Welly Biotech ‘n’ Beers: Speaker Series – June 2025

Biotech ‘n’ Beers presents its first ever speaker series! Once a quarter we will be running a fireside chat with those that have been there done that, the up and coming and everything in-between.

Kindly hosted by Booster, the inaugural speaker will be Dr Steve Lorimer telling us about his journey with a Dunedin based Biotech. Come along for a yarn, some war stories, and some drinks and kai.

Check out Steve’s bio below and we hope to see you there!

Event Details

• Date: Thursday, 3 July, 2025
• Location: Booster. Aon Building, Level 19, 1 Willis Street.
• Time: 4:30 pm – 6:30 pm
• Speaker: Dr Steve Lorimer
• Description: How I got the bug from Dairy and the lessons I learned from running a Dunedin based Biotech.

About Dr Steve Lorimer

Following the completion of a PhD in Chemistry at the University of Otago Steve spent two stints overseas one in Canada and one in Switzerland working as a research chemist. In between a position working in the New Zealand dairy industry exposed him to a production environment and a much more applied approach.

Between 1992 and 2008 he spent 17 years working for Crop & Food Research (CRI now part of Plant & Food). Working initially as a research chemist in Agrochemical and pharmaceutical discovery later taking up a business development role working with New Zealand and overseas companies before moving into a leadership role, leading research groups in areas including edible fungi production, new crops, ornamentals and plant biotechnology.

In January 2009 Stephen moved to head Botry-zen a Biotech startup in Dunedin. This fledgling company focuses on the production and marketing of a range of Biological pesticides to the horticulture sector, with a strong focus on the wine industry.

This was followed by two years as GM in oral probiotics startup Blis Technology. August 2012 saw Stephen do a four year stint in government working for the National science funding agency MBIE.

The desire to get back into a commercial environment and particular working with early stage technologies saw a shift to VicLink the technology transfer office at University of Victoria in Wellington. Following this and staying in commercialisation Stephen headed commercialisation at Landcare Research as GM Development. Since semi-retirement in 2022 Stephen has worked as a consultant focusing on mentoring and projects in early stage commercialisation.

This long history has allowed Stephen to work a o a wide range of technologies with a focus on how to get them out of research and into commercial application. From pharmaceutical and agrichemicals though engineering technology and high temperature semiconductors to edible fungi and custom clothing.

Can’t make this event? Put these in your calendar: