From Scientist to Entrepreneur

hi

my name’s james and i’m a scientist

now science wasn’t always on the list of

careers for me when i was growing up

hey prime minister maybe but certainly

not science

that was the stuff at all poppies for a

start no one in my family had ever been

a scientist

or been to university full stop for that

matter

and i really wasn’t sure about working

in a lab all day and wearing a white

coat

but do you remember that one teacher in

high school that really inspired you

well for me that was my chemistry

teacher mr gladding

to be honest it was the loud bangs and

explosions that sold me in the first

place

i remember one day mr gladding had

brewed up a concoction of this stuff

called touch powder

which he poured on the footpath outside

the classroom the lunch bell rang

kids ran out of their classrooms and the

stuff popped and exploded under their

feet

look we never got that sort of cool

stuff in geography or economics i’m just

saying

but mr gladding also really inspired me

with the promise that chemistry held to

do good things in the world

and that not all scientists wear white

coats

fast forward a few years you can imagine

how proud my mum and dad were when i got

offered a place at the university of

cambridge to do a phd in chemistry

i packed my bags i was off to the uk to

jump into the world of research

it was at this stage that i really

started to get excited

about the power that science holds to

transform lives and change the world

by solving problems

and i mean some big problems

covert 19 is a big problem that’s

playing out before our eyes

and in real time and the global

scientific community is mounting a

mammoth effort to tackle the pandemic

but these sorts of big global challenges

are really nothing new

the united nations launched the

sustainable development goals back in

2015

and ban ki-moon the secretary-general of

the u.n at the time

said that there’s no plan b for tackling

these challenges because there is no

planet b

we have no plan b because we simply have

no planet b and here are some of the

things he was talking about

25 000 people die from drug resistant

infections

alone in europe every year that’s about

the same number of people that die on

that continent from road accidents

three and a half billion people that’s

almost half the world’s population are

thought to be at risk of malaria

what about food production well one

hectare of land in 1950

could grow enough food to feed two

people

fast forward 100 years that same bit of

land is going to need to provide food

for six people

if we’re going to support our growing

global population

here in new zealand a massive chunk of

our waterways are thought to be

unswimmable because of pollution

and we have a terrible track record in

this country when it comes to equitable

access to health care

especially for our maori communities

this is something we really must get on

top of

and that’s before we even got into the

big meaty challenge of climate change

hang on what’s all this got to do with

science

well it turns out that science can help

fix a lot of this stuff

and that we’re well on our way to

creating a globally competitive

technology sector right here in new

zealand

that is doing just that

and this is where my journey as a

scientist comes in

i lead the kiwi innovation network or

kiwinet for short

and we’re helping new zealand grow by

turning scientific research

into market-ready opportunities

we’re doing this by pulling resources

and funding from new zealand’s

universities and research institutes

to support and accelerate research

commercialisation

so what this means is our support

enables new zealand’s clever scientific

discoveries

to be developed further ready for

private investment

so they can ultimately become the new

products services and companies

that are transforming lives and changing

the world from right here in new zealand

some of the companies we’ve helped to

create and support

include hot lime labs who

are reducing the carbon footprint of

commercial greenhouses

by providing a sustainable source of the

carbon dioxide they need to grow their

plants

or what about avalia therapeutics that

are leading new zealand’s

response to a clover 19 vaccine

then there’s x-frame that’s

revolutionizing the way we think about

building

by eliminating waste and reducing the

amount of raw materials being used by

the building industry

then there’s inclusives who have

developed a clever product called talk

with me

that’s enabling autistic children to

communicate with their families for the

very first time

and right here in the mighty waikato

ligar polymers are using their clever

chemistry

to remove toxic metals from industrial

waste

and are now working with the maori

economy to create a whole new

biotechnology sector right here in new

zealand

that will create valuable products from

horticultural waste

who’d have thought there could be so

much useful stuff and kiwifruit skins

out of all things

and the list goes on and on

now this all sounds really easy

but of course like many things in life

it ain’t that simple

but let’s wind back the clock a moment

to james at age 28

who’s now officially a mad scientist

i just got to the end of this amazing

phd experience and was now a doctor

of chemistry which was no good for

members of the family lining up for free

health care by the way but that’s

another story

by this stage i was absolutely loving

the world of research

creating new discoveries and pushing

back the frontiers of knowledge

but the thing that was niggling away in

the back of my mind

was that all too often these clever

scientific discoveries

these golden nuggets of new knowledge we

were creating in the lab

would almost get stuck in the world of

research

they weren’t always finding their way

out into the real world

where they could make a tangible

difference to people’s lives

and this made me think

what if there were more people with a

deep knowledge of science in the

scientific method

people like me that could help put more

of the science to use

it turns out that in new zealand we have

a thriving science base that punches

well above its weight internationally

and we have all of the right ingredients

to turn this clever science into

game-changing innovations

and this is what attracted me back home

to new zealand

a belief in the power of our ideas our

know-how

and our innovative spirit to create

technology solutions to the big global

challenges we face

and lead the world in doing so

and it’s more important now than ever

that we accelerate this

as a nation because of the massive

impact that covert 19

is having on our economy you can always

think of our economy

as a rainforest ecosystem

thriving rainforests are highly

productive they have a rich biodiversity

and symbiotic relationships that enable

life to flourish and prosper

well beyond its boundaries the

rainforest canopy consists of the big

plants that support the rest of the

ecosystem

now the new zealand economic rainforest

canopy currently consists of about three

or four big types of plants

one of which is failing before our very

eyes if we think of how our tourism

