Meet the new SCASA Board Members!
The Speciality Coffee Association of South Africa (SCASA) is the governing body of the coffee community in South Africa and is affiliated to the global body, Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) and World Coffee Events (WCE), which runs the World Barista Championships and other key industry events.
SCASA is made up of Members and Sponsor Members who pay annual membership fees and sponsor fees respectively, to belong to the Association. Every two years elections are held to vote in a new Board of Directors, who will lead and run the Association and guide the SA Coffee community in line with the vision and mission statement of its Members.
They've got a big task ahead of them, away we go!
LANI SNYMAN
Lani is from Ciro Beverage Solutions and has been SCASA Chairperson before. She is involved with customer service areas like training and quality checks, technical operations support centre management, coffee tasting & blend development and offering National and International coffee qualifications from SCA and Unisa at Ciro Coffee Academy.
“Education and Upliftment of South Africans have always been at the centre of my career, with a newly added and refreshed focus on Sustainability too. Coffee embraces all these purposes and are creating opportunities to share with the unemployed, invest in their education and also include the disabled community - with the aim of finding jobs within the community that I operate in. I hope to have the opportunity to create new ways and means to upskill, educate and recruit the Baristas of South Africa.”
“Education and reaching out to the Baristas is very important, the younger generation needs guidance on career paths, access to opportunities, education and mentoring on how to successfully continue their journey in coffee, as it is a very exciting industry to join. The process to activate this will be shared in due time.”
SAMANTHA NAIDOO
Sam is currently the Country Lead for Coffee in SA for Coca Cola Africa. The CCBA vision is to drive the development of coffee in all relevant markets, creating a sustainable business. Sam looks at market trends, better ways of working, developing and understand barista training needs, with a vast understanding of all coffee equipment and its capabilities.
“Not only is building a successful coffee business important to me, but to put people at the forefront of growth and leadership.”
“My hope is to bring awareness to baristas on what it takes to become successful in the industry through my many years of experience in barista competition, being a barista, a SCASA judge and running multiple coffee sites.”
“Coffee Training and Education is an important part of who I am, my vision to grow and empower our youth has always been a clear part of my career path. My intention will always be to assist our future generation of coffee enthusiasts to learn and grow in every possible avenue. I plan to work closely with the Board and other key industry people to create ongoing successful learning platforms for all.”
ROAN MUNTINGH
Roan is a water-for-coffee filtration specialist! He is extremely passionate about coffee and how water impacts the overall experience , in both taste and equipment impact.
“I am very passionate about this industry and the people. I have lots of new ideas we could potentially incorporate into the industry, creating a platform for everything related to coffee. I believe with my experience and the backing from Ultimate Water and Pentair we can make a positive impact on the industry with regards to education, information, training and uplifting the industry as a whole.
“My vision for SCASA is to set the standard for specialty coffee. We have world class roasters in South Africa, they should be awarded and acknowledged - very much like our wine industry. SCASA should be the backbone of the industry, with regards to knowledge, experience, support (technical and training), where new and old coffee professionals can seek guidance. SCASA should be a platform, and a neutral playing field for each aspect of the industry, from green bean suppliers to baristas.”
“My goal is focused on training and education, giving the public enough information and assistance to make informed decisions about what their shop needs. This will ultimately ensure they deliver the best experience for their clients and push the industry forward. I believe in making things fun, through events and competitions you can educate and learn so much from a certain topic. I’m very excited to be part of this growing community and look forward working on making a positive impact in the industry.”
SHAWN CLOETE
Shawn is a sales consultant and representative for Equipment Café. He builds relationships with coffee customers and helps them with all their coffee brewing solutions.
“I believe that I can help and make a difference on the board. My main goal would be to grow the coffee community by working with the people in the community.
“I believe that education is the most important area of coffee. I also believe that more frequent "smaller" events where the industry and the public can both compete in fun competitions will add more energy and education to both the industry and the consumer. I am looking forward to working with my fellow board members and the people in the coffee community to have a successful and amazing run at growing coffee and community in South Africa”
GEORGE BERTOLIS
George has been in the coffee industry since 2000 and this is his second term on the SCASA Board. He is an extremely passionate coffee professional and works at Coffeequip. He has a very soft spot in his heart for emerging baristas and coffee professionals in South Africa.
George has been involved with SCASA and AFCA both conferencing and judging for many years.
“My goal is to advance the Specialty Coffee Industry in SA in terms of awareness, coffee education and assisting with grass roots coffee professionals.”
“I Feel honoured, humbled and privileged to be re-elected and I’m looking very forward to working with the new board.”
CHAD GODDARD
Chad’s day job is to keep Father Coffee running! That entails an endless array of things from green buying and profile roasting, to marketing and everything else in between. He enjoys trying to make things better year after year.
“Representing a specialty-only roastery built on delivering quality, I felt the S in SCASA was under-represented and I hope to bring a more ambitious point-of-view and clearer focus to the association.”
“I'd love to see SCASA evolve into a body that sets an aspirational standard for the industry through more meaningful engagement, more accessible competition structures, and better dialogue with the industry itself.”
