Jeff Meisel

April 2022 - August 2024: Vice President and General Manager, DTC Wine & Spirits at Constellation Brands, as well as the head of the DTC Center of Excellence. In April 2022, I stood up this new channel at Constellation Brands to oversee one of three core revenue channels of the Wine & Spirits Division (US Wholesale and International are the other two.) DTC at Constellation brings together three key sub-channels: (1) DTC eCommerce, (2) Hospitality - because the consumer journey often begins on-site!, (3) Consumer Loyalty which includes Clubs / Recurring Revenue, Corporate/Direct Sales, and DTC Luxury Ambassadors. Additionally, my leadership team consisted of 4 key cross-functional areas: DTC Operations, DTC Finance, DTC IT, and DTC Creative services, in addition to a PMO.

As the General Manager of DTC, I lead and am responsible for the P&L for all of the "sites": websites and hospitality sites. We are also the tip of the spear for global consumer engagement and awareness for all of our wineries and distilleries. I am proud to have led this diverse and incredible team.

The DTC Center of Excellence provides thought leadership, strategy, vision, and processes for the entire division.

• Lead a team of over 150 FTE
• +34% YoY Net Sales growth in first full year in role, 59% GP
• +10% YoY Net Sales growth in second full year in role, 60% GP, +20% over market & comp
• On pace this year to hit plan of +10% YoY Net Sales and 61% GP

August 2021 - April 2022: I joined Constellation on the Brand Management team as Senior Director & General Manager of Brand Integration. I worked closely with the Corporate Development team here at Constellation, leading the business side of due diligence prior to deal closing. From here, I worked closely with a variety of teams across the company to integrate the talented team of people that joined us from the wineries we acquired, while maintaining the integrity and preserving the quality of the wines produced.

• Acquisition closed November 2021: Paso Robles based Booker Vineyard / My Favorite Neighbor / Harvey & Harriett
• Acquisition closed March 2022: Lingua Franca in Willamette Valley, OR.

I focused on elevating the brand reputation and increasing market share of Long Meadow Ranch Winery, Hunt & Harvest Wines, and Farmstead at Long Meadow Ranch. I achieve this through trade and industry relations, brand events - virtual and in-person, diverse partnerships, education, public relations, and of course, sales. Responsibilities and include:

• Created and executed strategic brand management plan to increase awareness and build sustainable sales growht across wholesale, and DTC.
• 2020 Pivot: Launched and lead a new sales channel for corporate virtual tastings, resulting in 18% of gross DTC sales in 2020, 3000+ new potential customers, 90+ companies for on-going sales growth
• DTC: lead team for two years and oversaw growth in all channels: ecommerce, telesales, wine club, and hospitality
• Brand: created and execute LMR on the road programming including trade, consumer, charity, and press events
• PR & Comms: Lead all public relations, communications, advertising, community, and paid media.
• Business Development: develop, built & executed partnerships. Examples include: Tesla, Netjets, and Marriott
• Education: lead and executed brand and wine education both internally and externally across multiple teams
• Wine & Innovation: participated in blending trials with winemaking and executive team, and developed new products for commercial release
• Ambassador: represented the wineries at events globally

Cameron Hughes Wine is an American Negociant, offering exceptional wines at extraordinary prices. The company was founded in 2001 by Cameron Hughes and Jessica Kogan. Objectives, responsibilities, and goals achieved included:

• Increased revenue of high-end CH Wines over $35 by 20%
• Growth in the customer base in preferred demographics by 18%
• Reduced discounting of wine by 10% through referral marketing and alternate programming
• Increased consumer database from 61K to 96K through partnerships, referral programs, sweepstakes
• Launched, curated and co-founded "Friends of Cam", a new to market DTC channel offering curated selections of imported wines offered to the CHWine customer database. Results: incremental revanue of $20K+ per offer, $250+ AOV, and 25%+ first time customers

As the founder of the luxury wine and spirits DTC business Merchants of Beverage, I created the concept, personally worked with developers, and built the business model for what was the most elegant, online destination for flawless client and corporate gifting of highly curated wine and spirits. We leveraged cutting-edge technology tools to change the way consumers and businesses sent gifts, and purchased DTC wine and spirits.

