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Hans
van der Voorn
Chairman and Investor, Izon Science Ltd New Zealand |
Hans van der Voorn trained as an engineer in New Zealand and worked in civil engineering and construction for 15 years. In 1994 he started the operation of Nova Gas Ltd in New Zealand, originally based on landfill methane extraction, processing and sale. Hans was a founder shareholder and Chief Executive of Nova Gas until 2001, continuing as a non-executive director and minor shareholder until 2006. Nova Gas developed its own pipelines to bypass incumbent monopolies, became an integrated gas supply company and is now wholly owned by Todd Energy with a turnover in excess of NZ$250m.
In 2005 he became the sole financial investor in nanotechnology company, Izon Science Ltd (formerly Australo Ltd), based in New Zealand. Originally a 50:50 joint venture with the founder scientists, it is now predominantly owned by van der Voorn interests. In early 2007 Hans took over executive management of Izon, with the founder scientists continuing to work on research and development. The company has an advanced technology platform based on tunable nanopores. In 2008 Izon commenced an international rollout of its platform and has entered into a number of research partnerships with universities and research institutes in different parts of the world. Instrumentation utilising Izon’s nanopore platform is currently available in version 1.0 release.
Hans van der Voorn is an experienced investor and entrepreneur with a number of public and private investments.