Officers & Directors
The Viscount John Thurso MP - Chairman
Until the passage of the House of Lords Bill in 1999, John Thurso was a Liberal Democrat Hereditary Peer in the House of Lords where he was a Front Bench spokesman for tourism and food. He is the grandson of the 1st Viscount Thurso.
A former Convenor of Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross Liberal Democrats, he was a candidate for the Scottish Parliament in 1999. He was elected Westminster MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross in 2001, becoming the first former Hereditary Peer to be elected to the House of Commons.
He was a member of the Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet from 2001 until March 2006, as Spokesman for Scotland (2001-2006) and, additionally Transport Spokesman from October 2003 to May 2005. He is a past member of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee and currently a member of the Administration Committee and the Treasury Select Committee.
Prior to entering full time politics, he had a successful career in the hotel business starting as a management trainee with the Savoy Group. Among many other appointments, he is currently non executive Vice Chairman of Millennium & Copthorne Hotels Plc and Chairman of the International Wine & Spirit Competition.
Mr Allen Gibbons - Executive Director
Allen Gibbons is the Executive Director of the IWSC responsible for the strategic development of the competition.
He has over 20 years experience in sales and marketing roles across the fmcg sector including over 10 in the drinks industry where he worked across Europe, Africa, the US and the Pacific.
Prior to joining the IWSC Allen worked at Diageo for 8 years where he held a number of senior innovation and marketing roles and where he was responsible for some of the most high profile product launches of recent years as well as being deeply involved in people development.
Mr David Wrigley MW - Technical Director
David joined the Wine & Spirit Education Trust as Head of Education.
He passed the Master of Wine Examination in 1994 and is currently International Development Director, overseeing the offer of WSET qualifications in 35 countries and 8 languages. David is a regular judge for IWSC and for the wine press.
He is a non-executive director of IWSC and chairs the competition's Technical and Judging Committee. He has judged internationally in France, South Africa and Japan.
Ms. Frances Horder - Competition Director
In 2009, the IWSC will celebrate 40 years since its inception, at the same time Frances will be celebrating 21 years service at the Competition.
She has worked continually to ensure improvement in the efficiency of the operation and has also been key in the development of the IWSC's reputation worldwide.
Frances remains responsible for the overall smooth running of the operation as well as ensuring continued growth in key international markets.
Mr Bryan Hope - Honorary Vice President
Bryan Hopes main career was with Reed International (now Reed Elsevier) where he headed that company's business publishing and exhibition interests. His main appointments were Chairman and Chief Executive of Reed Business Publishing and President and CEO of Reeds worldwide exhibition interests.
Having begun his career as a journalist he had several appointments including the Sunday Telegraph and the Daily Mail. He was Chairman of the Board of Periodical Publishers Association from 1980 - 1983.
He became a director of the IWSC in 1978 and became joint owner with his business partner Peter Duff. In 1988 Mr Hope and Mr Duff also formed Corkwise, the specialist consulting and analytical chemists to the drinks industry. Mr Hope was made first Honorary life member of the Wine Guild of the United Kingdom.