Mark Riley has worked in the premium spirits industry for 25 years, starting his career at Diageo in 1997 working in the Scottish on-trade and going on to hold various sales and customer marketing roles across all UK channels.

In 2008, he joined Beam Inc as UK sales director, before joining Maxxium UK in 2009 as commercial operations director, progressing to sales director in April 2012.

Promoted to managing director in 2015, for seven years Mark has led the business through periods of accelerated growth and change, including rebranding to Edrington-Beam Suntory UK, moving the head office from Stirling to Glasgow, opening a London office in Soho and, most recently, overseeing the move to a wholly owned business model under Edrington and officially becoming Edrington UK.

Mark is married to Caroline and has three children, George, Sophie and Josephine, and two Labradors called Woody and Parker.  In his spare time, he enjoys running around after his children, walking the dogs, going to the rugby and tolerating the trials and tribulations associated with supporting Sunderland A.F.C.

Pierpaolo Petrassi MW has worked in the Wine & Spirit industry for 33 years. He was born in London of Italian parents and holds dual Italian & British citizenship. He followed his father into the wine industry in 1983 and having worked in both sales and buying roles for the Carnevale Group (1987-1997), International Wine Services (1997-2003), WaverleyTBS (2003-2007) & Tesco (2007-2010), he became Head of Buying for Beers, Wines & Spirits at Waitrose in 2010. He was also Chairman of the Italian Wines Committee of the Wine & Spirit Association from 1998 to 2005.

Pierpaolo became a Master of Wine in 2007 and was the first Italian to achieve this qualification. He has been consistently placed in the top 5 of OLN’s most influential people in Wine, coming in at number 2 in 2016.

Miles joined the WSTA in 2012 from the Defra. He has overall responsibility for the Wine and Spirit Trade Association. Miles was previously Deputy Director for EU and international agriculture policy, including reform of the EU’s Common Agriculture Policy. He was previously deputy director for European and global issues at the Cabinet Office and spent much of his early career at the Department of Communities and Local Government.

Miles has worked across a broad range of public policy, including urban regeneration, drugs policy and social exclusion, and has been involved in significant negotiations at national and European level. He worked closely with senior Ministers in successive governments – including as private secretary to two Cabinet Ministers.

Email: miles@wsta.co.uk

Ed Baker became Managing Director of Kingsland Drinks in summer 2019 having previously been in the role of Finance Director from 2013.  Kingsland is a premier UK independent supplier and bottler of wines, spirits and other drinks into all sales channels as well as providing a source to shelf services to all customers, including major brand owners and UK retailers.  In 2021, Ed led the business on the path to become employee owned and the operations now employ over 500 colleagues and has sales of over 130million litres per year.  He has responsibility for delivering the company strategy, objectives and business performance set by the Kingsland Drinks Board.

Ed’s career in the drinks sector included roles as Finance Director and COO at Quintessential Brands and he has held finance roles in football, in chemicals, in automotive (Mitsubishi and Ford), in corporate finance (Rothschild) and accountancy (PwC).

Ed is passionate about the drinks’ industry and its products.  He has been a firm supporter of the WSTA and has chaired the audit committee since 2014.

Rob has more than two decades of experience in the retail industry and has spent the past four years at the UK’s leading specialist wine retailer, Majestic. He joined the business as Buying and Merchandising Director in April 2019, before becoming Chief Commercial Officer at the start of 2020. In October 2022, he was promoted to the role of Chief Operating Officer, overseeing Majestic’s buying, e-commerce and marketing functions, as well as its fast-growing on-trade division, Majestic Commercial.

Prior to joining Majestic, Rob was Category Director for Beers, Wines and Spirits at Tesco, and prior to that served as Head of Buying at Sainsbury’s.

Rob has played a crucial role in Majestic’s resurgence in recent years, and his impact on the business was recognised with the Drinks Business Man of the Year award in 2020.

Lorraine is a multi-award-winning social entrepreneur, hospitality consultant and life coach. Having spent two decades as an executive director for brands including Gordon Ramsay Restaurants and Corbin & King, Lorraine felt compelled to form Be Inclusive Hospitality CIC in 2020, due to the consistent lack of representation of people of colour in positions of influence, and the supply chain.

This social enterprise now holds the prime position of igniting the much-needed conversations, and delivering initiatives to advance change within hospitality, food, and drink sectors.

Her work has been featured in the Evening Standard, Metro, The Guardian, The Caterer and Big Hospitality.

