Company and people
Wine Estate Capital Management (WECM) developed the 1st fractional ownership investment concept in high potential wine estates. WECM has offices in Haarlem (the Netherlands) and in the French wine region of Jurancon, which is strategically located between Bordeaux and the Roussillon. WECM is a registered limited company with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce.
WECM was founded by Arjen Pen, a Dutch national aged 36. After his University degree in Corporate Finance and Marketing at the University of Groningen (NL) and Paris-Dauphine (F), Arjen has lived respectively in Germany, France, and Switzerland and has returned to Holland in 2003. Following a steep career in the airline business, Arjen held key commercial positions (Vice President and Executive Vice President Sales & Marketing) at the airlines Lufthansa, Crossair, Swiss Int. Airlines and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. In the summer of 2004, he decides to leave his corporate airline career and to create a new investment concept, following his own passion for wine and real estate. His strong commercial international background is a key success factor for the commercial turnaround of the selected wine estates.

In July 2006, Michael Stoeltzing, German national, approached his former Lufthansa colleague, Arjen Pen to discuss synergies. Opportunities were identified and after a detailed investigation and case study, the idea was born to expand the WECM investment projects into South Africa. Michael Stoeltzing studied Economics (Germany) and holds an MBA from Henley Management College UK. His career included the positions as Marketing and Sales trainer for Lufthansa and executive positions such as Vice President of South African Airways and CEO of the SA Travel Centre Group. Michael has been living in South Africa for over 10 years. Whilst still a shareholder in several tourism entities in South Africa and Germany, Michael Stoeltzing is now Managing Director of WECM South Africa. His vision for WECM is to seek prime investment opportunities and to offer these to the European market. Michael is confident that the synergies between the European and South African WECM operations is beneficial to all parties. 

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