Meet the Team

Lulie is co-founder and CEO of Wine Intelligence and regarded as a leading thinker in the world of wine business strategy. Prior to co-founding Wine Intelligence, she developed expertise in the wine industry, with hands-on roles in importing, marketing & retailing. Her passion for wine started during summer holidays as a child, when she was frequently taken to the vineyards of France.

She is an established marketing academic, focusing on wine consumer behaviour and continues to teach and supervise on master’s programmes around the world. Alongside her passions for food and wine, she focuses on exploring what makes consumers behave the way they do. She specialises in qualitative research practices and trend research, constantly developing new ways to uncover the processes of the subconscious mind.

Lulie is a frequent and valued speaker at many international wine industry and academic conferences around the world and the proud mum of two teenage children. She holds a master’s in marketing from Kingston Business School, and is a Certified Member of the Market Research Society.

Richard is co-founder and COO at Wine Intelligence. He leads the company’s strategy practice and works closely with multinational clients on product development, branding and routes to market projects.

Richard’s early working life was spent in business journalism, including spells as a staff writer on the Independent on Sunday and the Mail on Sunday. After taking his MBA, Richard entered the world of wine when he was appointed the first Business Development Manager of Virgin Wines shortly after its launch.

Today Richard is in demand as a speaker, writer and lecturer. He is a regular on the international conference circuit. Recent teaching engagements include the Bordeaux Wine MBA programme, the OIV master’s programme and the master’s in Wine Business at Trieste University. Richard is a Certified Member of the Market Research Society and holds an MBA with distinction from London Business School. He is a graduate of Brown University.

Chris is a qualified chartered accountant with 25 years of global experience in corporate finance. He is currently Partner and CFO of Farm Street LLP, Non-Executive Director at Inspecs Holdings Ltd and Non-executive Director of Icelandic Water Holdings hf. Previously Chris spent many years in senior corporate finance roles in the City, most recently with JPMorgan Cazenove.

Chris has worked with Wine Intelligence for a number of years, chiefly on the corporate finance side, and brings with him a deep knowledge of business growth in an international context.

Brian is one of the three founders of Wine Intelligence and served as the company’s Business Development Director from its launch in 2001 up until his retirement at the end of 2010. He still acts as an advisor to Wine Intelligence, particularly on projects where his specialist knowledge proves valuable. Brian has led several strategy projects for generic bodies over the past seven years, including work for trade associations in Portugal, France and Chile.

Based in Avignon as Director of Wine Intelligence France, Jean-Philippe is one of France’s leading wine industry researchers. He holds a PhD in wine marketing from the Agronomic Engineer School of Montpellier, where he was a lecturer in wine marketing and accountancy for five years before joining Wine Intelligence. During his PhD, he specialised in conjoint analysis methodologies and has published several academic papers on the subject in conjunction with wine consumer behaviour research. He has presented most notably at the French Marketing Association conferences and at the Wine Marketing Symposium in Sonoma.

Jean-Philippe joined Wine Intelligence in 2005 and was appointed Research Director in 2008. On returning to France in 2012, he opened the company’s office in Avignon, where he has led numerous research and strategy projects in over 15 markets. He developed his passion for wine spending time in Corbières, where his family make wine.

Juan has worked at Wine Intelligence since 2007 and has been Director for Spain and South America since mid-2016. He is currently the head of the Wine Intelligence Spain office located in Valladolid and works with clients from Spain, Portugal, Chile, Brazil and Argentina. Prior to this he was Research Director working in the UK office for more than 10 years.

After graduating with a degree in sociology from the University of Salamanca, Spain, he worked in Madrid as a marketing analyst. He came to London in 2005 to study for his MSc in social research methods from the London School of Economics. Juan also holds the WSET Advanced Certificate in Wine and Spirits and the Market Research Society’s Advanced Certificate.

