Experience

Hoku Group

• Investment Management
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Chairman & Trustee

  • Jan 2009 - 15 years

  New Zealand Hoku Group is the family office of Emily & Rowan Simpson, combining private investments, early-stage technology ventures and a non-profit foundation.



Electric Fence

• New Zealand
• Technology, Information and Internet
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Co-Founder

  • Apr 2020 - 3 years 9 months

  Thinking beyond #8 wire... Current products include BreveVideo.com and Triage.cc. Stay tuned.


High Performance Sport New Zealand
• New Zealand
• Spectator Sports
• 100 - 200 Employee
• Director

  • Jul 2020 - Dec 2021

Sport New Zealand
• New Zealand
• Spectator Sports
• 100 - 200 Employee
• Board Member

  • Jul 2018 - Dec 2021


Timely

• United States
• Software Development

• Director & Investor

  • Sep 2014 - Sep 2020

  Timely is the worlds smartest appointment booking software. Rowan was the initial investor and advisor, and subsequently joined the board as a director between 2014 and 2020.



Atomic.io

• New Zealand
• Software Development
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Director & Investor

  • Nov 2015 - Oct 2018

  Wellington Atomic is a prototyping tool designed for teams, helming you create realistic prototypes of everything from simple interactions to entire products. Rowan was an initial investor and advisor, and subsequently joined the board as a director between 2015 and 2018.


Powershop
• United States
• Technology, Information and Internet
• 1 - 100 Employee
• Director

  • Nov 2012 - Nov 2015


Vend

• Kuwait
• Consumer Services

• Chairman & Investor

  • Jul 2010 - Nov 2015

  Vend is web-based retail point-of-sale software. Rowan was an early investor and founding chairman.



Southgate Labs

• IT Services and IT Consulting

• Partner

  • Jul 2010 - Dec 2014

  Wellington, New Zealand Southgate Labs helps growing software businesses with seed capital, strategy and execution.



Xero

• New Zealand
• Software Development
• 700 & Above Employee

• Head of Product Strategy

  • Jun 2007 - Feb 2008

  Xero is an online accounting solution for small businesses. The company was listed on the NZX stock exchange in June 2007. Rowan is an investor and joined the company as part of the executive team.



Trade Me

• New Zealand
• Technology, Information and Internet
• 500 - 600 Employee

• Head of Product

  • Jan 2007 - Jun 2007

• Development Manager

  • Aug 2004 - Jan 2007

  After spending time living in London and travelling in Europe, Rowan returned to Trade Me in 2004 to lead the growing software development team. During this time he lead the migration of the software platform to Microsoft .NET. In March 2006 Trade Me was acquired for NZ$700 million, by Fairfax, a publicly listed Australian media company.


Black & Decker UK
• Developer / Software Architect

  • Jul 2002 - Jul 2004
• Lead Developer

  • Mar 2000 - May 2001

  Rowan was employee #3, and the first not directly related to founder Sam Morgan. Rowan was responsible for software development, and during this time saw the site grow from 10,000 registered members to over 100,000.



Pixel Eight (www.flathunt.co.nz)

• Founder

  • Nov 1999 - May 2001

  During 1999 Rowan built and launched flathunt.co.nz. This business was acquired by Trade Me in March 2001 and is now part of Trade Me Property.


Andersen Consulting
• United States
• Computer Networking Products
• 1 - 100 Employee
• Consultant

  • 1997 - 2000