Helena moved to Dubai eight years ago and has been working since 2004 for African + Eastern. Her first role with A&E was in the on-trade channel as a wine sales executive, and she has since moved into the travel retail division. She was appointed Sales manager – travel retail in 2009. In this capacity she looks after all travel retail customers in the UAE – with the biggest customer being Dubai Duty Free. Helena recently completed the WSET Wine Diploma Level, and now runs a range of wine trainings for travel retail customers and runs WSET courses up to advanced level.

Originally from Belgium, Helena began her career in the wine industry in South Africa, in sales & marketing. Once back from South Africa, she worked for a media agency in Russia, Switzerland, Iceland, Kyrgyzstan and Qatar. Helena was brought up exposed to many different European languages and is fluent in 5 languages.