In the Trade Council, sectors and expertise are delegated between our Trade Officers. Read the staff profiles below to gain more insight.
Freya Katrine Petersen
Head of Trade Department and Regional Coordinator of Sub-Saharan Region
Mobile phone: +27 (12) 430 9356
Email:frepet@um.dk
Freya joined the Embassy of Denmark in South Africa in August 2018 and has more than 20 years of professional experience from sales and export. Her background in businesses and several occupations in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has given her a strong inside into building relations. Her focus will therefore be on building relations between Danish and South African stakeholders and supporting Danish companies. Freya has a special interest in the health sector, and putting the health sector on the agenda is part of her portfolio. Freya has an AP-degree in Economy and Exports from Eksportakademiet in Roskilde, Denmark.
Morten Hald - Energy
Senior Trade Officer, Head of Sector
Mobile phone: +27 (82) 308 9481
Email:morhal@um.dk
Morten has served as Senior Trade Officer since October 2017. Furthermore, he is part of the Global Industry Team for Energy at the Trade Council HQ at the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Copenhagen, Director in the exciting technology start-up Brayfoil as well as Director of the energy-consulting firm UVAL. His many years of experience in both the energy sector and the Sub-Saharan African market has given him a unique set of skills in development and implementation of business models. Morten’s area of expertise is to create opportunities and develop projects in the green energy and cleantech industries.
Jabulane Walter Hadebe - Water
Trade Officer, Head of Sector
Mobile phone: +27 (66) 435 3024
Email:jabhad@um.dk
Jabulane’s educational background is a M.Sc. in Masters in International Politics and Economics from KU Leuven in Belgium. Furthermore Jabulane holds an Honours Degree in International Politics from University of East London, London, United Kingdom. He also holds a diploma in Business Management from South Africa. Jabulane joined the Embassy in 2015. Jabulane has more than 9 years of professional experience working for different multinational companies, his areas of expertise, includes sales, project management, business development, product development, innovation, client relations and business analysis. After moving back to South Africa, he joined one of the banking institutions Barclays Africa in the Retail Banking sector working within business development, project management.
His position at the Embassy is two-fold. As a Trade Officer, his focus is on facilitating trade between Denmark and Southern Africa, assisting companies on export promotion, whether it is market analysis, export, import, partner search, etc. As a Commercial and Financial Advisor, his role is to further Danish economic interest by providing information and facilitation of financial possibilities, such as investment and funding, for Danish exports to Sub-Saharan Africa.
J. D. Senekal - Food and Agriculture
Trade Officer
J.D. Senekal has been Trade officer for food, agriculture and fisheries in South Africa since May 2016. As part of the portfolio he is responsible for advising Danish companies in the food, agriculture and fisheries sector on how to grow their exports and investments into Southern Africa. J.D. was born and raised on a farm, and has three years professional experience with the Agricultural Sector (mostly with DOW Agroscience).
Mobile phone: +27 (12) 430 9340
Email: jacsen@um.dk
The trade officers are also supported by two dedicated master-level students from a Danish or foreign university, studying the fields of business, economics, political science or law.