Michael Traverso Email & Phone Number

California, United States

Napa, CA

Serving on the leadership team of a luxury wine marketer and importer, manages brands and a multimillion dollar budget.Identifies, pitches, secures, onboards and launches Napa, Sonoma and European brands. Works with in-house counsel to negotiate contracts; collaborates with the operations team to ensure TTB import compliance; and oversees resource and wine.

Santa Rosa, CA

Recruited into the role, planned and launched the marketing strategy in conjunction with the executive team and owners for 11 international (i.e., Italy, France, Australia, Chile, South Africa) wineries and the domestic ultra-premium winery Verite. Integrated the marketing strategy with the PR and communication teams. Prepared marketing content.

Saint Helena, CA

Governed 15 luxury brands and a multimillion dollar budget. Directed and developed the national 31-person sales team. Spearheaded programming, distribution and sales for Italian brands in the U.S. three-tier system.Built the portfolio; worked with Accounting and Legal to negotiate contracts, import agreements and tariffs with new brands; and completed.

Santa Rosa, CA

Established a 300+-member organization to promote Single Malt Whisky and international artisanal spirits. Partnered with global spirits brand ambassadors, master distillers and the California Artisanal Spirits Guild to garner: 1) society credibility, 2) access to brand samples, and 3) authentic storytelling. Arranged and gave eight tastings with 60 to 80.

Healdsburg, CA

Trained, coached and managed 15 DTC sales staff for a winery that produced 30K cases of hand-crafted wine annually. Building out the new tasting salon experience, designed processes, tours, tastings and collateral.Planned four large events annually with up to 5K attendees and 12 small events with 20 to 100 attendees.Key ResultsGalvanized the DTC channel by.

Santa Rosa, CA

Working for a venerable family-owned specialty retail market, managed and coached two FTEs. Facilitated weekly wine and spirits tastings, new release events and off-site tasting events annually. Joining with a local travel agency, led three trips to Spain, France and Italy. Delivered classroom wine education and hosted excursions for 15 to 30 attendees..