"The smart new site that takes the guesswork out of gifting." - Forbes

Our belief was that gifting amazing wine and spirits to clients in an elegant platform is an essential tool to build relationships - it shows appreciation, care and class.

• Integrated Twilio text messaging into our site in 2014: Our innovative instant gifting feature upgraded the way people, especially businesses, sent gifts.
• 99.6% redemption rate of gifts sent electronically
• 10% conversion of gift recipient becoming gift giver in 30 days
• $5M run rate for first full calendar year
• Business closed due to investor relations issues

Gilt was an innovative online shopping destination offering its members special access to the most inspiring merchandise and experiences every day, many at insider prices. Gilt City, the local lifestyle site from the Gilt Groupe, offered memorable adventures and exclusive offers that seeked to inspire and encourage our luxury-minded members to love their city more.

GiltCity.com – Wine & Spirits Consultant – Business Development Team

• Report to COO/President of GiltCity.com
• Created digital marketing programs across all Gilt channels with wine and spirits companies
• Developed and managed strategic partnerships with corporations and brands such as Pernod-Ricard, Bacardi, Diageo, Dom Perignon and Veuve Clicquot –on track for $1.5MM in 2013
• Create retail network for e-commerce of wine and spirits across multiple states
• Targeted, negotiated and secured wine & spirits sponsorships for events
• Served as liaison to legal team to ensure compliance with state liquor laws

GiltTaste.com – Wine Director

• Reported to Co-Founder of Gilt Groupe
• Developed and executed the marketing and strategic plan for the wine category of Gilt Groupe
• Launched direct-to-consumer e-commerce wine business from $0 in 2011 to $2.5M in 2012
• Rewrote Financial Model forecasting and on plan to be profitable in 2013
• Created strategic partnerships with brands, importers, distributors, retailers
• Featured in media: profiled in Gentry Magazine – (pg 72&74) http:// mydigimag.rrd.com/publication/?i=103418

Founded in 1999, Domaine Select was a leading US boutique importer and wholesaler of Fine Wines and Artisanal Spirits, representing more than 80 world-class producers in 14 countries. In 2010, DSWS was awarded Food & Wine Magazine’s Importer of the Year.

• VP of Business Development, final 4 years
• Initiated, created, developed and managed new sales channels, representing over 20% of company’s revenue with gross profit margin of 30%
• Launched and managed the 3-tier e-commerce via select partnerships and programs: wine.com, garagiste, Global Wine Co, Lot18, etc.
• Hotels: new core placements at Ritz Carlton, Renaissance, JDV, Kimpton
• Chain / big box retail: Costco, Cost Plus World Market, Whole Foods Market
• Negotiated partnerships with national restaurant groups including Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining, Biaggi’s and BR Guest
• Integral part in growing revenue for company from $1MM to $31MM during my tenure, with responsibility for 20% of revenue
• Executed sales and marketing plans for over fifty wineries and twelve distilleries
• Developed proprietary wine brands from concept to completion - 50K 9LE cases per year in year three
• Managed seven sales representatives, three regional managers & over twenty distributors
• Lead education trips to European wine growing regions for sales teams and key clients
• Represented company at industry events including Aspen Food & Wine Classic, Tales of the Cocktail, Wine Spectator Grand Tour, Vinitaly, VinExpo and ProWein

wiredKitchen.com was an online marketplace that connected full service restaurants to food suppliers with great procurement options and inventory management tools. It was one of the first to tackle this inefficiency in the restaurant industry.

• Developed business plan and raised $2M in angel and PE capital
• Developed strategic alliances with restaurants and purveyors
• Recruited Advisory Board of industry professionals
• Developed and implemented sales & marketing strategy and revenue model
• As beta test was concluding, due to market conditions in the summer of 2001, wiredKitchen was forced to suspend operations