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The Moet & Chandon Table
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Fantastic Moet & Chandon Table evening with Hans Enderle
03 August 2007.
We hosted another Table evening last night at the stunning Ellerman House in Bantry Bay. Hans Enderle, founder of the City Lodge group of hotels, was our featured guest. 10 Seats of Table got to spend quality time engaging with this business icon. He has a fantastic story beginning his career at age 15 as a baker’s assistant, with his first job in South Africa as a hotel receptionist.
We drank plenty of fine champagne, eat well, and finished off the evening with cognacs and engaging conversation.
The Table programme is going well this year, with a number of new Seats and engaging guests.
The next Table evening features Trevor Ncube, a newpaper tycoon, and is on the 5th of next month in Johannesburg.
Fantastic guests confirmed for upcoming Table dinners
25 July 2007.
A number of fantastic guests have been confirmed for upcoming Table dinners – Trevor Ncube (Owner of the Mail & Guardian), Roelf Meyer (Former senior political actor & active businessman and diplomat), Michael Spicer (CEO of Business Leadership SA), Alan Knott-Craif (CEO of Vodacom), and Dr. Ali Bacher (Former CEO of the United Cricket Board).
Moet & Chandon Table dinner this week with Laurie Dippenaar
22 May 2007.
We hosting another fantastic Moet & Chandon Table dinner this week. I love these, as it’s a great space to interact with amazing young successful people and share the time with a leading, and more senior, guest who shares his insights and experiences. This week our guest is Laurie Dippenaar, one of the lauded founders of the FirstRand Group which is now one of South Africa’s largest financial services groups. His leadership style is highly regarded. I’m looking forward to it. His bio is below:
Laurie was born in Pretoria on 25 October 1948. He matriculated at the Menlopark Hoërskool and studied at the University of Pretoria where he obtained an M Com in Accounting. After qualifying as a chartered accountant in 1973, he joined the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa Limited (IDC) where he worked as an investigating accountant for three years. In 1977 he resigned from the IDC and together with three partners and R10 000 capital founded Rand Consolidated Investments (Pty) Limited (RCI), a company specialising in project finance for public utility companies and municipalities.
From that modest foundation the Group has grown, 30 years later, to one of the largest financial services groups in South Africa providing employment to 34 000 people. FirstRand, as the Group is known today, has assets under management and administration in excess of R750 billion. Its value on the JSE Securities Exchange exceeds R125 billion. It is the 8th largest company listed on the JSE Securities Exchange.
The FirstRand Group owns well-known brands such as First National Bank, Rand Merchant Bank, WesBank, Discovery, Momentum and OUTsurance.
Laurie stepped down as Chief Executive of the FirstRand Group on 31 December 2005 but continues to serve the Group in a non-executive capacity as Chairman of Discovery, Momentum, OUTsurance and a director of FirstRand Bank Ltd and FirstRand Ltd.
Laurie serves on the Governing bodies of various educational institutions including the University of Pretoria and Michaelhouse. He is also a trustee of the Business Trust and serves on the Board of Governors of Business Leadership South Africa, a business organisation representing the sixty largest domestic and multi-national corporations in South Africa. He served as President of Business Leadership South Africa in 2002 and 2003. Laurie is a member of the Big Business Working Group that meets regularly with the President and senior members of Government.
Laurie is married to Estelle. They have three children – one daughter and two sons.
Laurie’s hobbies are golf, cycling, visiting the bush and attending the premier sporting events in the world (i.e. the Olympics, Wimbledon, World Cup rugby and cricket, soccer, etc). Laurie and his wife, Estelle, enjoy seconding their sons, Adriaan and Nicol when they are participating in the Dusi and Berg River Canoe Marathons. He is an avid reader and enjoys classical music.
He was voted Sunday Times Businessman of the year in 1998.
French Champagne and Portuguese chicken...
13 April 2007.
Last night, as part of the Moet & Chandon Table programme, a group of upwardly mobile emerging South African leaders and I, had a fantastic dinner at the Saxon in Johannesburg, with Robbie Brozin, Founder and CEO of Nando’s Chickenland.
No, we didn’t have Portuguese style chicken, but we did have plenty of champagne. The champagne did provide the lubrication for a lively conversation about life, business, South Africa, and everything.
Robbie Brozin and his team, over the last 20 years, grew Nando’s into a global business (Robbie said he didn’t even know what global meant when he began) with restaurants in over 26 countries, and the famous Nando’s sauces being supplied the world-over. Robbie and Nando’s are certainly South African business ambassadors.
His insights were plenty… he touched on the importance of having a great financial partner, believing in yourslef, living your passion, empowering others, and sees his role as being a leader of leaders. He LOVES South Africa, but crime does freak him out (as with all of us).
The Moet & Chandon Table, which we facilitate, is a learning and relationship building platform for emerging South African leaders. It enables these upwardly mobile people to engage with each other, access to senior South African leaders, and, of course, engage with Moet en Chandon’s fine chamapagnes
Moet & Chandon Dinners 2007
We have had the following guest speakers:-
PARK HYATT HOTEL, JHB –
22nd February – Dr. Slabbert, FirstRand Limited Director,
1st March – Dr. Felicia Mabuza-Suttle, SA Tourism (USA) President,
14th March – Mr. Jay Naidoo, J & J Group Chairman,
ELLERMAN HOUSE, CTN –
22nd March – Mr. Christo Wiese,Pepkor Chairman
SAXON HOTEL, JHB –
11th April – Mr. Robert Brozin, Nandos Chairman and Founder
12th April – Mr. Tom Boardman, Nedbank Chief Executive
UPCOMING DINNERS
* SAXON HOTEL, JHB* –
24th May – Mr. Laurie Dippenaar, FirstRand Group Co-Founder and Director
13th June – Gen. Bantu Holomisa, UDM President
ELLERMAN HOUSE, CTN –
2nd August – Mr. Hans Henderle, City Lodge Hotels Founder