Gordon Stephen Duffett

I was born and raised in Cape Town South Africa. I started working when I was at school, waiting on tables at a local restaurant. After school, I travelled to America to work for a year in a four-star hotel, after which I returned to study Business Administration through the University of South Africa. Having achieved positive results in my first year of study, I transitioned to specialise in accounting, more specifically; financial & management accounting, taxation, and auditing. I worked throughout my tertiary education, and have worked in multiple sectors, including hospitality, retail, and manufacturing, in multiple roles and at multiple levels within the various organisations for which I worked. The roles I’ve performed have had a strong front-end focus, involving high customer engagement, multi-functional business development and management, multi-functional senior management leadership, the procurement of multiple materials both locally and globally, design and product development oversight, direct operational oversight, analytical assessments of new and existing businesses and opportunities, executive level decision-making, and special project oversight and management (with a special focus in integrating customer requirements into design and product development). I am currently the Director of Sales and Strategic Projects at Anchor Foods, and have been a partner and Director in this business and its subsidiaries for over 7 years. Some highlights from my career include building and leading businesses and teams, overseeing the building of a world-class meat processing facility, and overseeing the design and build of a concept retail store whose template was rolled out across a chain of stores, amongst other exciting and innovative projects I’ve led or participated in.