Mines & Wines

Sigurd & Kathleen

Kathleen & Sigurd have grown up very close to each other, in two small villages in Flanders, but it took parallel McKinsey careers in similar sectors for them to meet on different occasions on different continents. And it was only when Sigurd settled back in Belgium that they really found each other.

Since then, they got married and had two children and they never stopped traveling and making new plans in Mines, Wines and other ventures ...

Mines

Sigurd

Sigurd Mareels is a mining expert with a global view and deep expertise on all key minerals and metals.

He is a metallurgical engineer and PhD from University of Gent. He has worked since 1988 for McKinsey&Company, building the mining practice and creating MineSpans.

He has lived in three continents and traveled for work to 65 countries.

Since retiring from McKinsey he has taken board and advisory positions in mining-related companies and is developing his own mining projects.

You can contact Sigurd Mareels for advice regarding:

- complex mining projects

- critical minerals

- decarbonization in metals & mining

Linkedin Sigurd

Contact Sigurd

Wines

Kathleen

Kathleen Van den Berghe is a very hands-on entrepreneur with a broad experience in wine, in construction & renovation and in strategy, organization and commercial-related matters.

Kathleen is a construction engineer from University of Ghent with an extra specialisation from Universite de Liège with an MBA from Vlerick Management School and a postgraduate in Real Estate from KULeuven. She has finished the WSET Diploma and is currently in stage 3 of the Master of Wine program.

She has worked 4 years in construction and real estate and 9 years at McKinsey&Company, before becoming an entrepreneur in the wine industry in 2010 with Chateau de Miniere and Chateau de Suronde, both in the French Loire Valley. She turned around the wine estates and the vineyards to make high quality organic and biodynamic wines, with high end tourism and lodging on both estates. You are invited to visit for an unforgettable wine experience...

She has a passion to find and renovate beautiful, inspiring places and make them available to others to rent and enjoy with friends and family, creating unforgettable memories.

You can stay on the wine estates in French Loire Valley Chateau de Miniere and in Chateau de Suronde, but also in Gite les Aleines near Bouillon in the Belgian Ardennes, and Spiessbach apartment in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland. Each of these is very different with different capacities and layouts, but all are inspiring and relaxing and all are in an amazing natural setting.

Her most recent project is HUISBURG, an art & wine event space in Tervuren, where she aims to gather like-minded people around art and wine.

Kathleen loves to inspire other people and she is a very passionate and engaging speaker, so you can always invite her for a key note about her journey and her entrepreneurial experience and/or a wine tasting, because wine with a story tastes better...