Put 90 minutes aside on 24 March for breakfast with veteran US investor Bill Payne while he talks about governance in early-stage businesses..  This is an Institute of Directors event at the Wellington Club, and neatly complements the IoD’s “Fresh thinking, First boards” programme aimed at lifting the performance of small and medium businesses through smarter governance.

Here’s some background on Bill:

Bill Payne is in New Zealand as the BNZ University of Auckland Business School Entrepreneur-In-Residence.  to impart some of his experience to NZ entrepreneurs, investors and universities. Bill is a prominent angel investor - so well known he is often referred to as the closest thing America has to an Entrepreneur Laureate. His angel investing history stretches back almost 30 years after selling his own engineering business to DuPont in 1982 and includes being involved in setting up four of the most prominent angel organisations in the USA.

He has written a book, The Definitive Guide to Raising Money from Angels, as well as having written or been interviewed for articles in The New York Times, USA Today, Business Week and many other investor/education articles and websites.

From 1995 he served as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Kauffman Foundation for twelve years. The Kauffman Foundation is a not-for-profit foundation in Kansas City often referred to as the world’s largest foundation devoted to entrepreneurship. Its vision is to “foster a society of economically independent individuals who are engaged citizens, contributing to the improvement of their communities” and it does this through education (including mentoring), entrepreneurship, advancing innovation and research.

While Bill is in New Zealand he will be working with angel investor groups, running seminars, meeting with government organisations (NZTE, FRST etc) and serving as a mentor to some ICE Accelerator companies alongside the ICE Angels. He’s also got a blog up and running on the Icehouse incubator website.

It is very rare that we get a visitor of Bill’s experience and respect in New Zealand and for such a long time. Over 50 organisations including 6 incubators, 5 universities and potentially thousands of people will be able to gain directly from Bill’s visit.

You can book a place for breakfast with Bill online at the IoD.

Disclosure: I am a member of the IoD Wellington branch committee.