Our
People
When a DEC engineer pauses to retool a state-of-the-art injection moulding machine, they are putting in place a small, perfectly placed piece of a much bigger system.
Governance
Dean
Alderton
Board Chair
Biography
Dean Alderton
Dean is a Corporate / M&A partner at Bell Gully with more than 20 years’ experience advising both nationally and internationally on a range of corporate and commercial matters. He is ranked as a leading Corporate and M&A lawyer in all the legal directories, as well as being recognised by various other independent organisations for his expertise as a leading Corporate and M&A lawyer. Dean is also the head of Bell Gully’s market-leading Corporate and Commercial team. Dean has been, and continues to be, involved as an investor in and independent adviser to several early stage and growth companies.
Duncan
Mackintosh
Board Member
Biography
Duncan Mackintosh
Duncan is a Senior Investment Manager with Brandon Capital Partners, Australia and New Zealand’s largest life-science VC, and manager of the Medical Research Commercialisation Fund (MRCF). A veterinarian by training, Duncan spent 5 years in clinical practice including leadership roles during the 2001 foot and mouth outbreak in the UK. Duncan joined Brandon Capital in 2016 to manage the New Zealand operations following 15 years in R&D commercialisation and early stage venture, most recently with five years as CEO of University of Waikato (NZ) commercialisation company WaikatoLink. An experienced Founder and Director he is currently on the boards of Cadmus Animal Health Ltd, Amaroq Therapeutics Ltd, and TamoRx Ltd.
Rod
Claycomb
Board Member
Biography
Rod Claycomb
Dr Rod Claycomb is the Founder and Innovation Director of Quantec Ltd, a New Zealand company specialising in bioactive milk proteins. He has an extensive background in the dairy industry, filling roles from pure and applied research through commercialisation.
Prior to Quantec, he was the founding CEO of Sensortec Ltd and prior to that, the Director of R&D for Waikato Milking Systems, a division of DEC International NZ Ltd.
His areas of expertise include bioactives, biosensors, agritechnology and commercialisation. And he holds a PhD from the University of California, Davis in Biological and Agricultural Engineering. He is the author and inventor of numerous publications and patent families.
Executive Management
DEC is led by a passionate team of executives, assembled to continue DEC’s strategic shift toward the growth of partner innovation and commercialisation, and maintain the business’ excellence in manufacturing processes.
Biography
Peter Davison
Peter is a senior executive leader with a track record of success across a number of international and domestic roles. Having served in leadership positions at several blue-chip companies over the last 30 years, Peter’s career has traversed several industry sectors including technology banking and dairy. His most recent role was at AirSuite Limited, where he was CEO. Prior to this Peter held several senior leadership positions at Fonterra during his 17 year tenure at the company, with time also spent in management roles within the finance and banking sector. Peter brings a wealth of cross functional experience to DEC, having worked across multiple disciplines, including finance, sales, operations, marketing and innovation.
Biography
Natasha Harvey
Natasha Harvey is an experienced financial leader with a diverse background in accounting, finance, and governance. As a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, she has developed a strong focus on delivering commercially driven outcomes.
Her career spans various sectors, including SMEs and non-profits, where she has consistently provided visionary financial leadership.
Natasha’s expertise includes strategic thinking, business transformation, and IT strategy. She has a proven track record of guiding organisations through complex challenges, always with a commitment to transparency and collaboration.
As the CFO of DEC Pharmaceutical, Natasha leverages her financial acumen to drive the company’s growth and long-term success.
Biography
Nigel Kapoor
Nigel has been with DEC for 30 years in various roles over that time. He has held management positions spanning Engineering, Manufacturing and Quality Assurance. As part of the Executive Team, he has responsibility for all quality assurance and regulatory compliance for DEC International NZ Ltd, DEC Pharmaceutical Ltd, DEC Healthcare Ltd and DEC Plastics Ltd. Since 2001, he has lead the company QA strategies including engagement with regulators, suppliers and customers; while implementing and maintaining quality systems including pharmaceutical cGMP, and ISO 13485 at DEC Healthcare Ltd. His knowledge has ensured our growth into more than 50 global markets, meeting the diverse quality and regulatory requirements for each market.
Biography
Deborah Lee
Deborah joined DEC in 2021 with significant experience in the Public and Healthcare Sectors and progressed from being a Senior Advisor to being appointed to the Executive team as People and Capability Manager. She offers a unique blend of strategic and operational skills and is known for her practical and grounded approach in delivering people solutions. She is able to relate to staff at all levels and her problem solving abilities enable her to effectively navigate complex HR challenges. She has a proven track record of streamlining HR processes and fostering a positive work culture that promotes employee wellbeing and growth. Deborah is a natural leader and sees her role as the head of People and Capability as maximising the human potential within DEC and aligning performance with DEC strategic objectives and contribute to long term success for all.
Biography
Kate Flynn
Kate has refined a unique skillset, honed across more than 15 years spent in pharmaceutical CDMO, biotech start-up and manufacturing organizations. Her expertise is in ensuring strategic alignment across highly complex programs of work, having overseen the successful delivery of many new products, processes and capability establishment at a senior leadership level.
