Ministry Of Awesome Announces Graham Scown As New Chief Executive

Tuesday, 6 May 2025 — The board of trustees at Ministry of Awesome is pleased to announce the appointment of Graham Scown as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately.

Over the past three years, Christchurch-based Ministry of Awesome has transformed from a regional startup hub into a key national player supporting founders across the country.

Scown’s appointment will be focused on implementing Ministry of Awesome’s strategic plan to build New Zealand's most impactful founder-focused programmes for globally ambitious startups, supporting a rise in women entrepreneurs through Electrify Aotearoa, and supporting a more aligned and collaborative startup community.

“Graham’s experience in bridging the worlds of government, universities, startups, and industry will be instrumental as we build founder-focused startup programmes to increase economic productivity in New Zealand through startup innovation,” says Dale Stephens, Chair of Ministry of Awesome.

For the past 13 years, Scown has led the University of Auckland’s venture-building efforts through UniServices, spearheading national programmes such as Momentum to foster student entrepreneurship and Return On Science to drive research commercialisation.

His leadership in building successful programmes to enable first-time founders to build new ventures will strengthen Ministry of Awesome’s model of leveraging entrepreneurs-in-residence to deliver founder-to-founder mentorship.

Scown takes over from Interim CEO James Burnes, who will remain a member of the Board of Trustees, a position he has held since 2019. Burnes’ priority over the past 14 months as interim CEO was to strengthen the organisation’s focus and capabilities to deliver founder support in anticipation of changes by the government to NZ’s science and innovation sector.

“Ministry of Awesome is playing a pivotal role in connecting and supporting a national framework for founder success,” said Scown.

“There’s incredible momentum building in our startup ecosystem, and Ministry of Awesome is uniquely placed to fuel that, from the grassroots to the global stage. I look forward to working with our partners and founders to extend our role helping to create companies reaching global markets.”

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