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Meet The Family

David Van den Bergh
Managing Director

Even though David is the youngest sibling in the Van den Bergh family he brings a sense of calm and structure into the team as he oversees the sales and operations functions within the company. After studying Finance & French in university David started his career in the software industry while living in Australia. When he returned to Ireland in 2003, Mark and Orla asked him to join them to help make their plans for Max Benjamin come to life.

Mark Van den Bergh
Brand & Creative Director

Mark started his career in sales working abroad in Germany selling Irish Beer before making a shift to acting where he delved into theatre and some TV work, which comes in very handy when we need him in front of the camera! Coming from an entrepreneurial background Mark always had the desire to run his own business and after Orla had set up Max Benjamin, Mark took the opportunity with both hands to join her and put his selling skills to the test. From here he gained invaluable experience on product development and design which took him to Florence to do a course in the internationally recognised Florence Institute of Design. He also did a course in fragrance design in Grasse, Provence. Today in his role as Brand & Creative Director Mark pulls on his experiences of travel and his surrounds in the Wicklow mountains to inspire product development and fragrance.

Orla Van den Bergh
Founder

From her college summers in America, Orla brought her love of fragrances, simple elegance and artisan candles home to the Wicklow mountains. Exchanging work shifts for hands-on tuition she dived into mastering the design of candles. After a few fire-raising beginnings in the family kitchen, Max Benjamin evolved and was named in honour of Orlaā€™s twin sons; Max and Benjamin.

Growing up and living in the Wicklow mountains Orla had a huge appreciation for the outdoors and our environment which inspires all elements of our design today. All our candles contain Italian cotton lead-free wicks and we choose to use 100% natural soya and coconut waxes and essential oil fragrance. Each candle takes over seven hours to be created and each one is diligently hand poured.