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ABOUT US

  • MEET The ecentre team

  • Steve CORBETT CEO

    Steve, a member of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants, is the founder CEO of ecentre, Massey University’s business development centre.

    Steve is on the board of CMCTEC, a joint venture between ecentre and CMC India, which takes NZ technology companies to India.

    Steve has acted as a Board member for a number of organisations/companies such as the NZ Venture Capital Association (2 terms). He has been a Board Member of the New Zealand Software Association for the past seven years and is currently a Board Director for a number of technology companies.

    Prior to taking the CEO role at ecentre, Steve was a Partner with Deloitte NZ and Deloitte Consulting for 13 years, specialising in business advisory. Steve gained a range of experience in the manufacturing/services sector-focusing in business and supply chain process improvement initiatives, transfer pricing and knowledge management. Clients included companies from start-up operations through to major companies expanding offshore.

    Steve’s special area of interest is in pricing strategies for technology companies and he is passionate about Drucker’s principles of Innovation.

  • Dorian Scott Business Development Manager

    Dorian is responsible for commercialisation and deal flow. He has over five years experience with business incubation, commercialisation and economic development for the region. As Business Development Manager he attracts entrepreneurs to ecentre and evaluates new business ideas. He has an extensive science and research strategy and management experience through a variety of corporate roles. Dorian has over 10 years experience in the commercialisation of science and bridging the gap between academia and industry.

    Dorian manages the commercialisation of intellectual property and new ideas from the Massey University Albany campus and is able to provide this expertise to companies seeking help with innovation. This service ranges from generating new ideas, prioritizing, R&D strategy, product development, design and prototyping, to taking those ideas to implementation or to market.

  • Sabrina Nagel Business Strategist

    Sabrina Nagel, who completed her Bachelor of Business Studies Degree at Massey University in Management and Enterprise Development, joined the ecentre in June 2009 as part of the internship programme for outstanding Massey University Graduates.

    Sabrina’s role as Business Strategist includes giving feedback on business ideas, providing strategic direction, assisting with business planning and launching new products/services into the market.
    Sabrina is well connected to Massey University academics and students in marketing and business. Her passion for social media gets fuelled by assisting businesses to use social media to launch new products/services.

    Sabrina is also a keen Toastmaster, Les Mills Bodystep Instructor, Wake and Snowboarder, Soccer fan, Health Freak and Food Lover.

    The Board

    • Brian Armstrong (Chairman)
    • Mark Jeffries
    • Terry Allen
    • Mark Cleaver

    Advisory Board

    • Prof. Paul Spoonley
    • Associate Prof. Peter Lineham
    • Mark Cleaver
    • Prof. Tony Norris
    • Prof. Lawrence Rose
    • Dr. James Chang
    • Dr. Andrew Chrystall

  • Advisors/mentors

  • Mike Skinner

    Mike, the founder of Hemingway Partners, is a product-marketing practitioner with extensive and proven practical experience in the telecommunications, financial and software services industries. He has a solid track record in product & market analysis, market transformation strategy, product & service development and program management in New Zealand, Asia and the United States.

    Mike is currently working with a number of ecentre companies around achieving market fit and launching a product into the market.

  • Terry Allen

    Terry, an engineer by background, has spent 18 years in Sales with Microsoft before becoming the director of The Icehouse. Terry is acting as an advisor and investor to ecentre companies and is also an active ecentre Board member.

  • Nick Houlbrooke

    Houlbrooke Group Limited among other activities is an independent partner of the CAD Partner group. Over the last 30 years, Nick had a career dominated by financial management, manufacturing and supply chain software, and management consultancy. Currently, Nick acts as an advisor to ecentre clients who needs assistance with business performance.

  • Murray Ward

    Murray is a Professional Director involved with a number of small to medium sized organisations at a strategy and governance leadership level. He sits on the board of four commercial companies, and two not for profit organisations in the sports industry including New Zealand Golf. Murray has worked closely with the ecentre at Massey University as an advisor. He has an extensive background in the IT industry including 30 years with Datacom, NZ’s largest privately owned IT Company.

  • RusselL Hay

    Russell currently acts as an Independent Consultant, Trustee and Director. He is Executive Chairman for Unleashed Software Ltd a start-up resident in the ecentre.

    In December 2007 Russell retired from Minter Ellison Rudd Watts where he had been the Chief Executive Officer for nearly 4 years.

    Prior to that, he was at Deloitte for 37 years including 24 as a partner. During that time he had many roles in Client Service and Management in NZ and Overseas. His roles included being a Regional Managing Director for Deloitte Consulting In Asia Pacific Africa in the IT and Outsourcing Practice and Managing Partner for Deloitte in Auckland.
    His practice roles were mainly in the IT Consulting and Reorganisation, Reconstruction and Insolvency Practice.

  • Jonathan Hislop

    Jonathan is a Chartered Accountant and was for many years the senior partner at HWI Accountants.

  • Kevin McCaffrey

    Kevin specialises in governance advising services through his company Effective Governance.

Contact ecentre