Wilhelm is the Country Manager for Germany, Austria and Switzerland and is responsible for the coordination of research projects and business development in these markets.

He has over 25 years of wine marketing experience, working for Segnitz import in Germany, Newton Vineyards in California and numerous projects for the wine industry with Wine-Networks, a marketing consultancy he founded in 2001. Since 2012, Wilhelm has worked as Associate Director for Wine Intelligence.

In addition to his strong involvement in the wine industry, Wilhelm can draw on a broad competence base from his position as partner of Arthur D. Little, where he is responsible for the competence centres of consumer goods and strategy & organization in Central Europe.

He holds a degree as Engineer in Winemaking and Viticulture from the University Geisenheim and an MBA with major in wine marketing from the University of San Francisco.

Based in Italy, Pierpaolo is a wine consultant to the Italian wine industry, as well as a wine marketing lecturer.
He collaborates with several Italian wine consortiums, associations and wineries in the areas of strategy, marketing, communication & PR, product development and wine tourism. His articles on Italian wine have been published in several leading magazines.

After a master’s degree in tourism management at MIB Trieste School of Management, one of the major Italian business school, he has decided to combine his professional knowledge and his personal passion for wine with managerial education. He is currently the Managing Director of the Wine Business courses at MIB Trieste School of Management and visiting lecturer on wine marketing for Universities, Business Schools and other institutions.

Based in São Paulo, Rodrigo is a market consultant to the Brazilian wine industry and is responsible for coordinating research and strategy projects there. He started his wine career in 2005, primarily involved with marketing and portfolio management for major importers.

Rodrigo has extensive experience dealing with distribution at different channels, team management and wine branding. He has a bachelor’s degree in business administration at Fundação Getúlio Vargas and is the first Brazilian to hold a Wine MBA at Bordeaux Management School (Kedge). Apart from the consultancy, he is a wine business professor at Associação Brasileira de Sommeliers and tasting member for Prazeres da Mesa magazine. Rodrigo holds the WSET level 3 qualification.

Dimitri runs operations for Wine Intelligence in South Africa.

He holds an Honours degree in marketing and economics from the University of Cape Town. Dimitri has held several leading positions in marketing and in the wine & spirit business in South Africa, being responsible for the marketing of both local and international brands for large South African producers.

Luis joined Wine Intelligence in October 2014 after two years as a consultant in an auditing and consulting firm, where he developed strategy related projects in Portuguese-speaking countries in industries such as oil & gas, banking, media and retail. Prior to this, he spent two years developing entrepreneurial projects, including start-ups and an NGO. He also did a six-month internship with a major Portuguese wine producer.

Luis graduated from Lisbon Technical University with a BA in architecture / civil engineering and later with a master’s degree in business administration majoring in strategy from the Catholic University of Portugal. He also holds the WSET Level 2 qualification in wines and spirits.

Luis’ passion for wine started early within his family of wine producers; he then went on to launch a wine bar and in one year he opened five more wine bars in Lisbon, later selling the company and making a valuable profit.

Ben joined Wine Intelligence in late 2016 as a project executive before he quickly advanced to managing the wider Australia, New Zealand and Asia region. His passion for the industry has allowed him to gain insight first hand in the US, UK, India, Japan, NZ and in his home country of Australia. He has over a decade of experience working in nearly every aspect of the wine industry, ranging from fine dining restaurant, independent retail, commercial sales and winemaking operations. He was the first international harvest intern with Big Table Farm in Oregon, USA and has also undertaken vintage with Bleasdale Wines in Langhorne Creek, South Australia. He has a Bachelor of Business (Tourism and Hospitality) from La Trobe University, an Advanced Diploma of Hospitality from William Blue College of Hospitality Management and has completed the WSET Level 3 Advanced course. When he isn’t busy researching consumer behaviour, Ben produces a small amount of wine from the western Victoria under the Good Clean Fun label.

