The success from Soda’s first Seed Grant event would not have been possible without our epic judging panel.

Soda’s connections enable us to form panels, which not only helps us, but you too, as the judges provide you with an abundance of detailed advice and support moving forward.

Meet our Seed judges below.

Erin Wansbrough - Soda’s very own, Erin is our CEO and prides herself on making a difference through her drive to see results. A self-motivated leader, with a people orientated approach, makes her position at Soda and on our judging panel, all the more fitting.



Jon Calder -  CEO of Tompkins Wake, is a recognised leader known for his ability to drive change through organizational transformation and process redesign. Jon’s ability to create and implement strategy comes from building organisation wide capability to execute from within. Building strong teams, growing brands and creating sustainable performance improvement are just some of Jon's qualities which made him a strong Soda judge.


Emily Heazlewood - Founder & Ceo at Romer Limited. Emily’s passion for technology and adventure led to her creation of the Romer app. Her innovation and industry experience in go-to-market strategies, social media, business development and many more has earnt her a well deserved seat at our judging table.


John Wilkinson - Financing, connection, empowering, coaching and mentoring. John Wilkinson does it all. A commercial manager at ASB Bank, using his knowledge and experience to help customers achieve their ambition. John is an industry expert, who Soda are honored to have on our board and judging panels.




John Macaskill-Smith -A dynamic CEO in fast moving, multidisciplinary and highly visible public / private systems. With an outstanding history in the business world, his experience covers multiple sectors, leading him to be competent and specialise in high performance in complex systems, service & system design and innovation, transformative leadership, strategic planning and change management. With a resume this long, it's obvious as to why John is on our judging panel.


Jen Baird - General Manager of city growth for Hamilton City Council. Her passions lie with making a difference, achieving brave goals and chasing an innovative path forward. Combine this with her extensive stakeholder management experience and strategic mindset, she makes a very valuable addition to our seed grant judging panel.


As Soda grows, we incorporate new business sectors and competitions which means the need for more judges arises. If you’re an industry expert and have experience that will help the future innovators within, contact Kate Wightman or Anna Devcich for the opportunity to join our judging panels.