At the time Cotter was running a network supporting researchers at Berkeley National Laboratory in California, and Clark saw him as having the know-how needed to boost science and technology innovation in New Zealand.
Cotter - a 47-year-old whose CV extends from flying helicopters in the US Marines to deploying networks for Google - hadn't considered crossing the Pacific for a new job, but after doing some research he saw a country that was investing in fibre to connect businesses, universities, hospitals and schools.
"Here's an opportunity to get in at the ground floor, at the beginning of a transformation of an economy," he says. "That really appealed to me.
"It's rare that you get the opportunity to come into somewhere where you can have as big an impact as quickly."
Cotter is now the chief executive of REANNZ, a Crown-owned company that for 10 years has provided the networking grunt for its members, who represent the best and brightest in the country.
"In modern science data is really the lifeblood of research and I think of the networks as the circulatory system," says Cotter. "We move that lifeblood data around between collaborators and super computers and scientific instruments where it can be collected, processed, analysed and that data is turned from just numbers into knowledge."
Distance is no longer a hindrance to accessing data and knowledge, he says. "You really have to think differently because if you think that your market and product is protected by that distance, you're wrong.
"You're going to get competition from all around the world nowadays so you have to think differently, you have to really be as efficient and effective and competitive as you possibly can."
You're going to get competition from all around the world nowadays so you have to think differently.
During Cotter's tenure, REANNZ has boosted revenue from $9 million to $15.5 million and turned a $6 million annual loss into a surplus that will be reinvested in next-generation networks.
Customer satisfaction has leaped from 53 per cent to 94 per cent saying REANNZ is essential or valuable to their day-to-day work.
"Any commercial company would probably kill for those numbers."
However, happy customers can result in a lack of visibility for REANNZ, says Cotter.
"If we do our job really well, the internet for researchers is like electricity and water - it's there and they don't have to think about using it.
"If people aren't realising that they're using us because we're doing our job so well, they won't realise what they'd miss if we weren't around."
Funded by the Government and member subscriptions, REANNZ is one of 117 research networks around the world. All but three are heavily subsidised by governments, says Cotter.
"We design our networks from the ground up to maximise the performance, not profitability, which is what scientists and researchers and educators need, but the challenge we face is that without Government subsidy it's nearly impossible to provide the bursting capability that a researcher needs."
It's virtually impossible to make a connection between having a high-powered network and any specific discovery, patent or new business idea. And the non-commercial business model makes it hard for the Government to comprehend the network's relevance, says Cotter.
Government bureaucracy also saw Google pull out of a local project to develop an emerging technology called software defined networking.
Legislation introduced last year meant approval for network changes needed to go through the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), and after several meetings with the bureau, Google packed up its hardware and took it to Australia and the United States.
REANNZ continues to work with the GCSB on its own development, because software defined networking will be the future, but losing Google as a collaborator has been a blow, says Cotter.
"From Google's perspective there was too much risk and they have no shortage of people volunteering to take their work and collaborate with them.
"So if you put barriers up ... it's like water going downhill - it will find the easiest path."
Cotter's ambition for REANNZ extends beyond networking for New Zealand's bright sparks, to providing the IT smarts that help create new industries and ultimately raise everyone's standard of living.
"I could work somewhere else and make more money but it's not what gets me out of bed in the morning.
"I want to have an impact and make things better than when I arrived."