Yasmin joined Wine Intelligence in November 2016 after finishing her master’s in social research at Goldsmiths, University of London. While there, Yasmin was able to develop her quantitative and qualitative research skills and learned to enjoy SPSS.

Courtney joined Wine Intelligence in January 2018 after earning her master’s degree with distinction in Publishing from UCL where she took modules in marketing, design and production. She has a background in journalism and publishing and attended Wake Forest University for her BA (Hons) in English Language and Literature and minor in linguistics and grammar.

She has now completed the WSET Level 2 qualification and is responsible for all marketing and external communications at Wine Intelligence, including press releases and website maintenance.

Mélanie joined Wine Intelligence France in August 2015 as a Research Analyst. She graduated from the University of Nîmes in the south of France, with a master’s degree in social environmental psychology, where she developed a passion for research methodologies. Social psychology uses similar tools for quantitative and qualitative research – knowledge that she uses every day in projects for the company’s French customers.  Growing up in the south of France surrounded by vineyards, wine has always been a part of her daily life. Melanie has completed the WSET level 2 qualification.

Jasmin joined Wine Intelligence in September 2017 after graduating from the University of Southampton with a BSc degree in population and geography. Her joint honours degree in social statistics, demography and geography was where she first discovered her passion for data and quantitative methods.

During her gap year, Jasmin travelled to various countries including New Zealand, Singapore and Vietnam, and is now enjoying expanding her knowledge of both quantitative research and the wine industry.

Tina joined Wine Intelligence in May 2018. She has a BSc in International Business Administration from the Vienna University of Economics and Business, where she specialised in Market Research. Her love of wine lead her to a Masters degree in Vineyard and Winery Management at Bordeaux Sciences Agro in France. She has also worked in a cellar during harvest at a Château in Bordeaux, but she now connects her two areas of study at Wine Intelligence.

Gemma joined Wine Intelligence in August 2018 after graduating from the University of East Anglia with a BSc in Psychology. During her studies, Gemma studied in Australia for a year, where she visited some of the country’s renowned wine regions. Throughout her degree she has developed skills in both quantitative and qualitative research methods.

Lora joined Wine Intelligence in January 2019. She has a BSc in Psychology from the University of Nottingham where her interest in research began. She has just completed her master’s degree in Research Methods in Psychology from UCL. Her love of wine started after spending summers in the south of France wine tasting.

Haley joined Wine Intelligence in May 2019 after completing an internship with the company in 2018. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA, in 2018 with a BS in Environmental Sciences and a BA in Geography. In university her studies focused on analysing data for hurricane prediction in her home state of North Carolina, and she is now transferring those skills to analysing the wine industry.

Irene joined Wine Intelligence in September 2019 after completing her master’s degree in Social and Public Communication at the London School of Economics. She has a background in quantitative and qualitative research methods from her Bachelor in Sociology and Psychology at the University of York. Her passion for wine started early as she grew up in a family of wine producers

Tian Joined Wine Intelligence in September 2019. He has background in International Marketing and Sport Business, where he obtained knowledge and skills of quantitative and qualitative research. His passion about wine is derived from ladies in his family.

Max joined Wine Intelligence in December 2019, after discovering his passion for wine whilst working in a wine shop. He is now studying International Wine Business (BSc) in Geisenheim, gaining experience in both quantitative and qualitative research. Previously, Max spent time working in a marketing agency and began studies in economics and law. 

Eilidh joined Wine Intelligence in February 2020. During her Geography MA at the University of Edinburgh, she specialised in analysing wine and more specifically, the English sparkling wine market. Following this, her enthusiasm for wine led her to work in wine production and then as a wine and spirits buyer, before re-entering the world of wine market research.  

Sophie joined Wine Intelligence in January 2021. She has a MSc in Research methods, and 8 years’ experience in research, having worked on projects for Cambridge University, UCL and most recently as a data analysis for a ticketing company. Her love of wine started helping her granddad make his own home made wine.