As Hudson Group continues to increase its Fashion and Sports brand representation in Malta as well as in various parts of Europe and Africa, it is pleased to announce the appointment of ten additional Directors to its various boards, as follows:
Executive Directors
Mr Ray Grech – Director on the Hudson Holdings Ltd. Board
Ms Ritianne Grech – Director on the Hudson International Company Ltd. (HICL) Board
Mr Martin Gregory – Director on the Hudson Holdings Ltd. Board
Mr Indrek Heinmets – Director on the Business Development International (BDI) Board
Mr Felice Ilacqua – Director on the Time International (Sport) Ltd. (TISL) Board
Mr Gianluca Salute on the Urban Jungle International (UJI) and Urban Jungle Sneakers (UJS) Boards
Mr Nicolas Vidal – Director on the Business Development Morocco (BDM), Business Tunisia (BT) and Premium Brands (PB) Boards
Non-Executive Directors
Mr Victor Spiteri – Non-Executive Director on the Hudson Malta p.l.c. Board
Mr Kevin Valenzia – Non-Executive Director on the Hudson Malta p.l.c. Board
Mr Brian Zarb Adami – Non-Executive Director on the Hudson Malta p.l.c. Board
“The original 5 directors and shareholders; George Amato, Etienne Camenzuli, Kevin Grech, Chris Muscat, and I, have laid solid foundations, bringing growth for the company both locally and internationally. Our continuous efforts together with the energy of these new directors, will enable Hudson to remain at the forefront of an ever-evolving market whilst furthering its operations both in Malta as well as internationally. This it will do, by taking an innovative stance yet also by staying grounded when dealing with the different cultures it operates in” said Hudson Holdings Chief Executive Officer, Alfie Borg.
Hudson Group is an international retailer and distributor primarily involved in the sport and fashion wear sectors. The Group’s head office is located in Malta but is also present through offices in Italy, Spain, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. Though Hudson Holdings was founded in 2006, the Group’s roots reach as far back as 1987 when the first pair of NIKE was sold in Malta.
Both locally and internationally, the Group represents Brands and Franchises like NIKE, Converse, River Island, New Look, United Colors of Benetton, Timberland, 3INA, Crocs, Kiabi, Tommy Hilfiger, GO Sport and own branded stores like Urban Jungle and Shoe Shack.
A brief profile of each new Director follows.
Ray Grech – is a Chartered Marketer and brings a wealth of knowledge in marketing, sales and organization management. Mr Grech started his career in the beverage business in the 1980’s and worked at all levels of Simonds Farsons Cisk plc, and eventually as Chief Marketing Officer on the Group Executive Board. In 2010 he moved on to establish himself as Strategic Marketing Consultant, working with leading businesses at senior management level. He also served as Chairman and Director on a number of NGO and industry boards.
Ritianne Grech – initiated her retail career at the age of 16 when she worked with Hudson’s home-grown concept; Urban Jungle. She later occupied roles in both Store and Retail Management for various high street fashion brands including with Arkadia Marketing Limited. In 2013 she re-joined Hudson Group as Brand Manager and was shortly promoted to Retail Operation Manager where she oversees the day-to-day operations of each store managed by Hudson both in Malta as well as abroad.
Martin Gregory – joined the company in July 2014 to lead the HR function with a view of driving the organisation changes required to enable the local and global expansion of the Group. Prior to joining the Group, Mr Gregory was employed as Head of HR with Vodafone Malta and had previously held various HR roles with ST Microelectronics, two major employers globally and in Malta. He is instrumental in identifying the right talent for the Group.
Indrek Heinmets – joined the Group in February 2013 as Nike Brand Manager for North-Africa where he was focused on developing Nike Brand strategies across the different markets. He started his professional career in 1997 with Nike Distributor in the Baltic states before moving to NIKE EMEA as the Retail Manager for Middle East/North Africa. He supported NIKE Russia during the start-up phase of setting up NIKE owned operations and later led the NIKE retail business from Moscow. From Russia, Indrek moved to Nike Central Europe taking the responsibility for developing and managing Partner and NIKE Stores across a number of CE countries.
Felice Ilacqua – has worked in Sports Sales Management for over 25 years. He previously served the role of National Key Account Manager Footwear Apparel & Equipment for the Centre-Southern Italian and Malta Regions as well as for Italian resellers with NIKE Italy. In 2013, Ilacqua moved to Malta to occupy the position of Sales Territory Manager and Brand Manager for Time International (Sport) Ltd.(part of Hudson Group). He was instrumental in the development of the NIKE footwear and apparel market in Malta and has helped Hudson develop new channels in Italy.
Gianluca Salute – a veteran within the sports/sneaker industry, Mr Salute started his career in 1992 working for Converse. He later joined NIKE where he spent 5 years prior to moving to United Colors of Benetton. He re-joined NIKE as Sales Area Manager for the South of Italy. When joining Hudson in 2008, he took an active role in building the Urban Jungle project and is presently Urban Jungle’s Brand Director. He was instrumental in the expansion of Urban Jungle across 29 locations in Europe and Africa, which include Milan, Rome, Naples as well Madrid, Paris and Casablanca.
Nicolas Vidal – is an experienced multicultural strategic business leader with a successful history in growing net sales and brand equity and creating strategic partnerships. Over the past 20 years, Mr Vidal worked essentially for Blue Chip retailers like Decathlon as well as for NIKE where, over a period of 14 years he also managed the Northern and Central European region as Sales Director. He then occupied the roles of EMEA Sales Director at Asics and VP of Sales for The North face. His most recent appointment was of GCC VP General Manager for Timberland, Vans, The North Face, Columbia and Dunlop based out of Dubai prior to joining BDI (part of Hudson Group) in its headquarters in Morocco where he focuses on growing the NIKE, Converse, Tommy Hilfiger and Umbro brands within the African market.
Victor Spiteri – is an Associate of the London Institute of Banking and Finance and has served in the financial services sector for 43 years. He joined Barclays Bank in 1973 (subsequently Mid-Med Bank Ltd and later HSBC Bank Malta p.l.c.) and has acquired a wealth of knowledge and experience through various managerial posts both in Retali land Commercial Banking, also at the Controlling Office. He retired from HSBC Bank Malta p.l.c. in July 2016. Victor is a non-executive director and member of the audit committee of Eden Finance p.l.c. He is also active in philanthropic organisations.
Kevin Valenzia – is a chartered accountant, and has recently retired from PwC in Malta, where he spent over thirty years as a partner, the last eight of which as managing director. He has been instrumental in helping to develop Malta’s financial services industry. He is a past President of the Institute of Financial Services Practitioners, past Chairman of the Financial Services Consultative Council, and one of the first Governors of Finance Malta. He has also been used by successive Governments for advice on the continued development of Malta’s financial services sector.
Brian Zarb Adami – has 22 years of senior management experience in the ICT industry and is currently Chief Executive Officer at CyberSift, a Cyber-Security solutions provider. Prior to this, Mr Zarb Adami was the Chief Technology Officer at 6PM p.l.c. responsible for the overall and long-term technology vision and strategy of the company. Driving innovation from the research and development perspective he worked closely with different teams in the company in bringing products to market that offered immediate business value to the company’s customers. Mr Zarb Adami was an executive director on the board of 6PM p.l.c. Brian holds a B.Pharm (Hons.) degree from the University of Malta, is a CISA certified Information Systems Auditor as well as a PRINCE2 Project Manager.
