John Cunningham - New Zealand

John Cunningham and Chad Wilkie established Ignition Partner Limited in June 2002 to advise companies on strategies for growth from innovation, with an emphasis on Technology, IP, Structure and Capital Planning. Ignition is a broker in the Escalator program.

John has been a director of Caltech Capital Limited since 1996 and non-executive Chairman since 1999.

John spent several years in company development, operations management and senior executive roles in listed corporates. He spent 15 years with Fernz Corporation, the last 12 years as the Corporate Development Manager with responsibilities including local and offshore initiatives in start-up, joint venture and acquisition strategies. He is a director of several unlisted companies.
John lectures in technology management at Waikato Unversity and is on the advisory board for Unitec and Massey for their business incubators.
He was on the reference group for Technology NZ and was President of IPENZ in 2001.

John Cunningham graduated BE (Chem & Mat) Auckland University, Dip BIA Auckland University, ME (Environmental) Auckland University. John is also a member of the following professional associations FIChemE, C Eng, FIPENZ, R Eng, FIEAust, CPEng.