Women of the Vine & Spirits to hold first of its kind Executive Summit in New York City

NEW YORK, June 29, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Women of the Vine & Spirits, the leading trade alliance devoted to the advancement of women in the alcohol beverage industry and advocating for diversity initiatives will facilitate the first of its kind gathering of top male and female executives in the alcohol beverage industry for its inaugural Executive Summit, held September 13, at City Winery in New York City.

The Executive Summit will focus on topics and best practices for starting or growing an internal women's leadership initiative. Topics to include Organizational Structure, Elements of an Effective Women's Initiative, Workplace Diversity, Succession Planning, Financial Equality, How to Start and Run a Successful Mentoring Program, How to Measure Program Effectiveness, and others.

Women of the Vine & Spirits found there was a lack of available and current data in the US and abroad of the number women in leadership roles in the alcohol beverage industry. Understanding that women control $4.3 trillion of the $5.9 trillion in annual consumer spending, and that women consumed 60.2% of total wine consumption in the US last year, Women of the Vine & Spirits is taking the initiative to gather this data by surveying its Corporate Partners, which are some of the leading wine and alcohol beverage brands in the world. The organization plans to monitor this data over time and analyze its findings each year at the annual Executive Summit.

Participating in this year's Summit are industry leaders including Pete Carr, President, Bacardi U.S.A., Inc.; Ann Giambusso, Executive Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer at Breakthru Beverage Group; Rick Gillis, President, Young's Market Company; and Barkley J. Stuart, Executive Vice President, Director, Government Affairs, Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits, among others.

The groundbreaking summit is open to Corporate Partners of Women of the Vine & Spirits and by invitation only and will feature presenters including Sarah Bettman, Talent Development, Diversity & Inclusion, Constellation Brands; Molly Davis, Vice President, Premium Marketing, E. & J. Gallo Winery; Marlene Gordon, Vice President, General Counsel, Bacardi North America Corporation; Jeffery Tobias Halter, President, YWomen; Vanessa Kay, Senior Vice President, Veuve Clicquot, Krug and Ruinart USA at Moët Hennessy USA; Clarice Turner, Chief Executive Officer, Boudin SF; Carolyn Wente, Chief Executive Officer, Fourth Generation Winegrower, Wente Family Estates, and others.

"As an industry, we need to work together to embed diversity and inclusion; this means finding common ground to share best practices," said Marlene Gordon, Vice President, General Counsel, Bacardi North America Corporation. "This summit serves as the catalyst for industry leaders to begin working toward a common goal of attracting and retaining more women [and people of color] to our industry and ensuring that we build stronger career paths towards senior leadership for them in our industry."

"We've made great strides in our industry and Women of the Vine & Spirits has seen it first-hand through the success of our sell-out Global Symposium and regional events, but now it's time we do even more," said Deborah Brenner, Founder & President, Women of the Vine & Spirits. "We know change and diversity initiatives must start at the top and together, we can change the face of the alcohol beverage industry. We are thrilled to be able to do this for our industry."

For more information about the Executive Summit, how to become a Corporate Partner or Member of Women of the Vine & Spirits, visit womenofthevine.com.

About Women of the Vine & Spirits^®
Women of the Vine & Spirits is the world's leading membership organization dedicated to the support and advancement of women in the alcohol beverage industry, fostering gender diversity and talent development across the industry at large. Guided by an advisory board of top executives in the alcohol beverage industry, Women of the Vine & Spirits offers extensive education, advocacy, training, mentorship, networking and steadfast support for women at every position in the field, particularly through the annual Women of the Vine & Spirits Global Symposium, March 12-14, 2018 in Napa, California. For more information, please visit womenofthevine.com

SOURCE Women of the Vine & Spirits