From New Zealand to the world
Our team at Keraplast is driven by a shared passion for innovation and sustainability. From our Functional Keratin® scientists—who bring over two decades of keratin research—to our regenerative farming specialists and client support experts, each member is committed to delivering bioactive ingredients of unparalleled purity and efficacy. We pride ourselves on long-term partnerships grounded in trust, transparency, and a collective dedication to doing more good for people and the planet.
Senior Executive Team
CEO
An agritech/foodtech/
Specialties: Founding, fund raising, leading and governance of technology companies with a focus on the life sciences sector. Driving innovation in the dairy, food, agri and biotech sectors.
Commercial Director
Scott holds a BSc in Human Nutrition and a Postgraduate Diploma in Dietetics from the University of Otago, and an MBA specializing in Strategic Management from the University of British Columbia. Currently serving as the Commercial Director at Keraplast, Scott brings a unique blend of scientific expertise and business acumen to the role. Along with a foundation as a registered dietitian, Scott has over eight years of commercial experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors, working across both global multinationals and mid-sized local companies. Another 10 years was spent as a senior executive within the Theme Park/Waterpark construction space. His business experience spans commercialisation, business operations, and strategic growth, with a particular focus on North American and Asian markets. Prior to his corporate career, Scott spent three years as a professional rugby player in Italy, adding resilience and teamwork to his professional toolkit. Passionate about showcasing New Zealand’s world-class ingredients and products on the global stage, is dedicated to driving innovation and sustainable growth. His work is grounded in a commitment to quality, science-backed solutions, and delivering high-value offerings to international markets.
General Manager – Medtech & API
Steve is an experienced ANZ Executive General and Commercial Manager with extensive recent experience drawn from one of the largest NZX/ASX listed wholesaler and distributors of medical and pharmaceutical products in Australasia, and three of the largest medical technology Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) globally.
Proven track record of success in healthcare sales and marketing, executive management, Board representation, M&A and consulting with a 20+ year history of achievement in driving multimillion dollar revenue growth and company evolution, while providing visionary strategy and leadership in competitive markets. Successful at building new business, securing customer loyalty, and building strong relationships with external business partners. Exceptional mentor and coach, combining business acumen with innate leadership abilities to recruit, build and retain top performing teams.
A clinical anaesthetic background in both the UK and NZ, combined with years of commercial clinically focused roles, serves Stephen well in understanding the healthcare environs from both the public and private provider perspectives. Strong skills in balancing commercial aspects of healthcare provision and delivery while always keeping the patient at the centre.
General Manager of Business Operations
Lu brings over 15 years of experience in manufacturing and operational leadership, with a background in Biochemical Engineering and a Master’s in Management.
Throughout her career, she has successfully led major projects including factory relocations, post-incident rebuilds, and continuous improvement initiatives across a range of industries.
At Keraplast, Lu leads with a practical, people-focused approach—working closely with teams to streamline operations, support growth, and drive meaningful change.
She is committed to building efficient systems and fostering high performing, engaged teams.
Chief Financial Officer
Greg brings a wealth of experience in financial leadership, having previously served as CFO for a number of manufacturing entities. In these roles, he led strategic financial planning, risk management, and operational improvements that delivered measurable business impact. His consulting background also gives him a well-rounded perspective that supports innovation and efficiency across our finance and systems functions.
Greg holds a Bachelor of Commerce and is a Chartered Accountant.
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Keraplast is the first manufacturing company in the world to implement a four-day working week — 4 days, 36 hours maximum.
As Keraplast evolved, we were determined to change our culture — we needed to create an environment our team is happy to be in and allow them to enjoy life outside of work — we wanted to create true work-life integration.
We found a lot of waste and inefficiency in the business based on the clock-in-clock-out mentality — we needed to stop doing things that weren’t required, such as dragging tasks out to fill in time and meet required hours. By implementing the four-day working week, we would be constraining the amount of time at work, meaning the team would need to become more efficient and effective in completing work.
Once work is completed, you go home.
We believe we are doing something wrong if we commit to more hours than specified. We are either ineffective, don’t have enough staff, or are over-committing to work and need to find a different way of completing tasks.
Initially, we struggled to change the “we are on” culture and establish a new way to work around our shifting expectations. However, it quickly became apparent that we didn’t have the required backups to fill key roles when team members were not at work.
