Our Team
Tuhua’s model is to leverage a diverse group of investors to support and serve on the boards of our portfolio companies. This approach is underpinned by the support of four Founding Investors.
Ross Peat
Ross Peat is a “recovering” corporate exec turned active start-up investor. He has invested into dozens of start-ups as a member of the ICE Angels.
Ross’s career included eight years with IBM and four years as Managing Director of Microsoft New Zealand. Ross is currently the Executive Director of pharmacy software company HealthSoft, Deputy Chair of REANNZ, and an Executive Consultant with well management platform Apteryx, which was recently acquired by the NZX.
Tim Williams
Tim Williams is an entrepreneur as the director of ValueClick Japan. ValueClick Japan was listed by Jonny on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2000. He subsequently listed a second company called ValueCommerce.In 2005 ValueCommerce sold a 49% stake to Yahoo Japan for 11billion yen and later listed the company on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Tim is currently a Board Member of The Icehouse and an Investor Director of a number of kiwi start-ups including 90 Seconds, ShuttleRock, and PicsOS.
Richard Burns
Richard Burns set off for a UK OE and returned to New Zealand 25 years later after retiring as a Senior Corporate Finance Partner at PWC London. Since returning from the UK, Richard has served as a Director of Corporate Finance firm Cobalt Partners as well as the Director of Advancement at King’s College.
Richard has invested in a number of start-ups with the ICE Angels, is currently the investor director for Justly, and most recently served as the Mentor in Residence for the Lightning Lab Accelerator.
Dennis Row
Dennis Row was co-founder and CEO of Rebis, an CAD and CAE plant design software that was acquired in 2002 for US$60m. Dennis subsequently joined Cyra Technologies that was acquired in 2001 for $150m.
Since retiring from operational roles, Dennis has been an active investor and director, with 10-years spent as a General Partner of Endeavour Capital. Dennis is the lead investor and Chairman of ICE Angels’ portfolio company Glory League.
Brent Ayrey
Brent Ayrey has spent the past 20 years in technology roles in Silicon Valley. Most recently he was Product Director for Video products and 360 Media at Facebook. Earlier roles include 4 years as VP of Product Innovation at Netflix during the key streaming transition phase, and 6 years at Yahoo as a Product Director within the small business team.
While still based in the US, Brent spends his available time helping kiwi startups take on the world.
Diane Ducarme
Diane Ducarme is the Founder & CEO of Gutify. Gutify helps to prevent and to cure high-incidence chronic diseases through functional foods and other non-invasive solutions, powered by analytics.
She was part of McKinsey & Company for 10 years where she held managerial positions and focused on portfolio strategy, market entry, and international expansion. More recently, Dianne was GM Innovation Incubation at Fonterra where she focused on deploying technologies along Fonterra's value chain.
Born and raised in Belgium, Dianne has studied, worked, and lived across five continents. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, is a Fulbright scholar and a Sir Edmund Hillary Fellow.
Robbie Paul
Robbie was a founding investor in Tuhua I and II and serves as Managing Partner.
Robbie is CEO of Icehouse Ventures, a group that manages funds and investor networks that invest in New Zealand’s leading startups. The group has collectively invested >$140m into 205 kiwi startups since 2003.
Andy Hamilton
Andy was founding CEO of The Icehouse from establishment in 2001 until early 2020, co-founded and served as a board member of Ice Angels from 2004 - 2019, and is an executive director of Icehouse Ventures.
Andy was formerly a Director of eBus (acquired by IMDB) and is an investor in PowerbyProxi, Parrot Analytics, TranscribeMe, and the GD1 Seed Fund.
Barnaby Marshall
Barnaby Marshall is the seed partner of Tuhua, leading our seed investments in companies like Halter and Uproar.
Barnaby joined the Tuhua team in 2017 after exiting the fashion label, I Love Ugly, that he co-founded in 2011. Alongside Tuhua’s seed investing, Barnaby runs the Flux Accelerator supporting up to 8 seed-stage startups per annum. He was also personally a seed-investor in I Measure U, that was acquired by UK-listed Oxford Metrics Group in 2017.
Jack McQuire
Jack McQuire is a Partner of Tuhua, Manager of Ice Angels and Managing Partner of First Cut Ventures.
Jack joined The Icehouse in 2013 and has led Tuhua’s investments into Joyous and Genoapay, subsequently serving as an observer on their boards. Jack has been a board observer of Ask Nicely and Mint Innovation alongside making direct investments into >20 companies including Crimson Education, PowerbyProxi, Nyriad and Engender.
