His parents moved from the Sussex coast to London when he was 15 and by that stage his grades were good enough to get him back into the grammar school system.
"Suddenly I was into a highly academic grammar school and everyone was expected to go to university," he said.
Dr McDonald opted for dentistry, which appealed to both an artistic streak and his aptitude for mechanical engineering, and completed his degree at King's College Hospital, London.
Not caring for the then structure of the UK National Health Service, which seemed to him to be based more on quantity than quality, Dr McDonald worked in the area of government-funded children's dental care.
By then having a New Zealander partner and with two children, Dr McDonald relocated, initially to Wellington, where he began teaching at the School for Dental Nurses. He then moved into management positions for the Schools Dental Service, first in Wellington and then in Waikato, during a period of major health sector restructuring.
"It gave me quite a lot of experience in dealing with management structures, which helped later in terms of being an entrepreneur," he said.
However, he found the bureaucracy stifling and, when his job was eventually restructured out of existence in 1996, he was happy to take a break.
Living in the Karangahake Gorge area, he set about building his own bronze forge and worked as a sculptor.
Remarried to Maniisha, a high school biology teacher, he persevered for a year or so, "having a lot of fun" but not earning much, and eventually began commuting to Tauranga to work for a dentist in Greerton.
A little later, he started his own practice in Katikati, relocating there in 2003, with Maniisha handling the front office while he looked after patients. But he was always looking for something else to do, having no desire to be a practising dentist all his working life.
"I was focused totally on building a better mousetrap," he said. "Every problem I saw was an opportunity."
And that was how Triodent was born and built up over the next decade, focused on a new formwork system for fillings.
Triodent was launched in 2003, with its first product the Tri-clip. By 2005, the product had developed into the V-ring, which was simplified into the V3 dental system - a toolkit used to assist with difficult restorations at the back of the mouth. The V3 kit brought his company global success, an annual turnover of $20 million and saw him grow staff numbers to a total of around 120.
But while the US proved a good and open market, and the company was successful in early internet-based direct marketing, Europe was always difficult because of market fragmentation and high margins charged by distributors.
When Dentsply, a major customer, wanted to buy Triodent out, Dr McDonald was happy to sell and now had the capital for his new venture, Rhondium.
"There were different challenges at different stages of the two businesses," said Dr McDonald.
He paid tribute to Yashen Jones, finance director for Triodent, for providing stability and good advice throughout the company's growth.
"Yashen put a lot into it and helped us through all sorts of challenges and negotiations," he said.
Pat Seuren, principal of Bridge It NZ, who has known Dr McDonald for many years, described him as a "mini-Einstein".
"He's an amazing guy,"said Mr Seuren. "He really thinks outside the square. He is on Bridge It's board of advisers as well and helps me big-time. We really value his input."
Dr McDonald's new venture Rhondium picked up a category win at last year's Westpac Tauranga Business Awards. Its main product is the One Visit Crown (OVC), which provides patients with a mid-range option between a crown and large filling and is approximately half the price of a regular crown.
Dr McDonald's investment group has invested $4-$5 million in getting the OVC into production and has already built up a staff of over 40.
"Katikati has become the hi-tech dental manufacturing centre of New Zealand, with Dentsply/Triodent and now Rhondium together employing more than 120 people," he said.
The new product, currently initially being sold in New Zealand, will eventually expand into international markets, with the US FDA approval expected soon and the Middle East showing initial promise.
"What's clear to us is that there's enormous unmet demand for the OVC product from the public, who have put off having a crown done because of the cost," said Dr McDonald.
"Our strategy was always to have a high-value product that was a consumable, had intellectual property protection and had a wow factor.
"Those are the important things for me in developing a new product. The big difference from Triodent is that this time we've got plenty of development capital and we are doing something that has per-item potential of about 60 times the value."
Sailing's his real passion
Simon McDonald's major recreation outside work is sailing. He began as an 11-year-old - cycling to a local sailing club on the Sussex Coast - and has since owned a succession of racing dinghies and catamarans.
"I've always loved sailing," he said.
However, it was only with the sale, in 2013, of his successful business Triodent, that he was able to realise a dream of getting a bigger boat - a Sun Reef 62 cruising catamaran.
He bought the yacht in Hawaii, had it delivered to Samoa, then joined the delivery skipper for the voyage back to New Zealand at the end of last year.
Nowadays, said Dr McDonald, he lives by the philosophy of the three words focus, appreciation and contribution.
Married to Maniisha, with him whom he has two young children, Dr McDonald has eight children aged from 11 to 31.
Ventures abound
In addition to developing Rhondium's One Visit Crown, Dr Simon McDonald has another implant product in the pipeline.
He is also involved as an angel investor in a number of new ventures.
These include Clever Care, a smartwatch medical alarm developed to aid carers with their care of elderly persons or those with disabilities, and LockJaw, a new wire fencing product, which will launch soon.
"LockJaw's one of those 'why didn't I think of that?' products," he said.
Dr McDonald is also helping fund research by Dr Valter Longo, professor of gerontology and the biological sciences at the University of Southern California.
Professor Longo's initial research shows that fasting not only protects against immune system damage - the major side effect of chemotherapy - but also makes cancer up to five times more susceptible to cancer drugs.
"It's very exciting and promising research," he said.
A sailor since a young age, Dr McDonald last year acquired the Hine Moana, a 22m double-hulled transpacific voyaging waka, for use by the Hawaiki Rising Trust, which will use it to help at-risk Maori and Polynesian youth.
*See the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend tomorrow for detailed story on the trust.
Simon McDonald
Role
- Managing director and chief executive of Rhondium
Born
- Crawley, Sussex, UK
Age
- 59
First job
- Dentist
Currently reading
-
Genius: The life and science of Richard Feynman
by James Gleick
