our investments with other investors within his network.

Lachlan holds degrees in law and music from the University of Otago and is an admitted Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand.

Lois joined Pacific Channel in 2022 as Analyst. She has completed her Bachelor's of Science degree majoring in Biotechnology and is currently pursuing a Masters in Bioscience Enterprise at the University of Auckland in 2022. She has an ever-growing passion for the scientific and business based world. Sustainability is always at the forefront of her mind and she is motivated to have an impact in pursuing an ethical and sustainable New Zealand.

Traci has significant experience in the education sector. In particular the areas of strategic planning, Māori and Pacific engagement, professional learning and overseeing visioning projects. As a Ministry of Education, Cultural Capabilities accredited Facilitator (1043), and an Educational Consultant she adds a new dimension to our team by supporting the HR, operations and processes of Pacific Channel as we continue to grow and expand our team.

With extensive involvement in community engagement, non-for-profit sporting clubs and communities, alongside Board roles and responsibilities she is committed to giving back to others. As a student of Massey, AUT and Canterbury universities,Traci holds degrees and Masters in Teaching, Inclusive education, Educational Leadership and Administration.

Emerald Scofield joined Pacific Channel as an Analyst in 2019.

Emerald is responsible for assessing investment opportunities, specifically technology and market review.

Emerald also takes an active role in supporting Pacific Channel's start-ups, especially to anticipate and overcome potential issues and to develop their commercialisation strategies. Notably, for the past year Emerald has been working hands on with Orbis Diagnostics, which is working to develop medical laboratory precision diagnostics for use at points of need. Emerald is now an observer on the Orbis board.

Emerald is responsible for implementing and operationalising Pacific Channel’s ESG policy, both internally and externally with our portfolio. Emerald is dedicated to advancing the early-stage sectors thinking around impact and using ESG to illustrate that impact and financial returns are not mutually exclusive.  

Emerald is passionate about revolutionising healthcare via improving accessibility and quality of care. Emerald also has a keen focus on the future of food, and how we plan to sustainably feed our future populations.

Brent Ogilvie is a co-founder and Managing Partner of Pacific Channel.

Mr Ogilvie was also previously the founding investor director of Engender Technologies, which developed a proprietary process to separate X (female) and Y (male) bearing bull sperm cells to enable cattle farmers to choose the sex of offspring. Mr Ogilvie co-founded Engender and led it from foundation to its successful sale to a global dairy genetics company generating a significant capital return for its scientists, Auckland UniServices, Pacific Channel and its co-investors.

Mr. Ogilvie was co-founder, founding CEO and Director of Somnaceutics, which developed asleep enhancement tonic, which was sold to New Image Group: Mr. Ogilvie was also Director of Ecodiesel, a biodiesel technology company that sold its business assets to Z Energy.

Mr. Ogilvie was previously New Zealand Consul and Trade Commissioner to New York. He holds a BSc (Biological Sciences) from the University of Waikato and an MBA from The University of Auckland.