Full Name: Gregor Küpper

Position: MD of SolarWorld Africa

Main Activity of the Company: Manufacturing and distribution of German-made solar power products

Date and Place of Birth: April 29, 1968, Bad Honnef, North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany

Education: Otto-Kuehne-Schule, matric, 1988; Villingen-Schwenningen, master’s degree in business administration (marketing), 1994

First Job: Product manager: angiographic products at Mallinckrodt Medical

Size of First Pay Packet: €2 000 a month

First Job with Present Group: Sales manager for southern Germany

Number of People under Your Leadership: Eight

Management Style: A participative but slightly persuasive approach – motivation and team spirit are a core focus

Personal Best Achievement: Finding a life partner in my South African wife and having four beautiful daughters with her

Person Who Has Had the Biggest Influence on Your Life: My grandfather

Person Who Has Had the Biggest Influence on Your Career: Heinz Jürgen Goetz

Person You Would Most Like to Meet: Former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt

Businessperson Who Has Impressed You Most: Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi banker, economist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, who developed the concepts of microcredit and microfinance and started the Grameen Foundation and Bank

Philosophy of Life: You always meet someone twice in life – treat every person you ever meet with respect

Biggest Ever Opportunity: Moving to South Africa to open the African distribution arm of SolarWorld, which supplies products to over 40 countries throughout the African continent from its Cape Town offices

Biggest Ever Disappointment: Closing my first self-owned business

Hope for the Future: That the African continent makes use of decentralised solar energy, giving each person the opportunity for sustainable development, access to education and an improvement in their quality of life

Favourite Reading: Hermann Hesse and Oscar Wilde

Favourite TV Programme: Satires, comedies and a good action thriller

Favourite Food/Drink: Well-matured sirloin of beef or ostrich eye fillet/German Riesling from the Mosel region, which is close to where I was born

Favourite Music: Curtis Mayfield and Mario Biondi

Favourite Sport: Bodytec and skiing

Favourite Website: The Harvard Business Review Online

Hobbies: Collecting fine wine and music

Car: BMW

Pets: A boxer and two dachshunds

Miscellaneous Dislikes: Dishonesty, superficiality and clubs

Favourite Other South African Company: Standard Bank, for its growth strategies and success in the African market, and Rooibos, a truly South African company that has achieved global success with a uniquely South African product

Favourite Foreign Company: Volkswagen

Married: To Karin Küpper (née Andresen), since August 1997

Children: Zoe, 12; twins Emily and Livinia, 10; Mia, 8

Clubs: Clubs are among my miscellaneous dislikes