\nPhoto \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n
So far, NZIAT has 11 staff. Reyhani says he has a mandate to hire up to 25 for its effort to co-ordinate relations between researchers, investors and business.<\/p>\n
New Zealand Institute for Advanced Technology’s inaugural CEO Roman Reyhani.
\nPhoto \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n
Four of the employees so far are from Callaghan Innovation, which was defunded in Budget 2025 and formally wound up in November last year, with some of its research scientists joining restructured Crown research institutes, and much of its role allocating R&D grants going to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).<\/p>\n
Will more Callaghan staff come across to NZIAT?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m taking a first-principles look at this,\u201d Reyhani told the Herald. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are the capabilities that we need and the expertise, and then where do we best find those individuals? <\/p>\n
\u201cIf they come from Callaghan, amazing, right? They\u2019ll bring institutional knowledge.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut if they have to be from industry or the venture world, we\u2019ll hopefully pull in the best and brightest.\u201d<\/p>\n
From Rwanda to VC jungle<\/p>\n
Reyhani, 45, is from that venture capital world \u2013 a contrast to Callaghan\u2019s academic bent, and in tune with the Government\u2019s overall drive to shift science funding from blue-sky research to a more commercial focus.<\/p>\n
The Kiwi completed a law degree at the University of Auckland , where he was twice a Peace and Disarmament Education Trust scholarship recipient.<\/p>\n
His path was not the usual one for the \u201ctech bro\u201d-heavy world of venture capital. Reyhani completed a master\u2019s in international law in the Netherlands before taking a role with the Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, then the Tanzania-based United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to make this work. The economy really depends on having a strong technology sector,\u201d Roman Reyhani says. Photo \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n
In a career pivot in 2010 he shifted to the US, where he held a string of venture capital roles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI spent a fair amount of time at Boston Consulting Group\u2019s business building arm called BCG Digital Ventures [now BCGX]. The work we were doing there was standing up businesses, commercialising technology, taking things from the lab all the way through to the market. That\u2019s the capability and skillset that I\u2019d be bringing here to New Zealand,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
After 20 years abroad \u2013 picking up an American twang along the way \u2013 he returned to Auckland last year for a role with a commercial property firm.<\/p>\n
The digs<\/p>\n
NZIAT\u2019s home is the Auckland Council-backed GridAKL (Mayor Wayne Brown publicly lobbied for the new agency to be based in Auckland; Callaghan was based in the capital). <\/p>\n
GridAKL markets itself as \u201ccommunity for entrepreneurs and start-ups\u201d, and its Wynyard Quarter building features a number of shared co-working spaces \u2013 but NZIAT has its own discreet offices.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a good view of Bezos\u2019s boat over there, too,\u201d Reyhani says, pointing to the Amazon and Blue Origin founder\u2019s $800 million superyacht Koru<\/a>, berthed at a Wynyard Quarter wharf as a physical reminder of the spoils of frontier tech.<\/p>\n NZIAT has three areas of initial focus:<\/p>\n 1. Artificial intelligence<\/p>\n Up to $70m will be invested over seven years to \u201ccreate a centre of gravity for AI research in New Zealand \u2013 one that builds capability, delivers excellent science with flow-through to commercial outcomes, and is internationally recognised and regarded\u201d.<\/p>\n As with other initiatives, it\u2019s not new funding but drawn from funds saved by the closure of Callaghan Innovation and the closure or reduction of other research initiatives. <\/p>\n \u201cNew Zealand\u2019s advantage in AI is largely around the data sets that we have and the application layer for some of the AI products that could come out of our various research institutions,\u201d Reyhani says.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the moment, just given the fact that we have some active discussions underway, I can\u2019t get into any of the specifics, but hopefully we\u2019ll have an announcement around that soon.\u201d<\/p>\n 2. Quantum computing<\/p>\n A $1.33m \u201cdiscovery phase\u201d could lead to more NZIAT work in this cutting-edge area, which should produce dramatically faster and more capable computers (possibly rendering all of today\u2019s encryption worthless in the process). <\/p>\n It\u2019s an area where the tech giants have spent hundreds of millions, and the Australian Government has been notably on the front foot, allocating around A$2 billion ($2.46b) through various technology support programmes.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no way that New Zealand\u2019s going to be building a quantum computer,\u201d Reyhani says.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s something that requires significant capital and expertise and a large ecosystem around it. The likes of IBM would be building that. What we would be doing is taking some of the technology that exists in New Zealand and working with partners overseas to be able to commercialise those through various mechanisms.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s still up in the air if NZIAT will push ahead in this area, which is still sci-fi territory for many.<\/p>\n How could quantum computing be commercialised?<\/p>\n \u201cThe way I would look at it is largely around the structures for the deals,\u201d Reyhani says.<\/p>\n \u201cIdeally, we always want to ensure that we have some kind of demand-side pull for anything that gets commercialised and anything that gets funded, and that can come through various structures. It could be some kind of licence or royalty. <\/p>\n \u201cPotentially, although this still needs to be defined, is there an opportunity to spin out a business of some sort that\u2019s able to provide capabilities into industry. At the moment, because the quantum space is still under final review, we haven\u2019t got the structures defined at this stage.\u201d <\/p>\n 3. Future magnetic and materials technologies <\/p>\n The laptop worker-friendly GridAKL is a world away from Callaghan\u2019s old light-industrial, Soviet-style, research-friendly buildings in Lower Hutt.<\/p>\n But as with quantum computing, NZIAT will be playing an orchestration role.<\/p>\n Victoria University\u2019s Robinson Research Institute will be carrying out the grunt work, with $71m of funding over seven years.<\/p>\n Robinson is known for world-leading expertise in superconductors, magnets and materials technologies that have many applications, including building smaller, faster engines and developing portable MRI machines (an area where Christchurch start-up Mars Bioimaging<\/a> is a partner).<\/p>\n NZIAT is also taking over responsibility for the Health Technology Activator programme formerly run by Callaghan, which helps early-stage health techs commercialise their research.<\/p>\n The Herald also spied a banner for the New Zealand Defence Technology Accelerator<\/a> \u2013 a programme that will fund drones and other new technologies. The Government has said it will expand to become a $100m to $300m programme, although its initial funding was modest: Budget 2026 allocated $17.67m for the accelerator through to 2030.<\/p>\n In all of the above areas, there\u2019s a gap between frontier research and commercialisation, Reyhani says.<\/p>\n Bridging that gap is his mission. Exactly how, though, is still very much at the whiteboard stage. <\/p>\n Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald\u2019s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer. He has recently written about using your EV to power your home<\/a>, what venture capital investors want from Election 2026<\/a>, the NZ aerospace industry being told to pursue more drone contracts<\/a> and German pharma giant Merck pumping millions into a Christchurch-based med-tech<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"So far, NZIAT has 11 staff. Reyhani says he has a mandate to hire up to 25 for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[24928,3041,22509,138,3500,7239,117,111,139,69,3272,1118,75546,314430,88821,8225,145],"class_list":["post-641247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-advanced","tag-agency","tag-areas","tag-business","tag-ceo","tag-mission","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-nzs","tag-of","tag-outlines","tag-reyhani","tag-roman","tag-target","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A sign of the times. Image \/ Herald video still<\/p>\n