Culture review finds bullying, gender discrimination at Crown-backed venture capital fund

Former New Zealand Growth Capital Partners chairman Murray Gribben. The entire board of the fund stepped down in January. Photo / Mark Mitchell

A review into a Government-run venture capital fund has found bullying and perceptions of gender discrimination and "disrespectful and inappropriate workplace conduct".

On Thursday New Zealand Growth Capital Partners released a summary of a culture review conducted by former Employment Court Judge Graeme Colgan.

The fund, which received hundreds of millions of public funding from the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, said Colgan found "instances of low-level bullying" as well as "perceptions of an underlying culture of gender discrimination and of disrespectful and inappropriate workplace conduct".

NZGCP has said it will not be releasing the review and is refusing to be interviewed on it. The statement did not say what led to the review or when it began.

Established in 2002 as the New Zealand Venture Fund (NZVIF), the fund is meant to address a shortage of private sector funding for early stage innovative companies. In 2018 it received a major funding boost, when the Government instructed the Super Fund to provide $300 million in new capital.

Since then, the fund has seen a number of departures as well as reports of the investigation into its culture.

In a statement attributed to the fund's board, NZGCP said it was "making significant progress" on carrying out Colgan's recommendations and expected to complete them by the end of June.

This included "developing new Cornerstone Beliefs which set the tone for how NZGCP people are to behave and be perceived".

So far the New Zealand Super Fund has not responded to a request for comment.

According to NZGCP, Colgan had made a series of recommendations, including "the need for governance and management improvements over staff appointments and departures; gender and ethnic equity practices; workplace behaviour; and staff complaints".

Shortly before reports that a review into the culture of NZGCP was under way, former chief executive Richard Dellabarca abruptly resigned

At the time a spokesman said Dellabarca was leaving to return to the private sector.

Later, the board named a replacement for Dellabarca, however before she had started, NZGCP announced that Daria Murray would not be taking the job.

Since then, the entire board of NZGCP has resigned and been replaced, with former top bureaucrat David Smol taking over as chairman.

James Fletcher, a board member on WorkSafe New Zealand, is its interim chief executive.