Ferovinum - About us

Who we are

A tool for the wine and spirits industry

Ferovinum is a platform that uses technology to provide wine & spirit producers, distributors and merchants with inventory financing structures previously reserved for large commodity producers and traders.
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We believe that the finance industry has been limited in its ability to lend to the wine & spirits sectors given the fragmentation of independent enterprises and challenges of controlling and valuing inventories. The solutions offered by Ferovinum will allow the sector to release capital tied up in inventories, freeing it to grow and prosper.

What we're not

We take no commercial position on transactions

Ferovinum is not a broker or trader, and we have no commercial interest in the increase of inventory value. There's no speculative element to our commitment and the commercial relationships remain with our clients and their buyers / sellers.

TEAM

We're a team of finance specialists, technologists and industry insiders with a passion for wine & spirits

Mitchel Fowler

Co-Founder

Originally from the Hunter Valley, Mitch has over 14 years structured finance and investment banking experience focusing on commodity supply chain financing solutions, hedging and project finance.

Daniel Gibney

Co-Founder

An owner of several hospitality venues, Dan has over 15 years corporate finance and debt advisory experience helping companies and governments raise, re-organise and restructure debt.

Gregor Mathieson

Director of Spirits

Gregor was previously co-founder of Edinburgh Whisky - an award-winning boutique independent bottler – and The Edinburgh Distillery company, which were both exited to a large privately-owned group at the end of 2019.

Ho Yin Lai

Chief Technology Officer

Ho Yin was previously technology director at Macquarie, leading the evolution of their Commodities and Global Markets (CGM) group’s risk platform managing assets in excess of £5bn across multiple trading businesses including Energy, Agriculture and Quantitative Investment Strategies.

Kirsten Polyansky

Director of Americas and CLO

Kirsten’s career has spanned 20 years of private practice, industry and investment banking focused on commodities and global markets businesses. She joins Ferovinum from international law firm Reed Smith, where she served as a partner in the Energy and Natural Resources group.

Alex Shaw

Chief Operations Officer

Formerly Head of Product Development & Research at the London Metal Exchange, the world's largest and oldest metals exchange. Alex will bring years of deep experience from physical commodity supply chains, financial markets, product design and risk management.

Edward Sainsbery

Chief Risk Officer

Previously Director of Structured Commodities Origination at ICBC Standard Bank, Edward leads the overall risk management of Ferovinum, ensuring robust, scalable controls and processes are in place.

Max Noble

Head of Growth

Max is a qualified accountant from BDO who has worked in growth roles for a number of fintech investment and lending platforms that have distributed £billions across Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Feel free to contact him directly at max.noble@ferovinum.com.

Zanne Dijkstra

Product Designer

Zanne brings experience in product development, project management and data analysis, combined with experience in marketing and brand management. She is heading the Design aspect of the Ferovinum Platform.

Tristan Slater

Portfolio and Distribution Manager

Tristan heads our portfolio management and reporting to our institutional funding partners, investors and insurers, whilst supporting operations and business development.

Deniss Sudak

Principal Engineer & Product Specialist

Deniss brings an eclectic range of skill sets - ranging from engineering, technical and product within multiple industry sectors.

Dylan Frewen

Software Engineer

Dylan is a Full-Stack Developer at Ferovinum, where he collaborates with the rest of our tech team to build and deliver exceptional products for our clients.

Sophie Griffiths

Marketing and Wine Lead

Previously business director at Ogilvy, Sophie is our associate Wine specialist with a certified WSET Diploma. She brings deep expertise from the wine industry that we leverage to ensure our product continues to deliver outcomes for clients.

Zhi Huang

Special Projects Consultant

Zhi is a senior Full-Stack Developer at Ferovinum, where he collaborates with the rest of our tech team to build and deliver exceptional products for our clients.

Mary Ye

Product Designer

Mary comes from a diverse background where she was a technology risk manager at Macquarie Bank. With Scrum Master and Agile experience added in the mix, she applies her broad perspectives and skills to efficiently design products that are intuitive and easy to use.

‍Barry Skalrud

Principal Engineer

Barry is an experienced multidisciplinary engineer and venture builder with experience across many industries including aerospace, rail, interactive entertainment, finance and eCommerce.

Berto Gomez

Senior Engineer

Berto has worked on projects in various industries. He is responsible for applying his technical know-how to innovate, design, code and manage end-to-end software from a broad range of industries from medical services to advertising.

Nicole Stella

Engineer

Armed with a Bachelor of Information Technology with a Major in Software Technology from Macquarie University, Nicole has applied her knowledge and grown her skills by working with different startups and freelancing with independent developers.

Who we are