I am a New Zealand-based scientist-entrepreneur and coach who is currently CEO of Wellumio, and Founder of INNER MVP. 

 

My passion for human capability development grew from two decades of experience grappling with the realities of fostering talent in academia and industry. I saw how easy it was for people to ‘fall through the cracks’ even in brilliant organisations because they lacked access to leadership training. In industry we solve this problem with “startup incubation”, providing training and support for company founders. But the idea of incubating academics leading a lab, research center, or teaching program is still unheard of.

 

Inspired to make a difference, I founded INNER MVP in 2017 to provide institutions tasked with growing our next generation of knowledge workers access to a leadership incubator focused on the soft skills that are key to thriving in today’s world.

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When I'm not coaching, I'm innovating and putting coaching principles into practice. For the past two decades, I've worked to improve clinical outcomes for patients requiring high-acuity or intensive care as a research scientist (Otago University). Coupled with my belief in the power of entrepreneurship, I have co-founded two companies taking research to commercialised products. Currently, I am the CEO of Wellumio—a med-tech company that’s changing the way the world thinks about pre-hospital stroke diagnosis.

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Scientifically, I have a background in medicine, neurophysiology, bioengineering, and medical device instrumentation and have published >100 papers in peer-reviewed journals (H-index 37). I have served in executive roles in both industry and academia.