Wellington Chartered Accountant Richard Simpson has accepted an invitation to join the Research for Life board.
Research For Life’s chairman Prof. John Nacey said, “Richard is an experienced and highly respected financial advisor
and brings complementary skills to our board. He is enthusiastic about not only contributing to Research For Life but to
helping us advance the quality of healthcare in the Wellington region and beyond.”
Richard, who is a partner in Grant Thornton’s Financial Advisory Services team, is retiring from that position at the
end of the year. He served as a member of the Grant Thornton board for 12 years and has been a partner since 1981.
Richard has also been either the chair or a board member of a number of private companies.
“Having stepped down from being a partner of Grant Thornton, Richard is looking forward to becoming actively involved in
Research For Life in a governance capacity and as a member of the board’s Finance and Investment sub-committee.”
Richard has a Bachelor of Commerce and Administration from Victoria University of Wellington, is a Chartered Accountant
(CA) of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, a Member of the Institute of Directors, and a Member of the
Restructuring & Insolvency Turnaround Association of NZ. He is also a member of the Disciplinary Tribunal for the NZ Institute of
Chartered Accountants.
He joins existing Trustees Peter Barker, Professor Brett Delahunt, Dr Rebecca Grainger, Dr Lance Lawler, Rob McGregor,
Professor John Nacey and Gaeline Phipps.
Established in 1960, Research For Life funds innovative quality research undertaken by researchers in the early stages
of their careers.
This year, Research for Life made 11 research grants and 10 travel grants worth $203,698 in total. Recent projects
funded included research into the basic understanding of cancer, kidney disease and conditions of particular concern in
the Wellington region, such as asthma. Grant recipients were from several Wellington institutions including the Malaghan
Institute of Medical Research, Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Biological Sciences, the University of
Otago’s Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Massey University Wellington and ESR (The Institute of
Environmental Science and Research).
“While Research For Life’s primary role is to provide grants to young and emerging researchers who undertake medical and
biomedical research that is vital to continuing improvements in health outcomes in the community, we are also looking to
broaden our support base in order to enhance our ability to work in partnership with the research community and increase
the number of grants we make to local researchers,” John Nacey said.
ENDS