Mark Davidson, Head of Education Development - North America, Wine Australia (Iowa, USA)

Mark Davidson, Head of Education Development - North America, Wine Australia (Iowa, USA)

Cathy Huyghe
Educator

Years in the industry: 
I started working Saturdays doing roll-ups at Pancakes on the Rocks restaurant in Sydney in 1975 so I guess that is 45 years! Damn! I am old!

I went through Hotel and Catering Management college from 1979 to 1981 in Sydney. Started in kitchens initially then moved to front of house. Traveled a lot from 1983 to 1985 then moved to Canada. Took a wine appreciation course in 1986 and that changed my direction. Decided that wine is where I wanted to be and pursued a career as a sommelier.

Back then sommelier was an unknown word never mind profession. I started a wine school in Vancouver BC and ran it while managing wine programs in a couple of different restaurants. I was approached by Wine Australia in 2009 and while I have had a few different roles, working domestically and with the global team, I am now Head of Education Development for North America.
 
My Biggest Challenge to Wellness:
Pre-COVID the demands of travel were always a challenge. Irregular schedule and eating habits, interrupted sleep patterns and finding the time for regular exercise and fitness.

I have an amazing wife who also travelled for work but we always manage to be patient and understanding with one another. Frankly, just finding time to do things that remove me from daily stresses was the most challenging element.

COVID has presented different challenges. No travel but the mental gymnastics required to navigate the current situation are not without stress. The uncertainty is hard. Watching all my hospitality friends and colleagues struggle has been torturous to say the least.

How I Keep It Together to Stay Well:
Trying to remain positive. Being appreciative of what I do have rather than want I don’t. The recent situation has brought our family closer together which is a source of comfort.

I have always been someone that needs a sport or activity that keeps me in the moment. That idea that while you are doing this activity or thing, nothing else is in focus. Something to calm an over-active mind. When I was younger it was surfing. Now it is fly fishing. Strolling waist deep in a cold, spring fed creek has literally kept me sane during the last nine months. I don’t even care if I’m not catching fish, the sound of the moving water soothes my soul.

I also have a ritual of making tea for my wife in the morning. We drink it in bed and discuss the day. It is my favourite part of the day. Exercise is critical to being mentally well. I turn into a baby orangutan if I don’t regularly go to the gym, go running or play tennis….or something.
 
You can connect with Mark on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Cathy Huyghe
Educator
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Cathy Huyghe

Cathy Huyghe is a dynamic media professional with a special interest in wine and the spirit of hospitality. She is also an effective, engaging public speaker on subjects ranging from wine and gastronomy to digital media and entrepreneurship.

Cathy is the co-founder and CEO of Enolytics, a big data startup providing business intelligence for the wine industry. She also currently writes for Forbes.com about the business and politics of the wine industry, and for Inc.com about entrepreneurs with a special focus on women. She is the author of the award-winning book Hungry for Wine: Seeing the World through the Lens of a Wine Glass; she was a finalist for the 2016 IWSC Wine Communicator of the Year award; and she won the 2016 Innovator of the Year award from Diaz Communications.

Cathy's writing has appeared in print and online for both general-interest and wine industry publications including the Harvard Business Review network, The Atlantic, Decanter, Food52.com (where she was the "Wine, Unfussed" columnist), DailyBeast, The Boston Globe, the Washington Post, Wine Enthusiast, GlobalPost, Grist.org, and Daily Candy. She has also been featured on the BBC, WNYC, WGBH, and Nevada Public Radio.

Cathy is the founder of 365daysofwine.com and Red White Boston, a digital media company for the wine industry. Red White Boston produced daily content, monthly tasting events, and a location-based iPhone app of video wine recommendations from their network of 30+ local partner stores. While in Boston, she also managed the wine cellar at WGBH public broadcasting station and managed wine events for donors and the public.

Cathy’s restaurant experience started when she knocked on the kitchen door at Chez Panisse in Berkeley. She also has worked for Jean-Pierre Vigato in Paris (at Natachef bistro and at his two-star restaurant, Apicius) and for Thomas Keller at Bouchon in Las Vegas. She studied at La Varenne École de Cuisine in Burgundy, France; she completed the Wine Studies program at Boston University; and she received Advanced Certification from WSET (Wine and Spirits Education Trust). 

Cathy received a master’s degree from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard in 2004 and a second master’s degree in Journalism in 2010, also from Harvard. Before that, she received a master’s degree in comparative literature from the City University of New York in 1998 and a bachelor’s degree from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania in 1995. She is also a trained mediator, and worked for two years at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School on a project in the Middle East.

In April 2008 she founded the Harvard Alumni in Wine and Food special interest group, which provides educational and networking services to the Harvard alumni and current students. She has also served as the President of the Harvard Club of Georgia, and she has begun a term of service on the Board of Directors for the Harvard Alumni Association.

Her other non-profit involvement includes the Women's Solidarity Society at the new National Center for Civil & Human Rights (Atlanta), grant reviewer for the Food Well Alliance (an Atlanta-based organization that supports the local network of 350 urban farms and community gardens), Coach at GOTR (Girls on the Run) in Atlanta, Board Member at the Greening Youth Foundation (Atlanta), Board Member at The Food Project (Boston), and Mediator at the Neighborhood Justice Center (Las Vegas).

She lives in Atlanta with her husband, their twin boys, and their Bernese Mountain dog, Coco.

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