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Home / Venture  / Done Deal: Recent fundings secured, contracts inked and deals done, all for the tl;dr crowd

Done Deal: Recent fundings secured, contracts inked and deals done, all for the tl;dr crowd

The New Zealand Innovation Council (NZIC) has been sold.

In a statement, previous owners KPMG said: “KPMG has owned NZIC since 2015 and in that time we’ve helped to grow the NZIC community to over 3,500 members, through events such as the New Zealand Innovation Awards and the Innovation Heroes series. NZIC has also connected many of the high growth businesses in the community to sponsors, who are helping these businesses thrive and prosper.

“However, it is now time to pass NZIC on to a new group of owners, who can take it to the next level. That is why we are proud to announce the acquisition of NZIC to Craig Cotton and his business associates Hamish McLachlan and Robett Hollis, who will run it as innovateHQ.”

The statement also said that among the changes is the New Zealand Innovation Awards will not be held this year.

Live Nation New Zealand has named Stuart Clumpas as chair.

Clumpas is one of a number of new appointments for the company, which last month purchased a controlling interest in the Rhythm and Vines festival (read Idealog’s feature about the festival here). Rick Latham (formerly operations manager) has been named head of operations, and Steve Wheadon (formerly production manager) head of production. Mark Kneebone has also been named head of promotions.

Stuart Clumpas.

Warren and Mahoney have named Katherine Skipper to the board. Skipper will also take on a leadership role at the architecture firm’s Wellington studio. With Warren and Mahoney since 2015, Skipper has been involved in a number of high-profile projects in the capital, including Toi Art, Te Papa’s new art gallery (read Idealog’s story about it here).

Katherine Skipper.

Auckland-based agricultural equipment firm Tru-Test has sold most of its business to Swiss company Datamars SA. As reported by Stuff, the deal involves the sale of the Tru-Test brand, the Milk Meters business and Tru-Test’s retail solutions division, which includes electric fences.

Gallagher had previously attempted to buy Tru-Test, but was denied by the Commerce Commission.

Tauranga-based Cucumber has named Brian Bell as its new CEO. Bell started with Cucumber on May 1.

Originally from the United States and in New Zealand for the last three years working with MetService, Bell was most recently general manager of products and partnerships. He has been in several senior positions in the science and technology fields with a specialty in meteorology, remote sensing, and environmental intelligence. 

“Brian has a strategic vision and passion that is very closely aligned with Cucumber’s. These attributes along with Brian’s experience will be a huge asset to our organisation and will build on Cucumber’s solid foundation,” said Cucumber founder/director and current managing director Jodie Tipping. “We believe Brian is the ideal person to help take Cucumber to the next level. He’s a strategic thinker and visionary leader, and has proven experience in building high performing teams which drive strong commercial growth. I’m delighted to have someone like him take over the reins.”

Cucumber’s aim is to become a leading digital organisation globally that provides decision support and automation solutions to enhance productivity for partners and clients.

Brian Bell.

Done deal!

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