Being a 20-year veteran of the company, Bernard Schlafstein is Sales Director Middle East Africa at Gebr. Heinemann. He is responsible for the retail business of Unifree Duty Free and 4 other joint ventures in the region, ATU Duty Free (5 operations in 5 countries worldwide), JR Heinemann in Israel, Tourvest in Nigeria and Big Five in South Africa. Additionally, Bernard is managing Gebr. Heinemann’s wholesale business in 32 countries in the MEADFA region.

For the past three years, he has been Sales Director Near East & Turkey. Prior to that, he was responsible as a Sales Director for the EECA region, with its main markets being Russia, the Baltic States and Ukraine. During his time at Gebr. Heinemann, he has established different joint ventures and built up long-term partnerships with distribution clients.