Our Team
Paul Davies
Principal
Paul is a global leader in the management, strategy and commercialisation of intangible assets. He is also renowned for his significant experience in technology commercialisation – helping businesses to realise the full potential of their intangible assets and articulate that value to clients, investors and acquirers.
Paul has led projects for companies, ranging from start-ups through to large enterprises. Through these engagements, Paul has helped his clients implement strategies to identify, manage, value and monetise their intangible assets, whether these are held in registered forms such as patents or unregistered forms such as trade secrets and know-how.
Throughout his career, Paul has been heavily involved in negotiating commercial deals, particularly licensing deals between technology firms and large multi-nationals, as well as providing advice on multi-million-dollar transactions of intangible assets and associated business units. He has also helped a number of companies with the development of commercial strategies for exit and/or business succession.
Paul’s experience and expertise is recognised globally; he has been named as one of the world’s elite intellectual property strategists in the IAM Top 300 IP Strategists seven times. He is a sought-after international speaker, sharing his knowledge and insights in intangible assets at many events across the globe each year.
Michael Masterson
Principal
Michael is a global intrinsic asset advisory, valuation, and corporate finance specialist that helps companies and investors unlock their competitive advantage by identifying, valuing, and monetising their intrinsic assets.
Michael specialises in helping boards and management teams to realise the full potential of their intrinsic assets. He has several decades of experience in working for, or with, high-growth businesses, assisting them to evaluate innovations and opportunities and develop robust commercialisation and risk management strategies, which result in increased revenues and profitability margins. He has a vast international network, which he leverages on behalf of his clients to create meaningful business connections.
Michael has worked with 100’s of clients including the NZ Defence Force and SAS, AirTrunk, Rhino-Rack, Aegros, Sage Automation, Kelly Partners ASX:KPG, Bells Pure Ice, Treasury Wines, Tellus Holdings, Ultraceutucals, RMIT, IP Australia, IPOS, QIC, Rinnai etc.
Michael was part of the senior management team at SalesForce (now Salmat), driving the company to grow from 6 to 7,500 people in just over eight years. As the Managing Director of Asia & New Zealand, Michael successfully led the business to become one of Omnicom Group’s (NYSE:OMC) most successful and profitable acquisitions.
Michael is also the founder of several successful start-ups; and has been integral to turning around two mid-sized companies in the logistics and FMCG sectors, taking both from significant losses to profit within nine months. He is on several private company boards and sits on the Board of Cure Brain Cancer, which was named by the AFR as the Most Innovative Charity and the 25th most Innovative Organisation.
Brett Kensett-Smith
Director of Strategy
Brett Kensett-Smith is a registered Australian & New Zealand Patent and Trade Marks Attorney who for nearly 30 years has worked as an intangible asset strategist, investment and commercialisation adviser, IP manager, patent attorney (both in private practice and inhouse) and as a practising research scientist. Brett has been independently recognised for his strategic work by IAM as one of the IAM300 Global IP Strategists.
In the last 5 years alone, Brett has helped over 200 companies to evaluate and enhance their Intangible Asset and IP portfolios, through auditing and advising on the best practice for protecting their assets, in the context of his clients’ business goals. Brand strategy is also a strength, where Brett provides practical advice on strong vs weak Brands, how they are best protected and how strategy must change as businesses grow. Other duties include providing trade secret and patentability advice; IP strategic planning; commercialising new IP; inbound and outbound licensing advice; and facilitating innovation brainstorming sessions and workshops. He also conducts intrinsic asset due diligence reviews for investors and has acted as an outsourced IP Manager for several companies, and has demonstrably saved several companies tens of thousands of dollars per year through better management of patent and trade marks portfolios.
Brett has particular experience working in medtech, food & agriculture and environmental sciences. In previous roles, he managed a major orthopaedic device project funded by private equity and by a NSW Government Medical Devices Fund grant of AUD$1.59M, and was IP Manager for an ASX listed medical device company. He has also managed outsourced innovation projects for PepsiCo, Meat & Livestock Australia and Hort Innovation.
Brett is Intrinsika’s Director of Strategy and is responsible for product development and project delivery.
Ian Fletcher
Director of Consulting
Ian is widely known in New Zealand for his role as Director of the GCSB, New Zealand’s cyber intelligence and defence agency. Between 2012 and 2015 he led the organisation through great change, including transforming its legislation and core focus to cyber defence initiatives. He is an experienced organisational leader and diplomat, highly regarded for his organisational change management work. After leaving the GCSB, Ian was a founding partner in cyber security consultancy InPhySec Security Ltd, until its sale to Fujitsu at the end of 2022. InPhySec’s clients included the NZ Defence Force, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NZ Police, and a significant number of major companies. He was also an early director of Humblebee Ltd (a synthetic biology startup company).
Before joining the GCSB, Ian was Director General of the Queensland Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation from 2009 to 2012. Before this he spent three years as CEO and Comptroller-General of the UK Intellectual Property Office, (ie the Patent Office). Here, he chaired the G8 Group on Intellectual Property and Innovation and established the ‘Vancouver Group’ of UK, US, Canadian and Australian patent offices.
Ian Fletcher spent seven years with UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), in two separate periods between 1998 and 2009, culminating in his appointment as Managing Director, International, in 2005, running the global UK trade promotion network. From 2002 to 2004 he was Principal Private Secretary to the UK Cabinet Secretary and managed his office. The Cabinet secretary is Head of the UK Civil Service as well as the senior adviser to the Prime Minister and UK Cabinet. This period included the Iraq War and its aftermath. He came to the Cabinet Office after a UN posting in Kosovo, where he managed the Customs Service and established a nascent Department of Trade and Industry, complete with a body of new company and insolvency law. Ian Fletcher had joined the UN team in Kosovo from a series of assignments in the UK government and the European Commission working on trade policy, trade promotion and utility regulation. Ian’s early career was spent in the New Zealand Diplomatic Service. He now lives in Masterton.
Stephen Harrison
Chairman
Stephen has extensive experience in financial services, funds management, M&A, private equity and accounting.
He has held Director positions with International companies including Investec Funds Management and the Australian subsidiary of US-based fund manager Sanford C Bernstein.
Stephen has been a founder and has held directorships in a number of listed companies, both in Australia and overseas. He has also been responsible for the development and funding of several highly successful startups and scale-ups.
Stephen is currently Chairman and Director of a number of Listed companies including NobleOak Life Limited, and is Chairman of a Funds Management company, Conscious Capital Ltd.