Lorraine is a judge for Guild of Fine Foods Great Taste Awards, Bold Woman Awards UK, by Veuve Clicquot, Uber Eats Restaurant Awards, Purple Umbrella Awards and the British Guild of Beer Writers Awards.

In 2022 Lorraine was named the GQ Food & Drink Innovator of the year winner, she received a special award in the Code Hospitality 100 Most Influential Women in Hospitality list and won Entrepreneur of the Year at the Precious Awards. In 2023 Lorraine was named NatWest and Pioneers Post WISE100: Top women in social enterprise.

Be Inclusive Hospitality was recognised by NatWest’s SE100 last year, as one of the UK’s most impressive social enterprises.

Jason has spent nearly three decades in the retail industry and has worked at Tesco for 24 years. He joined the supermarket in 1995 and has held a number of high profile roles in the business since, in both the UK and Asia.

Jason led the Tesco wine business from 2004, following senior buying roles across the impulse categories. In 2009 he became a director and in 2011 relocated to Asia to take the role of Commercial Director for Tesco Malaysia. Returning to the UK in 2016, Jason became Tesco Convenience Product Director and in the same year was appointed Commercial Director of Tesco subsidiary business One Stop, a board position he still holds. Jason was reunited with his old team in early 2019, when he took the role of Director for Beers, Wines and Spirits.

Jason cites his time in the Tesco wine team as a particular career highlight and was eager to return to a role working with the UK drinks industry and to reigniting a personal passion for wine.

A keen foodie and global traveller, when he’s not exploring the world with wife Jodi, Jason can be found on the golf course or else experiencing the highs and lows of life as a Manchester City supporter.

Trish leads the Grocery sales team and has worked at the company for over four years.

She started her career with PLB Group before moving to Morrisons as a wine buyer. It was during this period that Trish was recognised as one of The Grocer’s Top New Talents in 2013.

After a period in Australia, managing private and exclusive label sourcing for Coles Liquor, she returned to the UK and moved to sales, managing National Accounts for Negociants UK and later Fells. She joined Frexienet Copestick in 2019 as Senior National Account Manager, before being promoted to Grocery Controller in 2022.

Trish is a WSET Diploma graduate and scholarship winner. She also recently became a Mental Health First Aider and have become a mentor for The Drinks Trust.

Outside of work Trish enjoys outdoor adventures and travelling with her husband and two young sons, long distance trail running, politics and history podcasts and audiobooks. She is currently working towards completing 250 parkruns and already has 100 under her belt.

James Miles was born in Hong Kong and attended school and university in the UK. He started his career with Jardine Fleming Investment Management in Hong Kong in 1991, before becoming an equities analyst and strategist with Asia Equity (which later became Banque Paribas and then BNP Paribas). He moved to London in 1997 and left banking in March 2000 to set up Liv-ex. Liv-ex is the global marketplace for the wine trade. We help more than 500 wine merchants in 40 countries to price, buy and sell wine.

Elizabeth Newman is Director of Operations for Nectar360 at Sainsbury’s.  Back in 2013, whilst heading up the trading insights team at Sainsbury’s, Elizabeth worked with the BWS team to develop its 5 year alcohol strategy.   It was a natural step to later join to the BWS team to deliver the strategy and was promoted to Category Director in June 2015.   Elizabeth leads a large multi skilled team responsible for partnering with global alcohol producers to enable Sainsbury’s to provide the best drinks choices to its customers; developing and delivering strategies for growth of branded and of course Sainsbury’s own label drinks. Developing a sustainable and responsible industry is a top priority for Elizabeth. Elizabeth is passionate about the industry and recently achieved her WSET Level 3 qualification. Prior to Sainsbury’s, Elizabeth held various roles in the market research and media industries.

Danielle manages a team covering commercial, operational and trade marketing roles. Rémy-Cointreau UK – part of the Remy Cointreau Group – has a long-term vision to be the UK’s most inspiring and sustainable premium wine and spirits company, and e-Commerce is one of the key strategic drivers for the group.

Having previously worked in spirits and beer in various sales and marketing roles, primarily specialising in the Grocery channel, Danielle took the dive into the world of e-Commerce mid pandemic in 2020. She has loved the dynamism and fast pace of e-Commerce where things are constantly evolving and there is always something new to learn.

