Meet Ryk Neethling: Swimming champ who fell for Val de Vie
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I first encountered Val de Vie a couple years ago, a fleeting visit as part of a roadshow with the top team at PPS who were launching a new short-term insurance business. Commitments like those are always time constrained, but such was the magnificence of that estate that I make a mental note to return.
Getting back there took longer than hoped, but earlier this month I finally got to do the estate justice. Courtesy of a new business partnership between Biznews and Val de Vie, where we get to tell the Biznews community about the place, and are remunerated if and when our community members invest in the projects on offer.
This is quite a revolutionary model for a media business. And given the obvious risks of this kind of relationship, its one where one needs a high level of confidence before concluding what in effect is an endorsement.
After doing as much homework as possible, the final part of my due diligence was actually visiting the estate and spending a day with the five directors who have transformed a disused old clay quarry with a magnificent view into an estate that now attracted more than a billion dollars of investment.
My first point of contact, not surprisingly, was the face of Val de Vie, its marketing director and Olympic gold medal winning swimmer Ryk Neethling, one of the best athletes this country has produced. In stats-mad America, Ryk’s nine time NCAA championships makes him the third best men’s swimmer in almost 100 years. And he is one of only eight in that long history to have won three back-to-back championships.
Now 41, and looking just as trim as when at his athletic peak, Ryk has spent the past decade alongside four other directors who together have built South Africa’s premier estate. For more information, email val@biznews.com and we’ll ask Ryk and his team to be in touch.
Getting back there took longer than hoped, but earlier this month I finally got to do the estate justice. Courtesy of a new business partnership between Biznews and Val de Vie, where we get to tell the Biznews community about the place, and are remunerated if and when our community members invest in the projects on offer.
This is quite a revolutionary model for a media business. And given the obvious risks of this kind of relationship, its one where one needs a high level of confidence before concluding what in effect is an endorsement.
After doing as much homework as possible, the final part of my due diligence was actually visiting the estate and spending a day with the five directors who have transformed a disused old clay quarry with a magnificent view into an estate that now attracted more than a billion dollars of investment.
My first point of contact, not surprisingly, was the face of Val de Vie, its marketing director and Olympic gold medal winning swimmer Ryk Neethling, one of the best athletes this country has produced. In stats-mad America, Ryk’s nine time NCAA championships makes him the third best men’s swimmer in almost 100 years. And he is one of only eight in that long history to have won three back-to-back championships.
Now 41, and looking just as trim as when at his athletic peak, Ryk has spent the past decade alongside four other directors who together have built South Africa’s premier estate. For more information, email val@biznews.com and we’ll ask Ryk and his team to be in touch.
