Building forts out of empty Carlo Rossi boxes as a kid may seem abnormal to most people, but that’s how I spent many afternoons in my families liquor store in Kingston, NY in the early 1980’s. So when I turned 21 in 2000, it seemed natural to pursue a position in the wine & spirits industry. After acquiring a sales job with Wine Merchants Ltd., I was able to learn and sell the E&J Gallo portfolio by having top notch sales training from some of the best in the business. Since then, it has been very exciting selling many different Portfolios and learning about every area of the industry.After the Gallo Portfolio moved to Colony W&L, I transitioned into a Wine Manager as they started to add more premium wines at Gallo. Then, after another merger that created Empire Merchants North, I moved into a fine manager role selling the entire wine portfolio at Empire in the Albany, NY area (Oct '08-Sept'09) to a Field Sales Manager in the Albany, NY area (Oct'09-June'11) managing 6 sales reps with over 700 on and off premise accounts.I wanted to challenge myself from a different area of the wine industry so I joined the supplier side as the Regional Sales Director-New England at Precept Wine overseeing 7 states (July'11-May'12). In June of 2012, I joined O’Neill Vintners & Distillers as part of the inaugural sales team as the Northeast Regional Manager covering from Maryland up to Maine. In June of 2015, I was promoted to VP of Sales - Eastern US, which I still hold today.My goal is to keep challenging myself by working hard, teaching and educating sales reps, managers, distributors and retailers on the benefits of drinking, selling and enjoying wine.