Cape Wine Opening Seminar: Meet the speakers

Wednesday, 9 September, 2015
Cape Wine
A new era for South African Wine: This seminar will focus on a number of key themes running through Cape Wine 2015.

Venue: Auditorium 2, CTICC
Time: 9h30 – 11h00

Chair/Speaker:
Siobhan Thompson, Wines of South Africa CEO

Speakers:
Michael Jordaan, Montegray Venture Capitalist
Alan Winde, Western Cape Minister of Economic Opportunities
Analjit Singh, Founder Chairman of Max India Limited
Hennie Heymans, DHL Africa Managing Director

Speaker Profiles:

Siobhan Thompson

Siobhan is the CEO of Wines of South Africa. Previously she was Distell's Global head of marketing on various portfolios including Brandy, International Whisky and Liqueurs which included Distell flagship Global brand, Amarula,

Her extensive experience includes marketing fast moving consumer goods, Beauty products and Tertiary Education. She began her working career in market research, first for Research Surveys and then A.C.Nielsens.

She holds a B Tech in Marketing and has completed the Manchester Business School's Advanced Marketing Strategy programme.

Michael Jordaan

Michael Jordaan, Venture Capitalist and wine enthusiast stepped down as CEO of First National Bank, one of SA’s largest banks with a customer base of nearly nine million, last year to pursue his passion for entrepreneurship.

With more than 20 years’ experience in the financial services sector and nearly a decade at the helm of the bank, Michael oversaw the move away from traditional banking toward rewarding ecosystem-centric solutions for customers, and led FNB to be named the “World’s Most Innovative Bank” in the 2012 BAI-Finacle Global Banking Innovation Awards, held in Washington DC.

The former Banker now heads up a private investment company, Montegray Capital, investing in disruptive business models enabled by technology. Michael lends a strategic-hand to various businesses, including Mxit and Wines of South Africa (WoSA), and is a non-executive Director on the JSE Limited. He is also the recipient of the CNBC Africa Business Leader of the Year for Southern Africa award.

Alan Winde

Alan Winde is the Western Cape Minister of Economic Opportunities.

“The Western Cape Government believes that economic growth is the foundation of all successful development, that growth is driven primarily by private sector business, and that the role of the state is to create and maintain an enabling environment for business and to provide demand-led, private sector driven support for growth sectors, industries and businesses.

In my role as Minister of Economic Opportunities, my key strategic objective is to fight poverty by creating growth and jobs in the Western Cape across all its economic sectors."

Analjit Singh

Mr Analjit Singh is the Founder Chairman of Max India Limited, with interests in life insurance (Max Life), health care (Max Healthcare), health insurance (Max Bupa) and senior living (Antara). Max India Group is renowned for service excellence and has successful joint ventures with some of the pre-eminent firms of the world, including Mitsui Sumitomo of Japan, Life Healthcare of South Africa and Bupa Plc of the United Kingdom. Earlier partners include New York Life Insurance Company, Hutchison Whampoa, Motorola and Lockheed Martin.

A self-made entrepreneur, Mr Analjit Singh was awarded Padma Bhushan, one of India’s top civilian honours, by the President of India in 2011.
Mr Analjit Singh’s love affair with South Africa started when he first visited the country with his daughter for the FIFA Soccer World Cup in 2010. Subsequent trips saw him visit Cape Town and venture into the Cape winelands, where he felt “a deep sense of belonging, of energy, a sense of place” in the valley of Franschhoek. He began his search for a property and knew he’d found the right place the minute he set foot on a 40-hectare farm on the slopes of the Dassenberg.

Hennie Heymans

His responsibilities include ensuring excellent customer service and support levels, for both local and international clients. Heymans has been instrumental in driving change and implementing new innovative processes and strategies for the company. His top priorities for 2015 as Managing Director will be to continue to grow market share, particularly within the SME industry, and to ensure that various service-related initiatives are launched in order to better service this market. He will also ensure that the South African division maintains their certification of excellence for the 2015 period.

Prior to his current role, he served as the Managing Director for Olivetti Lexikon, and as the FM and GM for Multichoice Africa in South Africa.




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Siobhan Thompson
Siobhan Thompson

Michael Jordaan
Michael Jordaan

Alan Winde
Alan Winde

Analjit Singh
Analjit Singh

Hennie Heymans
Hennie Heymans

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