Pete Hodgson Toitu head has period of extended leave steps down from uni role

FORMER Labour Cabinet Minister Pete Hodgson has officially stepped down from his role as CEO of the University of Otago’s intellectual property commercialisation company to focus on the Dunedin Hospital rebuild.

Mr Hodgson, chairman of the Southern Partnership Group which is managing the rebuild, said he would remain on the company board of Otago Innovation and on its advisory committee.

He initially agreed to the chief executive position for three months in 2014, but ended up staying four years.

‘‘I stayed that long because I fell in love with it, and because of the quality of investments at the University of Otago were very, very strong,’’ Mr Hodgson said.

His replacement, David Christensen, was appointed at the beginning of this month.

Dr Martin Gagnon, chief operating officer of Montreal company Exactis Innovation, was appointed as new director of research and enterprise and will take up his role in early July.

Otago Innovation is involved in managing about 42 projects, and on average received about 50 projects a year to evaluate.

Many of the projects that had been funded through Otago Innovation related to health sciences.

Mr Christensen said he wanted to make the rest of the university aware of the commercial possibilities that existed for researchers.

‘‘I want to broaden our reach, and not be pigeonholed into one or two areas.’’ A TEMPORARY replacement has been called in after the director of Dunedin’s awardwinning Toitu Otago Settlers Museum opted for extended leave.

However, the Dunedin City Council says it cannot comment on the reasons for director Jennifer Evans’ absence, or say exactly when she will be back.

Staff were called to an allhands meeting yesterday morning to discuss the situation, which meant the opening of the museum was delayed about 20 minutes.

Cam McCracken, director of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, has been named as her temporary replacement.

Ms Evans could not be contacted yesterday, but council community services general manager Simon Pickford said her absence was a ‘‘staffing issue’’.

‘‘There’s no change in her employment status. It’s just an issue we’ve just got to deal with in the short term,’’ he said.

Ms Evans has been absent for about three weeks, ‘‘and it will be a few more’’ before she returned.