Alfie Borg joined Time International Co. Ltd in 1984 as a sales representative and together with Daniel Reginiano built the company into one of Malta’s leading distributors and retailers. Acquiring a portfolio of world-leading brands allowed them to transform the company into one of the leading players in the sport and fashion retail sector of the local market. In 2006, Mr Borg led the management buyout of Time International Co. Ltd forming a new holding company, Hudson Holdings Ltd, along with key handpicked shareholders. Over the years Mr Borg established a standard of networking excellence made up of great brands and great people that was and remains instrumental in successfully taking NIKE and other great brands across Africa, Italy and Malta.
Jonathan Briffa joined the Hudson Group in October 2018 and has since occupied the roles of head of Business Support and Strategy and subsequently that of Chief of Staff. In July 2020 he was appointed as Hudson Group Finance Director. Mr Briffa joined the Hudson Group in October 2018 and has since occupied the roles of head of Business Support and Strategy and subsequently that of Chief of Staff. In July 2020 he was appointed as Hudson Group Finance Director.
Christopher Muscat joined Hudson Holdings Ltd in 2006 as a shareholder following the management buyout. Mr Muscat has been actively involved in establishing and growing the various business ventures across the organisation that have significantly expanded the Hudson Group’s profile and turnover. Mr Muscat headed the Finance function of the Hudson Group until his appointment as Chief Operations Director in February 2018. Before joining Hudson Group, Christopher Muscat served as a senior manager at Deloitte Malta. He was appointed Chief Executive Officer in July 2019.
Kalani Weerasinghe joined the Hudson Group in October 2021 with a view to drive the organisational changes required to enable the continued local and global expansion of the Group. She brings extensive experience to the role, gained over an illustrious career at various prominent international companies, in the USA, UK and more recently heading the people service function of a Global financial institution here in Malta.
George Amato joined Hudson Holdings Ltd in 2004 as General Manager, later becoming a shareholder of Hudson Holdings Ltd during the management buyout. With a background in manufacturing, he brought an added dimension to the Hudson Group helping it to prepare for the management buyout by overhauling working procedures. Today Mr Amato is responsible for the data management, logistics and inventory side of the business. George Amato was Managing Director of a furniture manufacturing business, followed by a clothing manufacturing company where he was responsible for growing turnover and profitability.
Zoe joined to support Hudson’s rapid international growth by leading the people strategy. Zoe has worked in various countries including N. America and Asia within the areas of retail, media, publishing and hospitality. Her experience involves working with brands such has Conde Nast and Adidas where she led a digital transformation through people strategy. She has over 20 years’ experience working at board level across the broad spectrum of HR disciplines including business partnership, talent management and acquisition as well as employee resizing and change management.
She is a Human Resource Executive by profession as well as a certified coach and psychologist. She earned her degree in HR Management with the Chartered Institute of Personal Development and also holds a Masters in Applied Psychology from London Met University. Besides this she studied Psychology of Human Values at Fordham University, New York. She is currently reading for a PhD in Transpersonal Psychology.
Nicolas Vidal is an experienced leader in growing net sales and brand equity creating strategic partnerships. Over the past 25 years, Mr Vidal worked essentially for Blue Chip brands 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 EMEA VP of Sales for The North Face. He also managed the GCC region as VP General Manager for Timberland, Vans, The North Face, Columbia and Dunlop based out of Dubai prior to joining Hudson Group in its headquarters in Morocco where he focused on reorganizing and opening the territory branches in Morocco, Algeria, Nigeria and soon Kenya developing principally NIKE, Converse, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Vans, The North Face, Columbia, Crocs and Mango brands. He has now relocated to Malta where he leads all businesses as General Manager Africa Region.
Mr Borg, previously Managing Director Trilogy Ltd, led the negotiations between Hudson and Trilogy in 2021, which saw the introduction of premium fashion brands Calvin Klein Jeans, Tommy Hilfiger, Tommy Jeans, Armani Exchange and Mango into Hudson’s portfolio of brands. Mr Borg is a member of the Hudson Holdings Board of Directors and assumes the role of Fashion Brand Director. With over 25 years’ experience in retail accompanied by a wealth of Fashion and retail knowledge, Mr Borg looks towards extending the Fashion brands represented by Hudson in Africa. Previously Mr Borg served the role of Co-founder and Managing Director for Trilogy Ltd. Mr Borg Started working in the family business and by the age of 19, decided to open his own company importing and distributing the O’Neill Brand. By 1999, he launched a multibrand concept “Chilli”. In 2008, he co-founded Trilogy Ltd and became the franchisee partners for Tommy Hilfiger, followed by Armani, CK and Mango, which between 2008 - 2018, opened 10 stores.
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, Mr Heinmets moved to NIKE Central Europe taking the responsibility for developing and managing Partner and NIKE Stores across a number of CE countries.
Gianluca Salute is 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.
Felice Illacqua 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, Mr 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.
