The Wine & Spirits Business MBA Program Visits New York
From April 29 to May 3, the first cohort of this exceptional program will take a long-distance field trip to New York City to meet top industry professionals so they may better understand the important and ever-evolving US wine and spirits market.
During the week of April 29 to May 3, 2019, the first cohort of the Burgundy School of Business MBA in Wine & Spirits Business Program will take a field trip to New York City, where they will meet key trade professionals in this significant market in the wine and spirits world. Our objective: to give the students of this cohort the most comprehensive view possible of this market, how it best works, the challenges and opportunities of this market, and how to generalize that to the rest of the world wine and spirits business.
At the heart of international wine and spirits markets
Last month, program students went on their “London Wine Exporting, Distribution & Production” field trip. The “New York Distribution, Marketing & Communication” field trip promises to eclipse it as a program highlight of the MBA year!
“New York is the heart of the number one wine consumer market in the world,” said Jacques Thébault, Program Director. Spending a week there, meeting with the most influential professionals in the sector – importers, wholesalers, retailers, buyers, brand owners, PR and marketing agencies, and more – provides incredibly important experience to our students, giving them a historical, practical, broad and in-depth view into the issues, challenges and opportunities which surround the business there.”
The evolving and varied agenda of visits and meetings
Among the outstanding meetings already set up for the week:
- The New York Wine and Grape Foundation
- Macari Wines
- Moët Hennessy
- Pernod Ricard
- R/West (Integrated Communications Agency)
- Wilson Daniels (Wine Importer/Distributor)
Meet members of our dynamic and already accomplished first cohort…
The first cohort of the MBA in Wine & Spirits Business program is made up of 17 students, hailing from nine nations (China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Peru, Russia, US and Vietnam). Among them, you’ll meet:
Miranda McCage (US): A graduate from Indiana University with a BA in Journalism & Art History, her first career was business consulting, followed by time in the digital transformation field within an agency, and then with IBM iX.
Jacylyn Stokes (US): A graduate from University of Washington with a BA in International Studies, she worked in the banking industry, followed by being a global account coordinator for an international logistics company; her family is in the viticulture business in California.
Icy Liu (US): Studied at Columbia Business School and New York University, earning an MS degree. Initially she worked in Finance, and then moved to the wine business (retail and importing).
Bruno Ferrari (Peru): Originally in capital markets (advising high net worth clients), he moved to beverages (Red Bull), then to the spirits industry (spirits & cocktail manager, brand ambassador), before creating his own spirits and cocktails educating company.
Kevin Pengliang (China): Self-taught and self-made, he worked in the banking industry as an analyst before creating a wine education company; he has since become a major wine e-commerce player in China, first as Purchasing Manager, then Senior Buyer. Kevin displays an impressive depth of wine knowledge from around the world.
Dmitri Khlopin (Russia): With an engineering background from the top French engineering school, as well as a PhD in Optical Science, he initially considered a career in academia but then decided to go into the wine industry so he could develop a few entrepreneurial projects he had in mind.
About the School of Wine & Spirits Business (SWSB)
Created in 2013, the SWSB groups together a Burgundy School of Business degree with research activities in wine and spirits management. The institution is an international leader in its field, with its roots in the region of Burgundy with its Climats and Terroirs listed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list. More than 180 students of some 20 nationalities across all five continents are trained every year in one of the SWSB’s degree programs: Specialized Master in International Wine and Spirits Trade (taught in French), MBA in Wine & Spirits Business, the MSc Wine Management, and the Wine Tourism specialization in the Bachelor of Marketing & Business, all taught in English. The SWSB has its own facilities including the Wine & Spirits Business Lab, Tasting Room, Cellar, etc., and boasts an expert faculty. The School is part of BSB’s international professional network with more than 16,000 alumni, 2,000 of whom are in the sector of wines and spirits.
