Meet The Team

Stephen Hurst has been in the coffee business for more than 25 years. He founded Mercanta The Coffee Hunters in 1996 and is a European specialty coffee pioneer.

Leah opened our US office in 2008. She has more than a decade of experience as a Cup of Excellence juror and has judged for the WBC and USBC.

Having worked for Mercanta for nearly a cumulative decade, Grant runs Mercanta's Singapore office and serves our clients in Asia.

Christian runs Mercanta's office and lab in Guatemala City and oversees sourcing & logistics for much of Central & South America.

Gayle has managed the London School of Coffee since it was founded in 2004 and oversaw the design and installation of the school’s current labs.

Heiko Heiden joined the Mercanta Team in Summer 2012 and oversees Mercanta DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia & Bulgaria)

Stephen joined Mercanta in August 2011 and ran Mercanta's lab for many years before moving into his current position as Account Manager. He primarily oversees ...

Jamie joined Mercanta in 2013. He serves as account manager to various regions within the UK, Denmark, and Australia/New Zealand.

Megan discovered her love of coffee while working as a barista at Starbucks in Wisconsin during her college years.

Fluer helps with administration and scheduling at the London School of Coffee.

Laura joined Mercanta in 2014. Her role as our Accounting and Finance Specialist at Mercanta marries her two passions - hard numbers and coffee - perfectly.

Carlos joined Mercanta in 2014 and currently manages sales and logistics for Europe and the Middle East.

Elisa began working with Mercanta in 2015 and oversees all Marketing and Traceability duties for all our offices.

Alda joins the Mercanta team from her home country of Brazil. She now works as our lab coordinator in the UK office.

Juan oversees our office in Medellin, welcoming clients to our lab and liaising with our Colombian partners.

Sith joined Mercanta in 2016 and oversees all accounts and finances.

Aster joined our Mercanta Asia team in October of 2015, where she oversees Accounts and Administration and manages most aspects of Logistics.

Döndü manages shipping and logistics in the UK office and also manages a whole host of other client support tasks.

Kamil assists in running our UK Coffee Lab where his ninja abilities are very important in the quality control of our beans.

Ben graduated from Newcastle University with a degree in History, knowing that those who do not know history are doomed to ..... something or other.