Her Agribusiness background, and technical experience have given her the ability to blend regulatory, quality, risk mitigation, and continuous improvement with strong commercial acumen. Kate’s aim is to always ensure that what’s being done ‘today’, adds value to ‘tomorrow’.
Doug
Cleverly
Chief Scientific Officer
Biography
Doug Cleverly
Doug Cleverly has joined DEC as the Chief Scientific Officer. As the founder of Argenta, he brings extensive expertise spanning R&D, formulation, controlled-delivery technologies, regulatory manufacturing, commercialisation, and global execution within the animal health sector.
Senior Leadership
Cara-Lee
Davey
Technical Manager
Biography
Cara-Lee Davey
Technical Manager since 2021, Cara has been with DEC Pharmaceutical since leaving university in 2008. Her team ensures that good scientific rigor is applied to all validation and investigation projects. The technical team holds the memory of the company in detailed and comprehensive technical reports stretching back to the original product inceptions while still looking forward to apply the newest learnings or regulations effectively and efficiently to the process. This leads to robust confidence in the quality of the product and controls for both regulators and the customer.
Jitendra
Kumar
Quality Control Manager
Biography
Jitendra Kumar
With his 20 years of experience at DEC Jitendra has gained a deep understanding of the pharmaceutical industry and has honed his skills in various areas of analytical chemistry.
Jitendra is an experienced Quality Control Manager at DEC Pharmaceuticals. His role is vital for maintaining the quality and safety of the company’s pharmaceutical products.
One of Jitendra’s key responsibilities is managing the quality control team. He oversees their daily activities, assigns tasks and ensures that all laboratory operations are carried out efficiently and accurately, adhering to current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) within the laboratory.
Jitendra is also skilled at Analytical method development and validation, analytical equipment qualification and setting up methods for High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) and UV spectrophotometers and various other analytical equipment.
Jenny
LaRoche
Quality Assurance Manager
Biography
Jenny La Roche
Jenny has 20 years of experience in quality assurance systems and has been the QA Manager since 2013. She is responsible for maintaining a pharmaceutical cGMP compliant quality system and regularly engages with suppliers, customers and regulators.
Jenny leads an experienced team overseeing document control, change control, deviation management, batch release, supplier management, artwork, training and internal auditing.
Maintaining effective and compliant QA systems ensures that customer and regulatory requirements are met and supports our ongoing growth strategy.
Hilman
Solomon
Maintenance Manager
Biography
Hilman Solomon
Hilman Solomon is an experienced engineering and maintenance professional with a strong background in mechanical fitting, turning, and machining. With over four decades in the industry, he has developed expertise in production equipment maintenance, breakdown response, and engineering leadership across diverse sectors, including pharmaceuticals, healthcare, manufacturing, and aged care.
Currently serving as the Maintenance Manager at DEC Pharmaceutical Ltd, Hilman oversees equipment maintenance operations, ensuring efficiency and reliability in production. His previous roles as Lead Maintenance Engineer and Maintenance Team Leader have honed his skills in preventative maintenance, project coordination, and continuous improvement initiatives.
Hilman holds multiple qualifications, including NZ Trade and Advanced Trade Certificates in Fitting, Turning & Machining, an Electrical Service Technician registration, and an NZIM Diploma in Business Management. His hands-on experience with CMMS, SAP, and Microsoft Office complements his technical expertise.
Beyond his professional life, Hilman enjoys spending time with family, fishing, rugby, motorsports, fitness, and home renovation. His passion for engineering, problem-solving, and leadership continues to drive his success in the field.
Sravan Kumar Bandaru holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand and brings over 18 years of national and international comprehensive experience in pharmaceutical New Product Development. His expertise spans the full lifecycle, from milligram-scale synthesis to commercial production, covering API synthesis, process optimisation, analytical method development and validation, equipment qualifications and new formulation development, all within GMP-compliant environments. Sravan has also led initiatives in cleaning validation and advanced impurity profiling using techniques such as NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry.
He has contributed to multiple regulatory milestones, including USFDA Drug Master File (DMF) submissions, Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) documentation, and GMP certification audits by MedSafe. Currently, Sravan serves as a Senior Validation Chemist at DEC, where he is actively involved in R&D-driven process development and analytical development for new polymer based pharmaceutical products.
Outside of work, Sravan enjoys watching and playing cricket and badminton, spending quality time with his family over movies, and experimenting with fusion cuisine in his leisure hours.
Departments
The DEC team consists of several interconnected departments, each critical in delivery excellence and in assisting our customers’ journeys to market.
Our Culture
When a DEC engineer pauses to retool a state-of-the-art injection moulding machine, they are putting in place a small, perfectly placed, piece of a much bigger system.
As a purpose-driven organisation, we seek to enable, empower and motivate our people around a common pursuit of perfection. We strive to have every member of our team understand the importance of their role in the success of our business, and in the delivery of the world-beating products we help our customers take to market.
DEC is one of the largest employers in our sector, and many of our staff have been with us for more than 10 years.
Employee benefits include: medical insurance, high quality training, staff events throughout the year, and a diverse, positive culture. As a company we are always thinking of new ways to harness the energy of our staff to achieve a greater future.
Make. Make Perfect. Repeat.™
Let’s discuss how we can help bring your product to market.
