Mark Verbiest - Chairman

Mark was a member of the Telecom New Zealand senior executive team from 2000 to 2008. Mark served as General Counsel and was responsible for the legal and regulatory corporate groups. He was senior executive responsible for the operational results of International and Yellow Pages divisions (the latter until it was sold in 2007), accountable for Telecom's highly successful investment in the Southern Cross Cables joint venture with Verizon and SingtelOptus. Mark served as Chairman of the Southern Cross Cable Limited from 2000 to 2008.

Prior to joining Telecom, Mark was a senior Partner at law firm Simpson Grierson specializing in corporate and strategic advice. Mark practiced law for twenty years in a private practice.

Mark is currently a consultant to Simpson Grierson and serves as a director of AMP Haumi Management Limited, the manager of listed trust AMP Office Trust, Southern Cross Medical Care Society and the Gas Industry Company Limited which is a co-regulatory body regulating the gas industry in New Zealand.

Mark has an LLB from Victoria University and is a member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors.

Mark Jeffries

Mark Jeffries invests and takes governance roles in tech companies. He has 20 years experience in evaluating and working with start-ups and early stage tech companies.

Prior to 2000, Mark had 15 years as a commercial lawyer, including 12 years as a partner at Simpson Grierson specializing in commercial, IT, telecommunications and taxation law.

Since 2000, Mark has focused on privately held tech companies. He is a founder and chairman of Appserv Limited.

Mark also serves as a director of the Massey University incubator E-centre Limited, StarPlayIT Pty Limited and Intellectual Capital Ratings NZ Limited. He is a former board member of TUANZ, former chairman of the ebusiness association of NZ and former member of a ministerial advisory group on ecommerce.

Mark holds an LLB and a Masters in Taxation (Hons) from Auckland University.

Martin Oxley

Martin has over 21 years experience in various Sales and Marketing positions in Technology start-ups including Dove Electronics, Designer Technology, Marshal Software, Maxnet Ltd., Rocket Languages, and Image Analyser. 

Martin was a founder and Director of Marshal Software Ltd (now M86), a world leader in Internet Filtering Software. Martin’s most significant role here was building an International Distribution Channel  covering 35+ countries prior to Marshal being sold to NetIQ for NZ$50m in December 2002.

Martin continues to be involved with a number of private Technology based businesses.

Ed Robinson

Ed Robinson is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Aptimize. He is responsible for Aptimize's business growth, revenue, product marketing, product management, and strategy.

Ed has 20 years experience in the Information technology industry in both the United States and New Zealand and has a global vision for adding business value with better technology and communications. His background includes six years at Microsoft shipping Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, Microsoft Content Management Server, and Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server.

Ed Holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Otago.

Tony Stewart

Tony has a background as a manager, a software developer and accountant. He has worked in the IT industry for almost 20 years half of which was in business management. He has had extensive exposure to a wide range of businesses, applications, architectures and development environments.

Tony is a Director of GZ2 Holdings, an investment company with investments in start-up and mature IT companies. Tony is Managing Director of Intergen Ltd, a Director of Intergen Solutions PTY Ltd, a Director of ActionThis Ltd and an Advisor to the Board of Sproket Markets Ltd.

He was a founder of Glazier Systems which was sold to Advantage group in 1999 and later, through a management buyout, re-emerged as Intergen. Prior to that he spent 8 years working for a multi-national consultancy firm in NZ and the USA.

He has a Bachelor of Business Studies in Accounting & Finance from Massey University, is an Associate Chartered Accountant and a Member of Institute of Directors in New Zealand.