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Woman Of The Year
Award Winner
Caroline Whitfield, CEO, Blackwood Distillers PLC
Tiring of London, Caroline Whitfied began looking at alternative places to live in the UK – a bolthole, somewhere remote perhaps. The Shetland Isles caught her eye, a place she had visited in her childhood and looking at the geography and landscape she marvelled at the quality of the whisky that must be produced there. And when Caroline realised there was no distillery…well, the rest is history as they say. Since setting up the company, Blackwood Distillers, Whitfield has also launched Dry Gin, Atlantic Gin, Vodka and a Vodka Cream.
After leaving Oxford University in 1986 she gained vast experience in global marketing and management. She has extensive international food and drink experience, gained from her range of senior management positions at Unilever. She has also acted as advisor to Diageo and is a member of the Innovation Board at the Department of Trade and Industry as well as a main board trustee and director of the Princess of Wales Memorial Fund.
Her key skills, and the experience she has gained, will prove vital in developing company strategies for the success of the distillery. Caroline has strong Scottish and Scandinavian links and feels a great personal affinity with Shetland.
The Shortlist 2005
CHRISTINE FORNER, CEO, UNION VITI-VINICOLA SA
Christine Forner began her working career at Château Camensac, Grand Cru Classé in Haut-Médoc, which belonged to her family. It was here she developed her sales technique, through targeting private consumers and wine clubs, which gave her the opportunity to understand the very strong image acquired by the fine wines of Bordeaux. But it was when her father enticed her to work at Bodegas Marqués de Cáceres, a company that he founded in 1970, that Forner really took off. She has never looked back and has been instrumental in building the reputation for quality that Rioja wines enjoy today.
ANGELA MOUNT, WINE BUYER, SOMERFIELD
Famous for insuring her taste buds for £10m (compared to the meagre US$400,000 for Egon Ronay’s, and £500,000 for Anthony Worrall Thomson’s), Mount is responsible for increasing wine sales at 600 Somerfield stores by 15% last year. But it hasn’t always been so easy, to get where she is now she had to start at the bottom, her first job after graduating from Oxford was to sell Jack Daniel’s to working men’s clubs in the North West. But in 1991 Mount’s talents had been spotted and she was approached by Gateway to head up the wine buying team for project Somerfield, where she has gone from strength to strength.
MARIA LUZ MARIN, MD, CASA MARÃN
Maria Luz Marin;s professional development has succeeded through a blend of passion, resilience, endurance and entrepreneurship. She founded Viña Casa MarÃn in 2000. Indeed she was the first female winemaker to work in the Chilean private sector and in 1998 was awarded the ‘Business Woman of the Year’ title by one of Chile;s most prestigeous banks. Today, the dream of having a vineyard of her own is a reality and she is committed to the development of premium wines in a new terroir from a region previously unknown to grape growing.