Executive Team
Glenn Milnes , CEO
Glenn joined ikeGPS from No 8 Ventures, New Zealand's leading technology investor, where he had executive and board roles for international technology companies including Open Cloud, Rex Bionics and English to Go. Prior to that he was Strategy Manager with Cable & Wireless International, London with responsibility for a portfolio of businesses and he has also held several senior roles in the finance sector in London. Glenn holds an MBA with distinction from Imperial College London, a BPhed and a BSc Finance with 1st Class Honours.
Leon Toorenburg, Founder, CTO and Executive Director
Originally an engineer, Leon brings deep GIS and GPS product and market knowledge, extensive customer relationships and unparalleled industry networks. As the founder and inventor of ikeGPS, Leon loves talking to customers, experimenting, inventing and finding solutions for large real world problems. He has a B.Sc and BE Honours in electrical engineering from the University of Canterbury and holds several US patents.
Paul Brewerton, COO
Paul has nearly 20 years of global Operational and Supply Chain experience in the telecommunications industry. Paul worked for Nortel for more than 15 years based in Tokyo and Hong Kong, serving most recently as Regional Director, Asia Logistics and Repair. He holds an EMBA from Kellogg-HKUST and a B.Eng (Hons) in Manufacturing Systems Engineering from the University of Hertfordshire in the UK.
Mark Woodard, CFO
Mark has served as CFO of Lifelong Medical Care and CEO of two US companies and one in New Zealand. He has also served as a Senior Manager in Corporate Finance for Deloitte & Touche, the Director of Strategy and Business Development for CHW, a $US4.5 billion company, and a Vice President at MBIA, where he had responsibility for closing more than US$4 billion in initial offerings. Mark holds an MBA from the Wharton School and a BA from Cornell University.
Ron Elsis, VP Product Management
Ron has nearly 25 years’ experience in the geospatial market working for hardware, software, data, and solution providers. He was formerly Director of Product Strategy at GeoEye, Senior Director Product Management at DigitalGlobe and Product Manager at Motorola. Ron holds a MA in Analytic Geography from the City University of New York and a BA from the State University of New York in Oneonta.
Chris Jackson, VP Europe, Middle East and North Africa
As former Head of Strategy for Nokia and VP Solutions for Motorola Europe, Chris brings extensive experience of delivering mobile solutions across the European market. Today Chris leads the ikeGPS Europe and Middle East/North Africa team from our office in Winchester, United Kingdom.
Richard Taylor , VP Sales Americas
Richard brings vast experience of hardware and software sales to ikeGPS. Prior to joining the company Richard was CEO of Oracle New Zealand and after that VP Sales Americas for Methodware. Richard leads the sales team from our ikeGPS Americas office in Houston, Texas.
John Mercer, Governmental and Key Account Relations
John brings experience in aerospace, defense and Homeland Security in the US market and has specific expertise in developing the partnerships and approaches required for success selling to the public sector.
Jeremy Gold, Senior Software Architect
Jeremy holds a Bachelor’s degree in computer science, an Honors degree in electronic engineering and has worked in the telecommunications industry with a strong focus on testing in France, Japan, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, including a secondment to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) as a Specialist Task Force Expert. Jeremy holds a BSc in Computer Science from Victoria University BE (hons) in Electronic Engineering from Canterbury University.
John Mercer, Governmental and Key Account Relations
John brings experience in aerospace, defense and Homeland Security in the US market and has specific expertise in developing the partnerships and approaches required for success selling to the public sector.
Board and Advisory Board
Jenny Morel, Chairman
Jenny is Managing Partner of No 8 Ventures, New Zealand's leading investor in global technology companies. For No 8 Ventures she has been a director of 13 early stage companies. She is currently chairman of Rex Bionics, and a director of Open Cloud and Martin Aircraft Company. Jenny has also held director positions for several listed companies including NZ Rail and Trust Bank. Jenny was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to business. Jenny holds a MA in Economics (1st Class Honours) from the University of Auckland.
Peter Britnell, Director
Peter is a GIS industry veteran who established and grew the Smallworld business that listed on Nasdaq and was later acquired by General Electric. Peter held roles including head of global sales, VP Asia Pacific and he was subsequently also VP Sales USA for GE Smallworld.
Rex Nicholls, Director
Rex, a civil engineer by background, is a professional investor and commercial property developer. Rex is a foundation investor in Surveylab.
Alan Nunns, Advisory Board
Alan is the former CIO and General Manager of Technology and Strategy for Chevron. Originally a geophysicist, Alan maintains strong links into the Energy, Oil & Gas and GIS industries and is currently on the US Beachheads Advisory Board for NZTE. Alan holds a PhD from the University of Durham where he was the Commonwealth Scholar.
Alan Townsend, Advisory Board
Alan is the former Group Vice President of Trimble Navigation where he was responsible for their Field Solutions group that comprised Trimble’s $200M mapping and GIS division. This encompassed world-wide balance sheet responsibility for the sales, marketing and engineering operations of these two divisions. Prior to that, he served in various technical and management roles within the Datacom group of companies in New Zealand including Managing Director of Datacom Software Research Ltd.
Elmar Toime, Advisory Board
Elmar is chairman of Postea Inc, a postal technology group, a Supervisory Board member of Deutsche Post DHL, the world’s leading logistics company, chairman of message A.G., a German-based postal consultancy, and non-executive director of Blackbay Limited. Elmar was formerly CEO of New Zealand Post and Executive Deputy Chairman of the Royal Mail Group, UK. In 2004 he was awarded a life-time achievement award for leadership in the postal industry.