When Caroline Thompson-Hill was appointed Managing Director at Accolade Wines in 2020, she set herself two challenges – to make the wine industry more sustainable and more diverse. As the leading global wine supplier, Caroline believes there is no better company to drive this shift than Accolade Wines.
With 17 years’ experience in the drinks industry – mainly in wine – Caroline brings a range of leadership, innovation, commercial and customer skills to the role of Managing Director at Accolade Wines.
Caroline was previously Marketing Director for Accolade Wines European business working on brand, customer and consumer strategy. Before joining Accolade Wines in 2019, Caroline worked at Treasury Wine Estates and Diageo across the Europe and America regions. Caroline holds an executive MBA from Cass Business School in London, graduating with a distinction.
Appointed Managing Director amid the COVID-19 crisis, Caroline had to navigate and overcome challenges beyond those she set herself. Caroline says, “2020 was a crazy year for all of us,” however, throughout the year Caroline recognised that keeping perspective was the most useful thing she could do.
“I learnt a huge amount throughout the year but the one piece of advice I reminded myself of often was ‘control the controllables’. We will always face challenges, but we need to direct energy into what we can actually do / change / effect,” continued Caroline. In the spirit of this can-do attitude, Caroline delivered on one of her major career goals – to make the wine industry more sustainable by taking Accolade Europe Carbon Neutral in 2020.
When asked what wines at Accolade are her favourite, Caroline humbly responds, “Such a tricky question! There are so many fantastic wines to choose from. The quality of the Hardys HRB range always blows my mind and, of course, when there’s something to celebrate it has to be House of Arras.”
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