John Wood, Angel Investor

With a 30-year track record of successful entrepreneurship, I live by this philosophy. Critical to the development of the investor and customer partnerships that take great business ideas into scalable businesses with global impact, nothing happens without earned reputation, and the ingenuity and grit to follow through. Shown over a career establishing global businesses in emerging technology markets, including cleantech, I have used deep relationship-building skills to engage, influence, and bring together stakeholders at all stages of commercialisation, from fundraising (public and private) to strategy, global operational mobilisation, partnerships, customer commitments, and breakthrough project execution. Key successes include scaling Keycorp into a global leader in payments and security technologies, and leading the reinvigoration of MULTOS as a leading global solution for smartcards and cryptographic tokens with the establishment of StepNexus. Across successes and challenges, I’ve developed the ability to step back and see how it all fits together, and to see the need for change and assess risk/reward with objectivity. Applying this experience to investment and mentoring, I have established a personal investment entity NOAB.Ventures which has taken modest investments in 11 leading sustainability companies after the founder's invitation, while also being an active mentor participant with the Startmate accelerator, Energy Lab, and Climate Salad.