Manu Taupunga—Chief Executive Officer
Dr Anne Barnett empowers nascent teams to grow. Drawing on her deep-tech start-up DNA to advise, shape and support the development of enterprises, Anne inspires her teams to seek innovative solutions and approaches to building new enterprises.
From governance to corporate management, Anne is able to leverage her experience and extensive networks to provide targeted solutions-based advice. By prioritising the people experience as well as commercial returns, Anne's leadership style empowers high performing teams to explore opportunities while remaining focused on creating impact.
In her time at Wellington UniVentures, Anne has overseen strong growth with a number of deep tech spinouts and license deals across biotech, clean energy and sustainable building products, all creating impact for Wellington. Her current focus is on growing social enterprise capability, opening opportunities for a broader range of University research to reach the community and change lives.
Anne currently serves on the boards of Rekover Therapautics and NZ Innovation Booster, and is passionate about developing investor-ready ventures that makes a genuine difference in the world.