Scientist. Entrepreneur. Environmentalist. Leader. Jessica Chiang, the new chair of the Auckland Momentum Investment Committee, wears many hats. 

As chief scientific officer at a biotech start-up and a University of Auckland PhD student, Chiang was recently featured in a Nature article about different approaches to science careers for PhD students. She has also won the top prize at a prestigious international biotech conference and was CEO of Chiasma, a student science enterprise organisation.

All this from a 26-year-old who has been alone in New Zealand since the age of 16, who listened to her parents when they told her engineering was too “boyish” a field to pursue, and who says she’s still learning to have confidence in herself.

Though her family has encouraged her from afar, Chiang attributes her success to the entrepreneurship community in New Zealand, particularly the people she has met through activities such as Chiasma and Momentum.

“It’s the community I met at uni and where that community has led me to that has helped me build my career and become who I am,” says Chiang.

As an energetic young girl growing up in Taiwan, Chiang loved nature and being outside. Watching The Crocodile Hunter on TV, she dreamed of being a wildlife expert and conservationist like Steve Irwin. Her backup plan was becoming a scientist – from a young age, she figured science could be key to helping the environment.

She chose to study in New Zealand, initially as a high school student, because of the country’s reputation for being clean and green. Skipping Year 13, she entered Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland in 2014, majoring in biotechnology – in part because she thought it a pathway to achieving her goals but also in part because her parents worried she might be discriminated against if she pursued engineering.

Biotechnology at the University turned out to be less engineering-focused than Chiang had expected. Rather, it combined biology, biomedical science and business. Through her studies, she was introduced to Chiasma, a student-led organisation that aims to create links between students and industry in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.

“When I joined in second year, I didn’t know what I was doing, but because I was surrounded by a group of driven young scientists and professionals, it really helped me improve my networking skills and grow as a person,” says Chiang. “I became really immersed in the commercialisation and research area and became CEO of Chiasma Auckland after a few years.”

As CEO of Chiasma, Chiang was invited to be an ex officio member of Momentum in 2018. 

To explain what Momentum is and does, first a little history. UniServices has been investing in proof-of-concept projects and early-stage start-ups since 2004, relying on committees of experts to help make decisions about which ideas were worth investing in. 

In 2011, UniServices was awarded a contract to take its activities beyond investing in University of Auckland ideas to helping the whole New Zealand research ecosystem build, scale and gain competency in proof-of-concept investing and commercialisation. This was how Return on Science was born.

Today, there are five Return on Science committees focusing on different science and technology fields. Some committee members have deep expertise in science while others are experienced entrepreneurs, investors or experts in domains such as internationalisation or business strategy. These experts give advice and sometimes fund teams ranging from first-time entrepreneurs looking for pre-seed funding to fledgling companies looking for help to succeed in an external funding round.

“By 2015-16, it became obvious that we had a large diversity challenge on our investment committees,” says UniServices Executive Director of Commercialisation Will Charles. “Most people looked like me, so while we had diversity in practical skills, we lacked it in other ways.” 

Return on Science made an effort to increase the cultural, gender and age diversity of its investment committee members, in part by recruiting students with relevant expertise to join the committees. The idea of starting student-led committees with the ability to invest real money developed from there. 

The first Momentum committee was based in Auckland. Today, there are five across the country. They include experienced experts as mentors but emphasise student leadership. Any tertiary student in New Zealand can get involved either as an entrepreneur approaching the committee or as a committee member. 

“It’s become a community of young, talented New Zealanders making decisions about young, talented New Zealanders’ ideas,” says Charles. “We’re giving experiential opportunities to students while building a network of people who are already becoming leaders in the New Zealand science and technology entrepreneurial ecosystem.” 

As a committee member, Chiang has drawn upon her own science and entrepreneurial expertise to advise teams as well as help connect them to others better positioned to help.

“I really enjoy connecting people,” says Chiang. “As a founding team member of a start-up, I’ve appreciated being connected with others myself. You never know what will happen.”