Management
Duncan Harrison
Operations Director
Duncan is an operations expert with a passion for problem solving and empowering people. He comes from a management consulting and eCommerce background having worked with several blue chip companies within the financial, manufacturing, beverage and spirits industries. He has led successful projects in countries across Africa including South Sudan, Cameroon, Tanzania and Namibia.
His ability to lead, manage, motivate and develop high-performance teams under stressful conditions was developed and honed over 13 years’ service as a Combat Officer in the SA Navy where he obtained the rank of Lieutenant Commander.
Duncan is the group Operations Director of the Southern Skies Investment Group.
Christiaan Reinecke
Financial Manager
Christiaan is a Chartered Accountant with a passion for business in the SME environment. He comes from an auditing background and is an experienced advisor to SMEs for business valuations, corporate transactions and outsourced financial management services.
He puts a strong focus on digitalisation and system implementations in finance, aiming to unlock the benefits of automation and machine learning.
Christiaan is the group financial manager of the Southern Skies Investments group.
Xania van der Merwe
Director - Vintelligence
Xania is a wine-loving nerd. As a qualified consumer behaviour specialist, who originates from a farm in Mpumalanga (citrus), she is dedicated to providing the wine industry role players with accessible cost-effective market insights to support consumer-centricity throughout the wine value chain.
Xanias’ journey started in retail, flowed into corporate research, and then into wine. The last 10 years, where she was involved in strategic management and wine branding, shaped her for a role in wine research.
She holds experience in wine retail, brand management and marketing. She served on the South African Wine Route Forum, managed a wine route, lectured, and consulted. She is currently furthering her studies through Unisa and looks after the day-to-day management of Vintelligence, empowering industry with the insights needed for smart decision making.
Hardy McQueen
Executive Producer - The Wineshow
Hardy specialises at the crossroads of CULTURE x TECH x MEDIA x BRANDS, creating businesses that have culture at their core.
His passions extend towards building and growing communities that resonate around purposeful products.
Over the last 20 years, he has dedicated himself to demystifying and updating notions about the African continent.
Through this practice he has created and curated projects that cemented his position as a subject-matter expert on culture.
Having a unique understanding of the landscape across the African continent has afforded Hardy the opportunity to execute projects in Accra, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Lagos, Luanda, Dar Es Salaam and Nairobi.
COMMUNITY x CULTURE x COMMERCE is at the centre of everything he does!
Rob Heyns
Club Growth & Retention Manager
When Rob’s business, The Beverage Club, was acquired by Southern Skies in 2023, he joined Southern Skies’ to lead all club growth and retention activities within the groups stable of E-commerce assets.
Rob co-founded League of Beers in 2012 which he later sold to Yuppiechef. He went on to lead the rapid scale of Yuppiechef’s beverage category peaking at over 300,000 customers p.a.
He co-founded Tiny Keg in 2019. Tiny Keg is one of SA’s largest independent canning businesses servicing nearly 80% of SA’s Wine-In-Can market.
In 2021 Rob and partners launched The Beverage Club to reimagine the drinks club customer journey. He later capitalised on an opportunity to buy League of Beers back during a restructure that followed the acquisition of Yuppiechef by Mr Price.