A lover of good food and drink, Danielle has a real passion for the industry and relish the opportunity to provide even a small contribution to its sustainable future. She is always eager to taste and discover products from the amazing array of producers and distributors within our wonderful industry. Her husband’s family are from the Cognac region of France and produce their own Pineau des Charentes, and Danielle particularly loves taking part in their annual vendange and helping with the production – and tasting! – of product.

Outside of her professional role she also holds a voluntary role in the education sector as Vice Chair for the Local Advisory Board of a Primary school. And proving she likes to take on a challenge in the past few years Danielle has taken up BMX racing so many of her weekends are now taken up training or travelling to various races along with her two boys.

In May 2020, Moët Hennessy UK Ltd. appointed Alexei Rosin as the new Managing Director for UK and Ireland, leading the third largest market in the world for premium wines and spirits. With over 25 years of experience within the industry, Alexei will manage the Moët Hennessy portfolio in charge of iconic brands including Dom Pérignon, Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot and Hennessy.

Moët Hennessy UK Ltd.

Lizzy Rudd started her career at Berry Bros. & Rudd in the marketing team, where she was responsible for building the global reputation of the firm’s renowned whisky brand Cutty Sark.

When Lizzy left the company almost a decade later to concentrate on her young family, she was appointed to the Board as a Non-Executive Director. She was appointed the role of Deputy Chairman in 2005, working alongside Chairman Simon Berry and in December 2017, Lizzy took on the role of the company’s Chairman following Simon’s retirement and in January 2019 she was announced as the Company’s Executive Chairman.

Lizzy has played a fundamental role in the establishment of the Family Board which sits alongside the Executive Board and has played an integral part in the work carried out on the restructuring and governance of the Executive Board.

Lizzy has also been central in communicating the vision of Berry Bros. & Rudd on behalf of the Rudd and Berry families.  This vision has been essential in guiding the planned direction of the company and feeds directly into the overall strategy for Berry Bros & Rudd.

When back home in Norfolk and well away from the wine and spirits industry, Lizzy has a particular interest in plants and botanicals. She is a qualified nutritionist and naturopath and enjoys creating tinctures and infusions with a wide variety of herbs and botanicals that she grows and collects herself.

Lara manages the end-to-end supply chain and day to day operations of the business, whilst championing close working partnerships with internal and external key stakeholders. Lara worked in the wine industry for over 15 year, starting her wine trade career at Charles Taylors Wines, then progressing to Mentzendorff.

Lara sits on the Mentzendorff leadership team. She enjoys leading cross functional projects, setting and implementing strategies and leading teams to deliver company objectives.

Lara is passionate about people and says she values the privilege of managing a team, motivating them to collaboratively to meet shared goals and championing personal development.

As part of Mentzendorff’s CSR strategy, Lara has taken part in charity endeavours where she has led work experience days for children excluded from schools with the Dallaglio Foundation and put together CSR Team Champion roles from each department where they most recently created a Company Celebration Calendar, focused on celebrating inclusion and diversity in the workplace.

Cotswolds Distillery founder Daniel Szor was born and raised in New York City and has spent most of his professional life living in Paris and London, specializing in the sales & marketing of currency investment management services. He was a member of senior management of New York-based Currency Manager FX Concepts for over 25 years, setting up and running offices for them in both Paris and London. It was during his years in Paris that Daniel was first bitten by the whisky bug. Years later, while living in London Daniel and his wife purchased an old farmhouse in the North Cotswolds and gradually fell in love with this most beautiful corner of Britain. Aware of the phenomenal growth of interest in craft spirits in the USA, Daniel decided to combine his love of whisky and the Cotswolds by creating the first-ever full-scale distillery in the region, with a focus on premium small-batch gin and single malt whisky made with local ingredients. His Cotswolds Distillery is now one of the fastest-growing premium spirits brands, thanks to their award-winning spirits which are now sold in over 30 countries. The distillery receives over 30,000 visitors every year, and is now a top-rated attraction in the Cotswolds per TripAdvisor.

Caroline brings a range of leadership, innovation, commercial and customer skills to the role of Managing Director, Europe at Accolade Wines. With 18 years’ experience in the drinks industry – mainly in wine – Caroline leads Accolade Wines European commercial business with a focus on customers and consumers. Caroline was previously Marketing Director for the European business working on brand, customer and consumer strategy. Before joining Accolade Wines, Caroline worked at Treasury Wine Estates and Diageo across the Europe and Americas regions. Caroline holds an executive MBA from Cass Business School in London, graduating with a distinction.