Jan Potgieter is the Founder & CEO of Jan Potgieter & Associates & Imperium Global Negotiation Solutions. Jan is the creator of the Imperium negotiation methodology which enables the new class of elite business negotiators to immediately start saving time and money, increasing their earnings and building mutually rewarding, long term relationships.

A leading proponent of a best practice approach to negotiations, Jan has proven instrumental in integrating an approach to negotiation that seeks to create a corporate negotiation capability that provides demonstrable competitive differentiation within international client organizations. After gaining a thorough understanding of the client’s organizational reality, Jan is able to bridge the gap between organizational imperatives and the status quo by designing or redesigning a negotiation strategy supported by processes that seamlessly integrate with the client organization’s existing sales, purchasing or executive infrastructure to immediately unlock bottom line value.

Jan gained an MBA specializing in Negotiation Skills under the leadership of Professor Manie Spoelstra. A corporate architect, Jan’s entrepreneurial spirit was ignited through the market need for a principle-centred, best practice based, negotiation consulting and training approach that results in the creation of an enduring organizational negotiation capability.

Jan is relentless in his focus on creating rapid bottom line results together with strengthened client relationships and market reputation. Jan began his career in the financial services industry, serving as a Certified Financial Planner and a Broker Consultant. Excelling in a number of different roles for leading organizations, he consistently outperformed his growth objectives. Throughout his career, he has exhibited a particular flair for gaining a foothold in mature, competitive markets.

The next challenge for Jan was the Information Technology (IT) sector. Starting off as a District Sales Manager in the complex enterprise software application environment, he soon graduated up the ranks to be named General Manager and Public Sector Sales Director for a global systems integrator. As a result of his corporate background, Jan managed to gain extensive experience in both the private and public sector environments.

During his career in the corporate sector, Jan consistently outperformed his growth objectives. His negotiation skills and experience were shaped by the multi-million dollar deals successfully closed and managed on a day to day basis. To date, Jan has been involved in negotiating, or consulting to, commercial deals totaling in excess of $ 4 billion.

Jan has conducted assignments globally and has lived in Europe, America and Africa. He has a particular interest in complex M&A and cross-cultural negotiations involving the deployment of teams for optimal value creation and effectiveness.Jan brings a considerable specialization in applying strategic negotiation best practice to the executive domain. In addition to conducting negotiation workshops all over the world (he has delivered assignments in 60 countries to date), Jan regularly consults to leading organizations internationally on negotiation strategies and best practice processes.

Jan has significant experience in high value, cross industry and cross-cultural negotiations which he has gained whilst on assignment with global organizations such as Vodafone, Telefonica, Pfizer, IBM, Adidas, Macquarie Bank, RBS, Network Rail, TFL, The NHS, Schlumberger, Victrex, Motorola, Nycomed, Altana AG, The Hilton Group and others.

Currently writing his first book on business negotiation, Jan enjoys frequent invitations to speak at local and global seminars, and has lectured at universities and business schools as far afield as Poland, Germany, Ireland and South Korea.

Jan has deployed innovation as a key driver to the market positioning of Jan Potgieter & Associates & Imperium Global Negotiation Solutions. To obtain different results from competitors, he advocates that organizations must design and deploy innovative and challenging strategies and supporting processes which serve to clearly distinguish them from their competitors. He is passionate about deploying constant innovation in the discipline of negotiation as a key differentiator to unlock competitive advantage.

Founder and driver of JPA's unique methodology, Jan has been formally recognized for his innovative approach to delivering real business benefit. Jan is the proud winner of the World of Learning Award for ‘Best Instructor Led Training in the United Kingdom’ (Advanced Negotiation Training) 2004.