City of Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa
After studying a BSc and MBA, Jaco used his academic qualifications in the workplace for only four years, before he broke away to live an adventurous life. An entrepreneurial visionary, Jaco founded an Industrial Design company with three friends in 2007 and launched the first product, YBIKE, into the global market two years later. The highly successful YBIKE brand is now sold around the world and boasts 12 different children’s bikes. A few years ago, he launched his bronze sculpting career and now sells his artwork around the globe.
YBIKE has been a dream project. I have been leading this project since its inception and taken the product into 35 countries around the Globe.
As Director trading, I was tasked to help with change over management during the tough move from council owned market to privately owned market. This was the first market in South Africa to be privatised and the process involved high level negotiations with often hostile parties. Today the market is highly succesful with the biggest year on year growth of any market in South Africa.