Our People & Partnerships
Our vision is to create an ecosystem of entrepreneurs that develop their passion for deep tech into viable, global ventures. Join us and bring even the biggest ideas to life.
Meet the TEAM searching for ideas with impact.
John Robson
General Manager New Zealand
LinkedIn
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JR is a finance and investment professional with significant board governance and management experience. He has been working with the Bridgewest Group since 2017 and was part of a founder team that moved to Bridgewest as part of an acquisition in 2019. Prior to that, he led the investment team for a large New Zealand Private Banking Group, which was a role he took up when migrating to New Zealand with his family in 2002. Before his move, JR was a Senior Portfolio Manager for Merrill Lynch for over 11 years where he directly managed a number of publicly traded investment funds. He is founder focussed and obsessed with data.
Kathryn de Ridder
Portfolio Investment Manager
LinkedIn
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Kate de Ridder trained and worked as an Aerospace Engineer, leading large teams to support airborne defence force missions across the globe for 17 years. On the back of studying finance and strategy she transitioned to the world of Venture Capital in 2019 where she has helped Bridgewest Ventures build the investment team and a portfolio of deep tech investments.
Saum Vahdat
Managing Partner
LinkedIn
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Saum Vahdat led financial analysis and business development for a global real estate investment firm before joining Johnson & Johnson's venture capital platform, assisting with commercialization strategy formation and market research. After graduating from Cornell University with an MBA Saum joined Bridgewest, helping operate portfolio companies before becoming CEO of Bridgewest Ventures (BV) where he leads investment strategies and incubation programs, including BVNZ's partnership initiative with the Government of New Zealand.
Darja Nelson
Commercialisation Manager - Biotech
LinkedIn
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Darja Nelson began her career as a Neuroscience research and quickly moved into the world of commercialisation of deep tech IP from NZ research institutes & universities. An experienced commercialisation manager she was bitten by the start-up bug as she lead the spin out of a revolutionary sensing technology from Plant & Food Research. This fuelled a passion for helping to create and grow early-stage start-ups and their leaders and drove her into the world of early stage investment. Darja clearly has the sharpest wit in the office.
Ruby Kleyer
Investment Manager
LinkedIn
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Ruby has an academic background in biotech and research commercialisation. Since joining Bridgewest in August 2021, Ruby has supported the screening and due diligence of ventures operating in sectors including biotech, engineering, cleantech and software. Ruby is passionate about working alongside founders to bring their ideas to market. Ruby is the office snack queen, you’ll never see her skip the 3:00pm snack run.
David Hewit
Head of Capital Markets
LinkedIn
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David Hewit is Director of Capital Markets at the Bridgewest Group. He is responsible for capital investments and raising external capital in support of portfolio companies. He actively works with the management teams of portfolio companies to develop and execute their capital markets strategies and support their strategic initiatives. David also assists with business development activities and provides support and investment advice to the Executive Leadership Team of Bridgewest Group.
David has fifteen years of experience in the investment management and finance industries. Prior to joining Bridgewest Group David was an investment research analyst focused primarily on the tech sector. Previously he worked for several asset management firms including Newbrook Capital, Shannon River Partners, and Duquesne Capital Management. David graduated with a BS in Finance from Lehigh University.
Iris Lee
Investment Analyst
LinkedIn
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Iris initially joined us as a summer intern during the pandemic and extended her internship while completing her Masters of Biosciences Enterprise. Since coming on full-time in May 2022, she has enjoyed contributing and learning from various founders’ journeys. Coming from a biomedical science background, Iris has a lean towards life sciences and software projects. Apart from seeing founders develop and succeed, she has a huge passion for ultimate frisbee, piano, and dogs (might try to pet and subsequently steal yours)
Elizabeth (Liz) Chan
Intern Investment Analyst
LinkedIn
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Liz is working as an intern as she completes her honours year in Mechatronics engineering. She has experience in Mechanical and Software engineering having previously interned at Fisher & Paykel Healthcare and Suncorp Group. Introduced to the start-up world through the Startmate student fellowship, Liz is captivated by anything hardware or software related.
Her ultimate dream is to vibe out on Sydney beaches 24/7.
Not joking.
Executive Committee
Dr Masood Tayebi
Chief Executive
Bridgewest Group
Dr Massih Tayebi
Chairman
Bridgewest Group
Jennifer Henry Brown
General Counsel
Bridgewest Group
Adam Gickling
Executive Vice President
Bridgewest Group
Tommy Broudy
Operating Partner Bridgewest Group
Saeed Khorami
Executive Vice President
Bridgewest Group
Advisors
Brendon Ford Senior Vice President Provoke Solutions
Samar Alrayyes Snr. Client Executive at Microsoft
Stephen Chang Mirimus-Board Member at Mirimus
Cyrus K. Mirsaidi Chairman & Managing Partner BioSelective Capital Investments
Farzad Ghassemi Practice Lead, Telecom Technology
Behrooz Abdi Chairman and CEO at ACE Convergence Acquisition
Dan Diefendorf President, Dataweavers
Kathryn Murphy General Manager, Twilio Engage
Joseph Monforte Precision Medicine & Genomics Advisor, Wild Type Advisors
Peter Crabtree Partner and Co-Founder Idé Partners
Memberships & Associations
Angel Association
Angel Association New Zealand is the champion for early stage investment. They aim to build a thriving eco-system of innovative startup companies in New Zealand by promoting angel investment, both through data and case studies, as an asset class that is both rewarding and well defined.
Migrant Investors and Entrepreneur Association
The Migrant Investor & Entrepreneur Association is a private network for migrants which acts as a landing and launching pad for New Zealand migrant investors. The initiative aims to empower NZ entrepreneurs & foster innovation by building pathways to wider investment opportunities.
New Zealand Tech Alliance
The New Zealand Tech Alliance’s purpose is to create a strong united voice for technology across New Zealand. It comprises more than 20 diverse technology associations from across NZ, and over 100 tech focused organisations, all working together to advance the NZ tech ecosystem.
Our Partners
Bridgewest Group
Bridgewest Group is our parent company. They are a United States-based investment company with an established track record for growing early-stage ventures and generating new IP.
Bridgewest Finance New Zealand
Bridgewest Finance is a leading specialty finance firm that provides financing solutions to companies across multiple industries including life sciences, technology, and commercial real estate.
Bridgewest Properties
Bridgewest, along with its Alliance NZ property entities, holds a substantial real estate portfolio in New Zealand that is focused on providing high quality retail and commercial office space to a wide range of end users.
Callaghan Innovation
Callaghan Innovation is New Zealand’s innovation agency. It activates innovation and helps businesses grow faster for a better New Zealand.
The government agency partners with ambitious businesses of all sizes, delivering a range of innovation and research and development (R&D) services to suit each stage of their growth. Its staff – including more than 200 of New Zealand’s leading scientists and engineers – empower innovators by connecting people, opportunities and networks, and providing tailored technical solutions, skills and capability development programmes, and grants co-funding.
Brink Creative
As a specialist digital design agency based in New Zealand, Brink uses exceptional creativity and a deep understanding of business to help companies take the leap into effective digital experience.