This naturally progressed into a matrix of knowledge and support throughout the business. For the first time, we had fresh eyes looking at systems and projects, and lending a hand in developing methods for meeting challenges. This has helped to future-proof the knowledge base within the business.
The team now strives to step up in professional development, seeking challenges and projects outside their specific job role and area of expertise, helping drive a collaborative and team-driven approach.
Perhaps most importantly, there have been benefits to the way we can maintain our personal lives. This shift has allowed us to become more present with family, friends and external interests.
At Keraplast we believe those working the job can best see how to improve the job. So rather than bringing in outside consultants to tell us ways they think we could improve — we empower our team to challenge the status quo and create improvement and change.
By bringing together team members with diverse skillsets, we can assess our methods and process to find flaws and ways to improve. We create a collaborative environment where everyone is equal, allowing our team to identify problems and agree on the necessary steps. Our management doesn’t dictate action — if our team see a way to improve something, they are empowered to do so.
This environment means issues and problems are resolved quickly and effectively. We have changed the “its not my problem” mentality to a culture of “this is our problem — so we will solve it together”.
Our people come to work to do their best. They genuinely want to be here. Keraplast’s responsibility is to recognise our people as a whole, and how they wish to grow and then enable them to be the best they can be.
Our Purpose
To create benefits that improve the wellbeing of both society and the environment
To be the global leader in health and wellness enhancing keratin products
To develop innovative, ethical keratin ingredients that are evidence based and sustainably manufactured
Kerapast was born from groundbreaking scientific research that began on opposite sides of the world.
Let’s travel back to 1996, Mississippi in the United States. During his surgical practice, Dr Robert Allen Smith observed the unusual properties of keratin materials, such as hair. From these observations and pioneering medical research, he showed the potent wound healing properties of keratin protein, leading to the foundation of Keraplast in 1996.
Jump to New Zealand, 2001 – With support from the New Zealand wool industry, Keratec began groundbreaking research to identify industrial processes for functional Keratin proteins’ isolation and commercialisation of these discoveries.
When Keraplast from the USA & Keratec from New Zealand met in the early 2000s, a strong partnership evolved. This resulted, several years later, in the merging of the businesses into one entity with an international patent portfolio of over 130 individual patents in 36 patent families.
Production is centred in Christchurch, New Zealand, a recognised hub of excellence in agricultural research allied with Lincoln University.
New Zealand sourced wool is shorn sustainably from sheep at the start of each Kiwi summer, ensuring the sheep survive the summer heat while growing a new coat in time to be well protected for winter.
For the past 20 years, Keraplast has manufactured branded ingredients for distribution amongst the world’s leading health, nutrition and personal care companies. Our innovative technology and extensive body of research have led us to become the world’s leading innovator of keratin protein technology.
Keraplast — with collective ambition and innovation, we will approach the future curiously, pushing ourselves forward whilst contributing to something larger than ourselves, something that truly matters — enhancing the future of food and wellness.
We are ambitious to disrupt and make a real difference in people’s lives; we care about people and wish to support and empower everyone to live well. Therefore, we are on a mission to create life-changing ingredients for life-changing products.
We will do this while safekeeping our place — it’s where we are from; we’re close to our product, which keeps us close to our land. So it’s time for us to actively collaborate and engage with like-minded organisations to benefit New Zealand on the world stage.
Our journey is only just beginning. Whether we are looking at our company’s past 20 years or our country’s past 2000 years, we will respect where we have come from while keeping our focus on the future.
We are ambitious to disrupt and make a real difference in people’s lives; we care about people and wish to support and empower everyone to live well. Therefore, we are on a mission to create life-changing ingredients for life-changing products.
We will do this while safekeeping our place — it’s where we are from; we’re close to our product, which keeps us close to our land. So it’s time for us to actively collaborate and engage with like-minded organisations to benefit New Zealand on the world stage.
Our journey is only just beginning. Whether we are looking at our company’s past 20 years or our country’s past 2000 years, we will respect where we have come from while keeping our focus on the future.
“Regenerative strategies cannot be based on one-size-fits-all solutions but are necessarily targeted to the specific characteristics of the social-ecological systems with which business organisations interact”
There is no official definition of what it means to be a regenerative business, and all businesses have different profiles, impacts and opportunities for change. This means that we must define what being regenerative business means for us in a way that is meaningful to us, to our local environment and to our local community.
For Keraplast, being a regenerative business means that we do what’s right, not what’s easy. It means redesigning the key Environmental, Social and Governance elements (ESG) of our business. It means:
