HARBIN’S MANAGEMENT
AIlan J. Myers
AIlan J. Myers has been a limited partner and advisor of Harbin B.V. and a Vice President on the Supervisory Board of Grupa Zywiec since 1988. Myers is actively involved in corporate governance and management of all HarbinB.V. investments.
Myers currently serves on the Advisory Council of Oxford University Law Foundation and as Chancellor of the University of Melbourne. Myers has also made significant contributions as the Former President of the National Gallery of Victoria. Along with his wife, Maria, Myers received the Companion of the Order of Australia in 2016. Myers was appointed in 1986 one of Her Majesty’s Counsel in all States and Territories of Australia, Senior Counsel of England and Papua New Guinea.
Myers is a graduate of Monivae College and earned his Bachelor of Civil Law degree from the University of Oxford. Myers has been married for 41 years and together they have three children.
John C. Higgins
John C. Higgins has been a limited partner and advisor of Harbin B.V. and a member of the Supervisory Board of Grupa Zywiec since 1988. Higgins has been a driving force in designing and implementing strategy across all investments within the Harbin Group.
He is chairman of Higgins Coatings Pty Ltd, the largest commercial painting business in Australia.The company generates A$100M+ annual turnover and employs more than 400 staff nationally. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Higgins Projects Pty Ltd, a residential real estate development company in Melbourne.
Higgins is a generous philanthropist who led the establishment of the Centre for Positive Psychology at the University of Melbourne, which aims to build psychological health and resilience in individuals and organizations. He aspires to create an environment that fosters positive psychology so that students and employees alike have the skills to influence their own lives, and those of the people around them. He is also a board member of both the National Gallery of Victoria Foundation and Camp Quality, a leading children’s cancer charity.
Higgins also provides philanthropic support to a wide range of organizations, including The Australian Ballet, Lighthouse Foundation, State Library of Victoria, the Kimberley Foundation of Australia and Sacred Heart Mission. In recognition of his philanthropic endeavours, in 2018 Higgins was awarded an Order of Australia.
Mark A. Hopper
Since 1998, Mark A. Hopper has served as Vice President of Finance & Investment for Harbin B.V. as well as serving as its Director. Hopper has been vital in identifying and negotiating new investments, investment management and in securing bank financing for both Harbin and its investment portfolio.
Between the years 1995 and 1998, Hopper served as CFO of Brewpole B.V., an early investment of Harbin.
Hopper is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) with over two decades of experience in accounting, corporate finance and mergers & acquisitions. Hopper is a graduate of Indiana University and earned an MBA with High Honors from the University of Chicago.
After twenty-five years in Europe, he resides since 2017 in Palo Alto, California with his wife and three daughters.
Alle Ypma
Alle Ypma was educated at Nyenrode Business University, the London School of Business and Finance and the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne.
In his 30-year career, Ypma has acted as an interim COO/CFO in a leading Polish law firm and has held senior management positions with fast moving consumer goods companies in Poland, Hungary, Croatia, Germany and Austria – with a concentration in turnaround management and mergers and acquisitions. For 24 years he was a manager at Heineken where he participated in the growth of the company in Central and Eastern Europe. From 1998 through 2002,Ypma was the President of the Management Board of Grupa Zywiec S.A. and since then, has returned to currently serve on its Supervisory Board. He has held many Supervisory board positions in Heineken sister-companies and other related companies.
