Biomatters Board of Directors

Greg Casagrande - Chairman

Greg promotes entrepreneurialism. He is an investor and a mentor to several young NZ based hi-tech companies. In addition to chairing Biomatters, he is a founding board member of the ICE Angels, a network of angel investors, Chairman of English-To-Go, an online provider of English language education, and Director of Calcium, a provider of digital promotional tools.Greg is the founder of the South Pacific Business Development Microfinance Network which operates in Samoa, Tonga and Fiji and provides over 20,000 poor families with meaningful opportunity for self-employment. He is also the founder of the MicroDreams Foundation, a charitable microfinance fund dedicated to launching and scaling micro-enterprises in the Pacific and Latin America. Greg is a frequent speaker at microfinance events globally and serves on multiple industry boards.Through 1998, Greg recorded significant achievement with Ford Motor Company, Mazda Motor Company and Coopers and Lybrand in Financial Management, Product Development, Manufacturing and Sales and Marketing positions. He led teams in the US, Europe and Japan and was honored to be the youngest-ever Buchou (Division General Manager) of any major Japanese corporation.Greg has an MBA in Finance and Marketing from Kellogg, an MS in Accounting from NYU Stern and a BA in Economics from Colgate University. He is also a CPA.

Dr Alexei Drummond - Non-Executive Director

A co-founder of Biomatters and the "father" of Geneious, Alexei has published over 50 scientific articles in international peer-reviewed journals including Science and Nature and is an expert on coalescent-based population genetics and bioinformatics software development.Alexei was based in the University of Oxford from 2002-2005, before returning to New Zealand to take up an academic position within the Department of Computer Science at the University of Auckland and also to work on Geneious. He has helped attract other top international bioinformaticians to contribute to Geneious, and will continue to guide its development through commercialization.Alexei was the winner of the University of Auckland's Science PhD of the year in 2002 and is also a previous winner of the New Zealand programming competition.In 2007, he was the winner of the Royal Society Hamilton Memorial Prize for Contributions to Computational Biology and in 2010 Alexei was one of the inaugural Royal Society Rutherford Discovery Fellows, an award that came with $1,000,000 research funding over 5 years.Visit Alexei's academic homepage.

Aki von Roy - Non-Executive Director

Aki has spent over 30 years in big pharma, notably with Schering AG, Squibb and Bristol-Myers Squibb, in various roles such as Managing Director, Executive Vice President, President in the UK, NZ, Sweden, USA, Germany and Eastern Europe.More recently, Aki has spent over 10 years in the biotech industry, involved in 15 start up/merger ventures as a consultant and/or investor. Living in NZ since 2000, Aki considers himself as a bio-entrepreneur , and has been the founder CEO of Proacta and CoDa Therapeutics, Chairman of Phylogica (ASX listed), Phytomedics (USA) and Vital Foods (recently partly acquired by Nestle), a director of Wool Equities and its subsidiaries (listed on the NZX), Source MDx ( USA ), Corra Life Sciences (USA) and Novatech (AUS). He is currently Chairman of Genesis R&D (listed on the ASX and NZX), a director of Biomatters, White Biotech and CuroNZ (all privately held) as well as a shareholder of a number of other biotech companies.

Gray Treadwell - Non-Executive Director

Gray has founded or directed five successful New Zealand computer and technology export startups, over more than 25 years. He has deep experience in product design and in the business side of intellectual property and law. He is enjoying a lifetime fascination with ergonomics and user experience.Gray was a shareholder and director of Binary Research Ltd with its founder Murray Haszard, as it grew from a few people in New Zealand to a worldwide success story. Gray was responsible for achieving the successful sale of Ghost software to Symantec in 1998.Task Technology Ltd, a profitable systems supplier in New Zealand co-founded by Gray, took the majority of the market for oil company point of sale systems from the incumbent supplier, using products he designed.Gray has a degree in Economics and a passion for well-executed software, like Geneious.

Mark Talbot — Special Advisor to the Board

Mark provides strategic leadership and financial governance to support Biomatters programme of expansion and growth.Mark has held a wide range of international roles including, Ernst & Young Business Services group with offshore hedge funds, investment holding companies and trusts. Management of Mutual Risk Management, a NYSE listed Bermuda-based insurance company and managing the Bermuda office of a Moscow-based investment bank.Since moving to New Zealand, Mark has provided consulting, financial management, strategic input and accounting services to start-up /high-growth companies in the biotech, chemno-tech and other sectors, including Proacta Therapeutics, winner of the NZ Biotech Company of the year at the NZ Hi Tech Awards.Mark is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW) and the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants (NZICA)