Chief Executive Officer
Guy Young
Guy joined Castle Growers in 1988, becoming Sales Director in 1992. As Sales Director, Guy incorporated Burgundy Growers into Castle Growers and developed a clear strategy for growth as a leading agency company.

He headed up the senior management team that was responsible for merging Hedley Wright & Castle Growers in 1999 and after commissioning a comprehensive customer research survey, re-structured the company as a leading customer focused, solutions driven agency.

Guy is also Managing Director of HwCg. He is based in the UK.

Chief Operating Officer
Jim Furze
Jim founded Hedley Wright in 1978 and went on to develop the business from a regional wine merchant into the leading national wine agency, HwCg Ltd.

Jim graduated in Rural Land Economy from the Royal Agricultural College in 1977 and has retained an active involvement in farming since then. He is currently a partner in a 1465 acre wholly organic farm, with three farm shops.

Jim as Chief Operating Officer, is responsible for bringing both parts of the business together and for realising the synergies and value of Neqtar. Jim is based in the UK.

Managing Director, Australia
David Stevenson
David led the Management buyout of Irymple Group to SDS in 2005. Prior to this David spent ten years as Managing Director of the Irymple Group. Before joining Irymple Group in 1993, David was a senior auditor for a leading firm of Chartered Accountants in Australia.

David is the Managing Director of SDS and based in Australia.

Finance Director
Mike Bishop
Mike qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PriceWaterhouse Coopers (London) in 1986, since when he has worked in a variety of Group and operational roles in the UK and overseas.

From 1993 he worked in various positions within the Scholl plc Group, joining initially as Group Financial Controller, and becoming Finance Director of the £70m UK subsidiary until he left the Group following the merger of the business with Seton Healthcare in 1999.

Since 1999 Mike has worked as Finance Director in privately owned businesses, ultimately joining HwCg as Finance Director and Company Secretary in September 2004. Mike is based in the UK.

Non–Executive Board Directors

Chairman
Mike Thomas
Mike has worked extensively in the fast moving consumer goods industry, especially food and beverages. He is currently Chief Executive of the leading international food assurance and certification group CMi plc. He has been Non Executive Chairman of HwCg Ltd since its formation in 1999 and Chairman of Neqtar Ltd since November 2005.

Mike has worked for the Interpublic advertising group, Unilever, Imperial Group's brewery division, and as Managing Director at Marketing Solutions, the management consultancy. After the sale of Marketing Solutions to BMP Plc, a leading advertising and marketing services group, Mike became a main board director of BMP Plc.

Mike is also Chairman of HwCg. He is based in the UK.

Terry Hill
Terry has been involved in the wine industry for over 35 years and has direct experience of grape growing, managing vineyards and establishing and running wineries. He is heavily involved in the local community and has been involved in a number of Government consultative committees.

David Wells
David has a wide range of corporate experience in both the private and public sectors. David has specialist expertise in mergers and acquisitions in food, wine, health services and waste industries. David is also a director of Terrain Capital, who are the corporate advisers to SdS and Neqtar.