Rowan Simpson is a founder and investor in multiple successful high-growth New Zealand technology businesses: He was one of the founding team at Trade Me and led the software development team as the business grew to become an iconic Kiwi brand, including through the sale to Fairfax for $750m in 2006. He was a pre-IPO investor in Xero, and part of the executive team at the time the business was listed on the NZX in 2007. He was the original investor and chair at Vend between 2010 and 2015. He continues to work closely as both an investor and advisor with the next wave of technology businesses, including Timely, Atomic, Melodics and Thematic.

Rowan is also a board member at SportNZ and Winter Games NZ.

Prior to all of this, Rowan completed a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Victoria University of Wellington.

Rowan lives in New Zealand with his wife and two sons.

We'll be talking to Rowan about his journey and the ups and downs along the way, as well as getting his advice on scaling successful startups, and getting his tips on what investors look for in investing pitches.

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5:30 pm Networking + drinks and nibbles

6:00 pm Fireside chat

7:00 pm More networking