Welcome to Pledgeme!

Anna, our CEO and co-founder, sounds American but she's definitely a Kiwi. If pushed, she’ll say she’s technically from Dunedin, but will later admit she grew up in Boston. Having roamed around the world, she’s back to call Wellington home. And she completed her Masters with a focus on crowdfunding and has worked for everyone from NZTE to MIT (and all of the acronyms in between).

Barry's our Irish blow-in. He's a rebel banker with an eye for fresh financial ideas. Whether it's crowdlending or equity crowdfunding that you're curious about, he's always happy to lend an ear and share some insight.

Anna is our token outdoors enthusiast. She has a background in corporate law and social enterprise, and sees PledgeMe as a happy middle-ground between the two. When she's not getting herself lost in the wilderness, she is busy making sure our operations side of things are smoother than smooth peanut butter.

Kelsey is our designer extraordinaire. She's in charge of creating stunning new designs, taking fabulous photos and pulling her hair out when she gets asked to make things “pop”.

Tan brings home the bacon for amazing kiwi businesses (faking bacon for our vegan friends). His background is in tech, business development and raising capability. He has an MBA, however found out too late that it didn’t mean Master of Beer Appreciation. Tan loves travelling to far-flung parts of the world, bringing back a love of scotch whisky, craft beer and food. He is also Vietnam’s tallest man (a fact) and fluent in Vietnamese.

Jess Ducey is our chief people wrangling, puppy-patting (or cheese eating), craft beer drinking, all-round awesome person. She helps you get your projects up and running, sorts out your cash dollars at the end, and is a two time alumna herself.

Jessie is PledgeMe's indefatigable intern. She does a lot of the social media and blogging for us and she's currently studying law and film. We hope she will make us some legal films at some point.

Mike has strong governance, finance and securities and investment experience. He has worked within the Venture Capital industry where he undertook investment banking, deal structuring, and investee management. He has undertaken engagements as lead manager of Mergers and Acquisitions and the dual-listing of the Philippines company, AgriNurture Inc. on the National Stock Exchange of Australia. Mike acts as independent chairman of, and adviser to, several Boards. He regularly gives his time as a Mentor to Business Accelerators and individual start-ups and is a mentor to the Women in Boards programme.

Breccan manages all things tech for us, with the help of the awesome Rabid team. He's also passionate about what the next level of crowdfunding could be, and has a beautifully analytical brain.

Melanie is an experienced senior commercial manager and leader, with a track record of leading the development and implementation of successful business strategies both locally and internationally.She has done everything from running and owning award winning restaurants, to building and launching online banks with RaboDirect.

Rachel has spent over 25 years in marketing, branding and customer experience, including working in both the Australian market and Māori / Pasifika engagement. From 1995-1999 Rachel started, grew, and sold a professional services business in Australia. Recently appointed as the Chief Executive of Diversity Works NZ, Rachel was part of the Senior Leadership Team of Competenz from early 2013. She has also held roles as Marketing Director for The Icehouse and Minter Ellison Rudd Watts and as Marketing Manager for The University of Auckland Business School. Rachel spent seven years as a director of Ocean (a branding agency) and, as part of the Future Directors programme, sat on the board of NZX-listed AWF Madison Group for 18 months. She currently sits on the Ministry for Youth Development’s Partnership Fund Board and on the Establishment Board of the Auckland Foundation’s Women’s Fund. She is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Directors and 2016, was named the Institute of Directors Emerging Director of the Year (Auckland Branch).