Trade Me New Zealand Innovator of the Year 2020 Finalists

Our judges have chosen three finalists whose commitment and and passion drive our society and economy forward.

Bill Buckley - Buckley Systems Ltd

Buckley Systems Limited is the world’s leading supplier of precision electromagnets – used in the manufacture of silicon chips, flat-panel screens, high-end medical machinery and particle accelerators. The company totally dominates the world’s silicon chip manufacturing industry.

Buckley Systems supplies machinery used in the manufacture of more than 90 per cent of the world’s total output of chips.

Now, Bill Buckley and his company, Neutron Therapeutics, have designed and built a BNCT (Boron Neutron Capture Therapy) machine which is a cancer treating machine. The machine has been installed in Helsinki University Hospital in Finland with treatment trials due to commence in 2020. It is considered a significant breakthrough in cancer treatment.

Typically, with traditional treatments, a patient will have to go through 30 fractions of radiation which has significant physical implications and side effects. However, the BNCT machine does it in one fraction of radiation without the physical side effects and delivers the treatment much more accurately.

Fady Mishriki

Fady Mishriki is the founder and former CEO of PowerbyProxi. The company was established in 2007, with a mission to design and develop safe, high-efficiency and high-density wireless power. PowerbyProxi technology enables the charging of everyday devices such as smartphones without having to plug them in.

Today, nearly every smartphone features wireless charging, many top-range automobiles feature wireless charging consoles, and public charging hotspots are proliferating overseas in cafés, airports and hotels.

IHS estimates that annual unit shipments for wireless power receivers and transmitters, across all applications, sectors and product segments, reached 450 million units per year in 2019 and will grow to more than 2.2 billion units per year by 2023.

Under Fady’s pioneering stewardship the company quickly grew to become a world leader as the largest wireless power firm globally by revenue, with over 500 patents to its name. In 2017 Apple acquired the company for an undisclosed sum.

Beyond this, Fady’s commitment to foster the next generation of Kiwi innovators and entrepreneurs has seen him maintain an ongoing involvement with a number of initiatives with the University of Auckland – including both the Dean’s Leadership Programme at the Engineering School and the Velocity Challenge at the Business School.

Aliesha Staples – Staples VR

Aliesha is highly sought after, both locally and abroad, as a producer of AR/VR & emerging technology content and has produced projects for studios and television networks including Warner Brothers, Paramount Pictures, Disney, TVNZ and ABC through her company StaplesVR.

She has a particular passion for using emerging technology not only for entertainment but also for healthcare. She was involved in the rollout of VRemedies, a Virtual Reality exposure therapy software for children to lower the need for drug use for non-invasive procedures on hospitals.

Aliesha won the High Tech Young Achiever of the year award twice, once in 2017 and again in 2018; she won the NZ international business awards in 2018 as an inspiring women leader; she was a finalist in the Next women of the year Business and Innovation category; she won the excellence in digital health award at the 2018 ITX awards; and her work on the Zespri VR experience recently won her a New Zealand Cinematography award for Experiential content.

Meet the 10 semi-finalists in the 2020 Trade Me Innovator of the Year category