Leadership

Our expert leadership team is responsible for business success in key areas

Garth Knott
COO
+27 0861999963
Garth joined Diplomat South Africa in 2015. Previously, he was General Manager Pharm lifestyle and Tech at DHL. Before that, he served as CFO DHL Supply Chain Middle East & Africa. Garth’s experience also includes serving as Programme Director, Finance Shared Services for DHL, Financial Director for Kinesis Log (Pharm), Financial Director for Southern Sun, Financial and Logistics Director for Sun Cuisine Food and Financial Director for Williams Food.
Yosi Horev
GM Diplomat South Africa
+27 0861999963
Yosi joined Diplomat in 2006. He began as a shift manager at Diplomat Israel and was soon appointed Warehouse Manager, Diplomat Cosmetics division. In 2008 he was appointed Chief Operation Officer, Diplomat Israel and Diplomat Cosmetics, with overall responsibility for demand forecasting through supply planning and managing complex interfaces with internal and external customers. In 2015 Yosi was appointed Chief Operation Officer, Diplomat South Africa. In 2018 Yosi was promoted to Group Chief Logistic Officer. in 2020 Yosi was appointed CEO of Diplomat South Africa.
Tracey Palmer
HOD - HR
+27 0861999963
Tracey joined Diplomat South Africa in 2014 as Head of the Shared Services Department, overseeing the Merchandising and Telesales functions and from 2016 the Customer Care Centre. In March 2017 She moved from Sales to HR and took up the role of Head of the HR Department.
Deidre Koekemoer
Head of IT
+27 0861999963
With over 25 years’ experience in Multi-national companies in IT, I started with Diplomat in 2015 heading up the IT Department. My main objective is to meet the local and global IT Requirement and steer the department towards best in class technology in line with our strategy.
Riza Shah
Sales VP
+27 0861999963
Riza joined Diplomat South Africa in 2022. Riza has 30 years of FMCG experience in various sales, commercial and general management roles. He spent 25 years at PepsiCo and since 2006 he served in various executive roles with them. His last role with them was GM of the snacks business in South Africa.
Deon Morgan
Head of Business Development
+27 0861999963
Deon joined Diplomat in 2013. He started as the National Sales Manager for the Non-Food Department looking after Merchandising and Sales. He was then promoted to Head of Sales Tier 2 Food in 2015. This was followed by the role of Head of Trade Activation and Category planning. In 2019, Deon was appointed Head of Sales & Merchandising with the Tier 2 sales team and the merchandising structures reporting to him.
Chris Bester
Chief Operating Officer & Deputy CEO
+972-3-9766414
Chris joined Diplomat South Africa in February 2023. Previously, Chris held the position of Supply Chain Executive for Grandmark International. Prior to this, Chris held the role of Logistics Executive for Agrinet. Before that, he also held the position of Director of Operations at Imperial.