Marian Johnson has been leading the Ministry of Awesome team since Sep 2017 helping to drive a dynamic startup and innovation ecosystem that will power NZ’s future success. In 2019, she led the establishment of the high growth startup incubator - Te Ōhaka - Centre for Growth & Innovation - in partnership with the Ara Institute of Canterbury and ChristchurchNZ. The incubator is home to around 30 early stage startups in central city Christchurch. Marian is deeply passionate about engineering the serendipity required for a dynamic startup and innovation community in New Zealand - driving collaboration between founders, investors, government, talent, and corporates. Previous to her role at Ministry of Awesome, Marian spent 15 years developing and executing business growth strategies for tech startups in NZ as well as with Universal Studios and Discovery Networks in the US and Europe.