sector has been decimated by the

pandemic

so the way things are panning out we’re

going to be left with some pretty big

holes in our rainforest canopy

and our struggling economic rainforest

can only support a limited number of

people to work in it

as plants die away many people are

losing their niches or being left behind

forty thousand jobs were lost in only

the first five weeks of the covert 19

lockdown here in new zealand

and that’s already halfway towards the

total number of jobs that were lost

during the 2009 recession

so things are looking pretty bleak for

future generations of kiwis that are

going to have to find a way to survive

and prosper in the sun for certain

future but even

before this started to happen i’ve been

wondering about what sort of planet

we’re leaving behind for them to inherit

anyway

the need to take action now on all of

this has only become

more urgent

so here’s the opportunity this is the

time

for new ideas the time to create some

new beginnings for rtro new zealand

to tackle things like health and equity

environmental sustainability

food production climate change and not

to mention

future pandemics while rebuilding our

economy

what if we were to use our covert 19

recovery

to build a much more diverse economic

rainforest

with a plethora of different plants

while also embedding the maori

principles of kaitiakitanga or

guardianship

that aim to care for our land our

resources and our people

not just now but far into the future

well i can tell you that we would end up

with something that is very unique to

atero new zealand

the great news is we don’t have to

sacrifice anything to do this

we don’t have to throw out what we’re

already good at and start again

new zealand can do this by enhancing the

very primary sectors that are at the

core of our heritage

by leading their transformation from

high volume commodities

through to unique high-value products

that will give us a competitive

advantage

so i want you to imagine for just a

moment that growing into the gaps of our

rainforest canopy

we’re 100 high growth technology

startups

led by 100 inspired entrepreneurs

an ecosystem bringing forth technology

solutions to global challenges

while driving our economic recovery

deploying the many people who have lost

their jobs through the recession

and creating exciting new opportunities

for our young people

not only would our rejuvenators

rainforests be diverse and resilient

it would be nurturing a thriving

entrepreneurial workforce

and leading the world through our work

at kiwinet

we’re making real strides in bringing

about this prosperous future for new

zealand

we’re accelerating cutting-edge

technologies out of our universities and

research institutes

and into our new economy the secret to

our success is that

all of the organizations within the

kiwinet family are collaborating in a

uniquely kiwi way to do what’s best for

new zealand

rather than going it alone in a little

over 10 years

the kiwinet whanau have already created

over 50 new technology startups

that have already generated hundreds of

millions of dollars in our economy

and have created over 500 new high-value

jobs for new zealanders

all from our homegrown kiwi science and

things are really starting to speed up

the magic works by sprinkling these

clever scientific discoveries

with a dash of entrepreneurship

entrepreneurs are ambitious they’re

resourceful

and they’re also open to new ways of

thinking

they’re the inhabitants of our new

economic rainforest

they’re the people that know what it

takes with the mindset and the skills to

start with an idea and transform it into

something special

importantly they come from a diverse

range of backgrounds and in all shapes

sizes and colors

the thing is entrepreneurship’s not

something that’s reserved for people

with

some sort of privilege it’s not about

just running businesses and making money

it’s a mindset that’s applied to

everything we do in life

it’s about being bold being driven and

being decisive

one of our most famous kiwi innovators

the late sir paul callahan

once said that new zealand’s future

prosperity would be completely

transformed with only 100 inspired

entrepreneurs

well i think he was right

and that artero new zealand needs this

entrepreneurial insurgency now more than

ever

so where on earth can we find all of

these people well it turns out that

we’re making a great start

firstly at kiwinet we’ve already found

and are supporting 50 emerging

innovators

these are 50 kiwi scientists with an

entrepreneurial spark

that we’ve empowered to take the lead in

a fast tracking to success

our emerging innovators are leading some

of the many startup companies i spoke

about earlier

and this program has been so successful

that we’re now

actively fundraising to find and support

our next 50 inspired leaders

secondly there’s an important role here

for the many talented new zealanders

that are currently returning home from

overseas to escape the pandemic

bringing within the skills and the

experience that can be turned to

something new

and of course we can be deploying many

of the kiwis that have already found

themselves unemployed through the

recession

but for me the most exciting and

important opportunity here

is how we support our young people to

travel this journey

to nurture new zealand’s next generation

of technology entrepreneurs

because we’re rapidly charging into a

future where the nature of work will

never be the same again

there will no longer be a job for life

and we will all need to be adaptable

so this means that future generations of

kiwis

will need to be entrepreneurs in order

to thrive

and they will need to be literate in

science to navigate the technology-based

future

now when i embarked on my journey as a

scientist from the early days of the

loud bangs and explosions

i never for a moment dreamed that i

would end up doing what i do today

it turns out that science has given me

all of the skills that i’ve needed to

travel my own journey of

entrepreneurship

and this has made me realize that

science is for everyone

it enriches our lives by solving

problems

it helps us to make sense of the crazy

world around us

and most importantly it empowers us to

take the lead

and making the world a better place

we all have our part to play to bring

about this prosperous future for new

zealand

whether we embrace our own

entrepreneurial spirit or we support our

next generation of kiwis to become

the tall poppies it simply starts by

encouraging our kids to be

curious about science at school

and by doing what we can to nurture

their entrepreneurial spirit

i’m grateful that i had my chemistry

teacher mr gladding

to inspire inspire my passion for the

possibilities that science can bring

and that many people along the way

especially my mum and dad

encouraged me to be adventurous and bold

this magic combination of science and

entrepreneurship

is a gift we should make available for

all young new zealanders

because ultimately they will become the

guardians of our new rainforest

we can all work together to bring about

this prosperous future

and i know that if we get this right

we will all make mr gladding proud

you