Long Island Wine Council will have a new executive director Sept. 1.
The council’s marketing director Ali Tuthill will succeed Steve Bate in that position, taking over strategic and operational responsibility for the council and reporting to its board of directors, the L.I. Wine Council said in a press release issued today. Bate has been the organization’s executive director since 2004.
“We thank our ongoing executive director Steve Bate for his many years of distinguished service that brought LIWC to the prominence it enjoys today,” L.I. Wine Council president Roman Roth said in the release. “With Ali Tutill’s consumer insights and deep passion for our wines and our region, she is blazing a new trail to place us front and center of the global wine world. As executive director, her natural strengths as a leader, motivator and mentor will further energize our member wineries and build upon Steve’s legacy.”
Tuthill was named marketing director in April. She launched the “Created with Character” initiative, spotlighting the region’s wines that are distinct due to their character, which derives from the region’s terroir and maritime climate, and to the winemakers who capture nature in their bottlings. Her accomplishments include a redesign of LIWC’s logo, reimagining its website to be consumer-friendly and hosting experiential events for media and industry members that also embrace the region’s food artisans.
She also engaged Hospitality Quotient, the organizational consulting business from Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group, to provide LIWC’s member wineries with the tools to create a best-of-class customer experience to benefit visitors to the wineries, neighbors and the East End as a whole. She will continue to build upon the “Created with Character” intiative as Executive Director.
Prior to joining LIWC, Tuthill worked at PUMA for seven years in Westford, Mass. at various positions of increasing responsibility as she rose through the company’s ranks. During that time, she developed and executed the company’s North American brand and product marketing campaigns for the U.S., managed a multi-million dollar cooperative marketing budget spanning custom marketing programs and oversaw the North American media planning and buying agency’s seasonal campaigns.
Tuthill’s marketing career began with four years of stints at New York-based marketing and media companies that included Anomaly, ESPN and Wieden + Kennedy. She is a graduate of Lafayette College in Easton, Pa. with a B.A. in Psychology and English. While at Lafayette, she was an NCAA Division 1 athlete in swimming and lacrosse and a three-time Academic All-American. She resides in Sea Cliff, Long Island with her husband and three children and spends weekends on Shelter Island, where she summered when growing up.
“Being named executive director is the ultimate vote of confidence in my work to date,” says Tuthill.
“I am excited to implement strategy-based organizational objectives that embrace everything from marketing and promotions to community and governmental relations. Long Island’s East End is on the move and I couldn’t be prouder to help lead the charge to spotlight our wines and the inspired artisans who produce them.”
