On 1 September 2003, Mr. Bernd Masche will commemorate 35 years with Namibia Breweries Limited (NBL). Over the years, NBL has remained one of the few sovereign breweries in Southern Africa. However, after having considered the above achievements, and the personal sacrifices involved, he requested the Chairman of the NBL Board to relieve him from his current responsibilities as Managing Director. In the future, he will serve the NBL Board as a Strategic Consultant thus developing new opportunities for NBL. Mr Masche joined the then South West Breweries as a Technical Manager in 1968. Back then, NBL had a humble annual production capacity of 70,000 hl and was situated in the centre of Windhoek. In 1976 he was promoted to General Manager and eventually became the Managing Director of NBL in 1982.

His successor from 1 September is Mr Marcus von Blottnitz who was born in Tsumeb. He holds a BA degree in Business Administration from the Wirtschaftsakademie Hamburg, Germany. He worked at several large breweries around the world, including Heineken, one of the partners of NBL.