About us
Management

The senior management team is comprised of our Chief Executive and six Group Managers.

Chief Executive

Murray Bain

Murray Bain joined the Foundation? as Chief Executive in April 2004. His previous experiences in the science sector include acting as director for a crown research institute (CRI) and a start-up information communication technology (ICT?) company. Murray was Acting Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer for the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), a foundation executive in the establishment of Industry New Zealand and an Assistant Governor in the Reserve Bank. He began his working life as an IT professional with Trust Bank Canterbury and the Trust Bank Group nationally. His various roles with Trust Bank Group included heading the treasury function, finance and the banking side of the group. Murray has a BSc in pure maths and an MCom (Hons) in economics from Canterbury University.

Corporate Development Manager

Rebecca Boyack

Rebecca joined the Foundation in May 2007 to lead the Corporate Development Group. Prior to joining the Foundation, she ran her own management consultancy business - Strategic Management Services - and assisted a wide range of organisations with their strategic and business planning, their governance arrangements, and reviewing and developing their business support functions. Before that, Rebecca worked at KPMG where she was a Partner specialising in providing strategic management services to the public sector.Rebecca was made a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Management in 1999 in recognition of her management experience and spent five years as a director of the NZIM Central Division Board.

Chief Science Advisor

Dr Tricia Harris

Tricia joined the Foundation in 2004. She leads the Science, Governance and Reporting Group at the Foundation.
She was Group Manager Science for AgResearch from 1998 until 2004, and was responsible for strategic positioning of research across AgResearch and their associated subsidiary companies. Her other roles during this period included terms on the Board of the Health Research Council, acting as a commissioner on the Tertiary Education Advisory Commission, and leading AgResearch's ruminant nutrition research group during the 1990s. Prior to this, Tricia worked as a researcher with the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. Tricia has a PhD in human nutrition and is a graduate of the University of Otago and the University of Cambridge.

Group Manager Investment Strategy

Richard Templer

Richard grew up on a dairy farm before studying Engineering. After completing his degree he worked for Volvo in Sweden and MacMaster University in Canada. Returning to NZ he received a two scholarships for his PhD(Eng) study, completed while working for Fisher & Paykel Healthcare’s design team. He moved to Industrial Research, where he developed robotics for the worldwide meat industry becoming Automation Systems team manager in 2000. In 2001 Richard was the NZIM Young Executive of the Year and also won the iPENZ Innovation award in 2002. Richard moved to Wellington in 2002 to work for the meat and wool industries as GM R&D. In late 2007 he joined the Foundation for Research Science & Technology as an Investment Strategy Manager.

Principal Policy Advisor

Lee Robinson

Lee joined the Foundation in 2006 and heads the policy team. She started her career with an interest in fisheries research, but soon moved into fisheries management. She worked for the Ministry of Fisheries for over ten years where she held positions as an analyst working with both strategic and regulatory policy, before moving into a management role with a focus on compliance policy. She has a MSc, specialising in marine ecology.

Group Manager Investments

Erica Nicholls

Erica joined the Foundation in January 2008 having returned from the UK where she was Operational Director with the National Audit Office in London. She started her career at the NZ Audit Office assuming leadership responsibilities while supporting public sector clients in education, defence, health as well as local authorities and the Maori Trust Board. Erica was later appointed Financial Audit Director for Audit NZ where she built relationships with a diverse range of political, economic and business stakeholders. Erica brings proven leadership, client and stakeholder management experience as well as a track record in business process improvement, people development and building high performance teams. She is a Chartered Accountant, and holds a Bachelor in Business Administration and an MBA from Massey University.

Group Manager Communications and Marketing

Bill Boyd

Bill joined the Foundation from the Energy Efficiency & Conservation Authority (EECA), where he was Manager Marketing and Communications. Bill is an experienced senior manager with communications, marketing and stakeholder management experience. He holds an MBA (Distinction) from Massey University, and has an extensive background in the technical and science sectors.