Prior to working at Creative HQ, Catherine had a comprehensive career in investment banking and law in New Zealand and overseas. Catherine’s experience includes positions at world-leading corporates such as HSBC, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Linklaters. With her legal and banking experience, Catherine brings invaluable insights into the corporate and regulatory environment and a wealth of experience in transaction management, risk mitigation and decision making frameworks.

Catherine has a passion for sharing her knowledge with earlier stage companies and working directly with entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs to help them use current skills, thinking and ways of working to create efficiencies in work with a bias towards action and outcomes.

Adiraj Gupta is founder and CEO of Crypto Launchpad, a blockchain due diligence company that provides independent due diligence, investment banking/listing, and security services to tokens and other alternative currencies in the blockchain space. He is also the driver of the Crypto Launchpad's charity work. On top of his work with Crypto Launchpad, Adiraj is Entrepreneur-in-Residence for The Strategist where he’s worked on national and international deals and is a member of the ISO 307 standards committee creating standards on Distributed Ledger Technology for the planet. He is also on the Momentum Wellington Investment Committee. A graduate of Victoria University, in 2017 Adiraj challenged Ian Williamson, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of Wellington School of Business and Government, to do more to support student entrepreneurs. Adiraj and Crypto Launchpad subsequently became Atom #1, the first residents and test pilots of The Atom.

Arama Kukutai holds degrees in law and business from Victoria University of Wellington, and has been an investor, company founder and entrepreneur in the Agribusiness sector for over 20 years. He served as Executive Chairman of PKW Farms, a diversified investment entity involved in dairy farming and aquaculture activities in New Zealand, Asia and Australia, and led the New Zealand government’s Trade & Investment agency in North America. He is a co-founder and partner at Finistere Ventures and has overseen the growth of Finistere’s global portfolio, which now includes offices in New Zealand, Tel Aviv, Israel, San Diego, Silicon Valley and Dublin. Arama also serves on the boards of, or advises, a wide range of companies, including AgGenetics, Biolumic, CropX, Growers Edge Financial, Plenty, Taranis, ZeaKal, as well as the Fresh Start and Sprout accelerators, and is an active commentator and thought-leader on Agrifood sustainability and investment trends.

Sonya Williams is Co-Founder and Director of the investment platform Sharesies. Sonya comes from a career in the start-up, software-as-a-service and banking communities where she has led global marketing and product management—specialising in product strategy, customer acquisition, engagement and retention.

Brooke Roberts is Co-Founder, Director, and CEO of Sharesies. Brooke has experience leading large savings and investment portfolios and start-ups, as well as experience in product management and global marketing.  A people person first and foremost, Brooke is fascinated by how behaviour drives outcomes.

Brooke and Sonya saw an opportunity to make investing more accessible and provide everyone the chance to grow their wealth. They are passionate about leadership, culture, making money easy and helping other young entrepreneurs on their journeys.

Suse Reynolds believes in the power of angel investments to change the world and has a portfolio of more than 20 investments, all of which she believes can do just that. Suse co-founded AngelHQ (Wellington region’s angel network with over 80 members and some high profile successes to its name) in 2006 and remains on the board. Suse has been a member of the Angel Association since its inception in 2008 and took on the Executive Director role in 2012. Suse is a member of the Wellington Branch Committee of the Institute of Directors, a member of the Viclink Momentum Committee providing commercialisation advice and support to budding student entrepreneurs and was recently appointed to Matu Ventures Investment Committee. Suse is keen to help connect young entrepreneurs with angel investors and venture capital.

Tui Te Hau is interested in how organisations innovate and connect meaningfully with their audiences. She has built complex national innovation programmes from scratch, including Mahuki: the world’s first business accelerator for the culture sector (located within Te Papa). Tui has also been a New Zealand Trade Commissioner in Melbourne, General Manager of a leading creative digital agency, and Chief Executive of Creative HQ. Tui also led the Maori Enterprise Team of Trade NZ (now NZ Trade and Enterprise). A scholarship recipient for the 2017 Global Women Breakthrough Leaders Program and a finalist in the Government category of the Wellingtonian of the Year Awards 2017, Tui is passionate about entrepreneurship in the creative capital.