Etienne joined Time International Co. Ltd in 1987 as a Retail Assistant. Bringing a wealth of product knowledge, his career development is a testament to his passion for his job and the Company. In 2004, Etienne started his international role working in African markets such as Nigeria and Libya and later in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. He was one of the handpicked people during the buyout, becoming a shareholder in the Hudson Group. Etienne’s positive and optimistic attitude drives him and his dynamic team to live up to his motto of “making the impossible possible”.
Sylvia leads the Planning, Merchandising and Buying teams within Hudson ensuring that the product sold through its different channels is aligned to customers trends and buying needs, whilst ensuring maximum profit for the company. As the company grows within its different territories, Sylvia will be responsible for the sustainable buying and sale of product from Hudson’s vast portfolio of brands. Sylvia brings a wealth of knowledge within the industry after working for big brands such as Hugo Boss, Calvin Klein and Ecco shoes, and also owning her store ‘Casa Knappi’. She graduated in Business Management from Wolfenbuttel in Germany and later moved to the Netherlands, where her Merchandising career took off and developed.
Luca joined Hudson Holdings Ltd in March 2018, occupying the post of Europe Commercial Director with a focus on the Italian, Spanish and French commercial teams. Luca, a Certified Accountant by profession, comes with a vast background in the retail and distribution industry having held various roles with Companies that represent Brands such as Carpisa, Yamamay, Jaked and Cyao.
Roy is passionate about digital transformation, a strong believer in Agile and relying on data driven decisions, and that we should always fail faster to learn faster. He is an e-commerce geek with over 17 years of experience in the field, helping make the sports and fashion industry jump into the digital landscape smoothly, in such a way that no one notices what’s behind the screen. Before joining Hudson, he worked for PUMA for several years, always in the e-commerce area, starting in the European team to then being promoted to the Global one, where he was responsible for PUMA’s DTC global e-commerce expansion, digital business development, and strategy, working on projects in over ten different countries, from APAC to EMEA, all the way over to LATAM. Roy’s path in the e-commerce world began in the UK where he worked for multiple retailers in the sports and fashion industry, covering different positions from Head of e-commerce and Web content to Merchandising Manager, acquiring a deep understanding of the role of every piece on the board needed to have a successful digital business.
Kyriacos joining Hudson Holdings in 2021 as Cyprus’ incountry manager where he is responsible to set up the first KIABI store in Larnaca, Cyprus. He area of expertise lies in helping companies set up their businesses in Cyprus and previously occupied C-level roles with Homemate Cyprus Ltd, as well as within the automotive industry – Unicars Ltd, GPA Ltd and DOMS Ltd.
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 2011 she re-joined Hudson Group as Brand Manager and was shortly promoted to Retail Operation Manager where she oversees the day-today operations of each store managed by Hudson both in Malta as well as abroad.
Mustapha is responsible for the general management of Premium Brands (part of Hudson Group) in Algeria with the aim of developing the people and strengthening the organization to accelerate business development. Mustapha has over 15 years’ experience in FMCG industry mainly in Algeria and North Africa, for which he was responsible to develop and execute integrated marketing and communications plans. He garnered this wealth of experience whilst working for global brands and companies such as Danone, Mondelez, Red Bull, and recently, Ontex.
Mustapha holds a Masters equivalent degree in Sales and Marketing as well as in General Management, with strong training in Financial Planning.
Fernando joined Hudson as a consultant in 2017, helping to set up the retail business in Morocco. In October 2020 he assumed on the role of Hudson Morocco Managing Director and Head of Retail Africa where he leads the retail expansion across Africa for all brands. With over +25 years of retail experience, Fernando previously ran his own consultancy firm, and occupied various positions within companies of sport brands. He served the role of Head of International Retail at Under Armour where he opened over 350 stores across the globe, and also helped Asics restructure its retail business in Europe. Fernando also held senior retail roles within Nike and Levi Strauss. Fernando began his career in 1996 as Store Manager of Marks & Spencer’s Madrid store. He holds a Law degree from the Universidad Complutense (Madrid, Spain) an MBA from the University of San Diego and Masters in Retail from Said Business School in Oxford University.
Kieran joined Hudson Holdings in 2020 as General Manager of Hudson Business Development Nigeria (HBDN) with the responsibility to setup and establish Hudson Group business functions to support Retail, Wholesale Distribution and Ecommerce operations across Nigeria. He previously served as Managing Director at Lintons Beauty in Nairobi, Kenya which is the premier beauty operator across East Africa for MAC, Clinique & own brand stores. His extensive Middle East experience includes the following posts - B usiness Director at River Island in Kuwait, General Manager for Nike in Dubai and MEA Franchise Manager for Mexx Group BV in Dubai.
Peter joined the company in 2010 and now leads the company’s technology strategy and infrastructure throughout Hudson’s various territories. Prior to his present role in Hudson, he served as Business Intelligence Supervisor as well as Stock Analyst. His role was instrumental in strengthening Hudson’s digital readiness, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as devising and implementing its ERP project, intended to equip the company towards further sustainable growth. Peter holds a bachelor’s degree in Commerce, Accounting and Business Management from the University of Malta. Holds degrees and various technology industry certifications.
