Beautiful, brainy and standing tall in an industry where female auctioneers are a rarity, Camps Bay’s Ariella Kuper is having a stellar time. By Nelia Vivier
Truly electrifying. “Standing in front of a crowd that comes alive, seeing a sea of faces that lightup one after the other as I take ownership of the room, primed to give them a night of sheer entertainment, while at the same time making an indelible imprint on peoples’ lives, is how I’d paint my ideal picture,” says Ariella Kuper. The brilliant young auctioneer with the curly golden hair has mastered the fast-paced art of not only raising the roof, but also getting the right bid under her hammer, at the high-end of auctioneering.
Which doesn’t mean the 30-something won’t be feeling bright-eyed and bushy-tailed the next morning when it’s time to go to the airport or step into the trendy Auction Alliance offices in Wale Street, ready to do battle for new business and negotiating in a playing field that covers property, maritime, mining, aviation and any industry inbetween.
Headhunted and appointed as a director for South Africa’s largest auction house, she heads up new business development. Under her guidance, the company aggressively grew its corporate database including petroleum site sales (now over R100-million division), capital asset sales (R100-m, including a submarine and Lear jet), and concluded major property transactions, including wine estate Boschendal and the infamous Fidentia Head Office.
“Funnily enough, it all started with my love for art,” says the blond MBA powerhouse, “and perhaps, also an insatiable curiosity and thirst for knowledge.” She could add proficiency for languages as she speaks English, Hebrew, Italian and Spanish.
“After matric, I decided to go overseas for a bit, to Italy, and ended up studying history of art in Florence and getting au fait with the practical side of art restoration.” Returning home, now fluent in Italian, she enrolled in a BA at Wits in art and economics before doing a Joint Honours in Economics and Economic History. (Later on, she would also do an MBA at the UCT Graduate School of Business School and an exchange scholarship at Columbia Business School in the USA.)
“At first I found economics rather dreadful and clinical, with a lot of theory and models, but as we immersed ourselves during Honours into the history of economics and real case studies about Russia or Japan, for instance, it became interesting, holistic and applicable to me.”
It was during this time that Ariella did an international affairs paper on the role of the global iron and steel industry. She added her own signature perspective, looking at things from different angles, and ended up writing about trading synergy and its economic viability. At the same time, feeding her passion for art, she became an angel volunteer, working for free at Sotheby’s South Africa for Stephan Welz.
“It was interesting times, Mandela had just got out of jail, the landscape of employment opportunities changed … and I needed a job,” she recalls. “So I took the bold step of phoning the reception at Macsteel International to enquire what the CEO’s name was.
Soon I was telling the diehard personal assistant of the CEO that I was returning a call from him… and yes, I can totally appreciate how appropriate it is that she is screening his calls, but that this is a personal family matter … and yes, I’ll hold … followed by a ‘Hello, this is Ariella Kuper’ and bowled out about as many words as any human being can produce in one single minute, before he stopped my ‘sales pitch’ by retorting ‘I don’t know who you are, but if you had the balls to pull this off, I’m listening’.
“And that was that, backed by my thesis I had a foot in the door and was on my way to becoming a senior steel trader. The funny thing is that I had as much interest in steel trading as flying to the moon but thought it was a good way to learn all about import and export … as always, with my mind on art.
“So there I was, stuck on the bottom of the rung, earning a most insulting salary, with a promise of having it doubled in three months if I proved myself. Bored and frustrated, I decided to do an entire analysis of the global metal trade and presented it to the CEO and various board directors.
He took one look, then promptly ‘rewarded’ her initiative by requesting a PowerPoint presentation for a conference by the trade publication Metal Bulletin, established as the Bible for the world’s metals and steel trading communities … and he wanted it in three days. Needless to say, which doesn’t mean it was easy, Ariella pulled it off.
Little was she to know that this was the beginning of a decade of working as a senior steel trader in the male-dominated mine and steel industry, including being the regional manager of various South American markets. Once more, she had a unique take, such as not concentrating on Japan and its major rebuilding phase after the Kobe earthquake, as they had ample steel … but rather on trading with the clients of the giant exporter, “as we had the unique window of opportunity to offer them something tangible, while Japan’s energy was focused on their own country”.
Under the hammer
So, how then does the auctioneering world differ from her trading years and a brief stint on returning to South Africa in private equity for distressed companies? Ariella paints an intricate picture of finding new business leads (which often involves in-depth research), campaigning to land them, dealing with world-class attorneys and corporates who want to dispose of multi-million rands assets … such as a Lear jet (to the value of R32-m) or the diamond-mining ship she sold to Russia for R40-m.
“On the podium, I’m a storyteller. Besides the financial factor, there is a wealth of info that I have to delve into. I need to be creative enough to conceptualise a story, so that when someone bids on shoes belonging to Grace Jones (which went for R100 000 plus on Mandela’s birthday), they are also buying into the essence of the pop star and what she stands for.” Being involved in charity – up to date she’s raised more than R17-m for various causes and benefits – lies so close to her heart, that if she could, “I would be doing it full-time.”
So how much of a toughie does she have to be? “Well, I broke my knee at age 10, rolling down a mountain chasing a Pink Panther dangling from a helicopter and did kick-boxing up to four years ago,” she jokes, before adding, “My feet are firmly planted on the ground … unless of course I don my stilettos and slip into a glam gown for auction nights.
“My weakness is that I’m intolerant towards incompetence, judge others against my own benchmark and struggle to delegate half of the time. There are also those times when I feel I have to work so much harder to get others to see the long term vision. I do thrive under the curse of the corporate challenge and thrive on meeting personal and formal mentors along the way, from whom I pick up valuable tools.
“I am sure there will come a time when I once more will have to spread my wings, to continue evolving while keeping the same level of joy I now experience in my work and personal life. I do see myself as a canvas that is still being painted … with lots of untapped potential. I never want to lose the courage to brave that which is unsecured.”
