Profile - some details

Roles


Current: 
Founder and Director (MD) - Greenlight Ventures NZ www.greenlightventures.co.nz/
Advisory Board member, Sen Corporation sen.com/
Advisory Board - Level Two, Parnell (deep-tech innovation hub) 
Member Angel List _
Investor in various start-ups and early stage ventures 
Lead financial sponsor 7x7 Ideas Forum 2016 : a monthly innovation forum held in Wellington - 7 speakers each given 7 minutes._
​Lifetime Patron Arts Foundation of NZ
Founding Governor FoNZA, AGNSW, Sydney 
Fellow AGNSW, Sydney
​Member Philanthropy NZ
Member New Zealand Institute of Directors
​Inaugural Cornerstone Partner, Te Papa Foundation

​Founding member International Insolvency Institute 

Previously:
Board Chair, Orchestra
Independent Chair, Hobson Wealth Partners (previously known as Macquarie Private Wealth NZ).
NZ representative: International Insolvency Institute_
Barrister - Greenock Chambers (High Court through to Privy Council)
​Chair - government review of oil spill response following the grounding of the Jody F Millennium
Main Author: World Bank Global Insolvency Database for NZ
Vice-Chair and NZ representative Insolvency Committee of the Inter-Pacific Bar Association
Chair (NZ Branch) of Maritime Law Association of Australia and New Zealand_
A Vice-President and a Federal Director of the Maritime Law Association of Australia and New Zealand
Member of the Editorial Board: MLAANZ Journal (ISSN ref published in association with the University of Queensland)
Accredited mediator: LEADR (NZ)
Member of the faculty :NZ Law Society's national Litigation Skills Programme
A Senior Litigation Partner Minter Ellison Rudd Watts and Rudd Watts & Stone
Head of National Intellectual Property team of Minter Ellison Rudd Watts

Qualifications:
LL.B (Hons.). University of Canterbury, 1987
Admitted to NZ Bar 1988

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Industries

NZ producer board : meat industry
Telecommunications
Maritime and shipping (NZ and cross-border)
Insurance
Banking (NZ and foreign)
Oil 
Electricity
Postal SOE
Statutory boards
​Commercial property
Capital markets

Cases of significance

Lead counsel in the following: 

​For Cayman Island shareholder in cross-border litigation re the Russian company Yukos - obtaining a free standing injunction in the Niue and NZ High Courts which was applied in other jurisdictions

​For German banks following the collapse of a shipping company

For NZ Post when Kiwibank was being established and the business plan was leaked. Led the misuse of confidential information litigation.

For a German director in a significant director's duties appeal hearing following the collapse of a major shipping line

​For the Electricity Supply Association and all its members (c.60) in a case to determine whether electricity was a good or a service  or neither in terms of consumer legislation

For Bellsouth (now Vodafone) in litigation preventing Telecom from securing Commerce Commission consent to purchase Sky

​For the Meat Board in various cases, involving quota administration and the drawing down of letters of credit in international trade

For BellSouth  in a claim of breach of confidence and misuse of confidential information against Telecom and Saatchi & Saatchi

For the Belgian trustee (equivalent of a liquidator)  of a collapsed international shipping line in a major cross border admiralty proceeding. The collapse of ABC Containerline was one of the largest such collapses to occur internationally.

Note:
​Case citations/links available on request



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Law publications of interest

"The silver oar mace": published in the MLAANZ journal_

"Cross-border Insolvency: The New Zealand Perspective" (1998) 4 NZBLQ 209: Concerned the international collapse of the Belgian shipping line ABC Containerline and the litigation led by Jenny

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