Marguerite Delacroix-Oyelaran

Biography

Marguerite Delacroix-Oyelaran became Chief Executive in 2018, the first appointment from outside the Institution’s traditional cellar-to-boardroom pipeline. She arrived with a mandate to modernise and a laminated card on which she has since written the words “measure it twice, announce it once.” Under her leadership the Institution has launched four divisions, retired two, and renamed a third without informing it.

Her earlier career spanned the Valmere Beverage Governance Group, where she directed the Programme for Cross-Border Palate Alignment, and the Federation of Concerned Sommeliers, where she negotiated the landmark Reciprocity Framework that allowed twelve national tasting standards to be recognised by one another for the first time. She is known internally for the Monday Dashboard, a document of such density that it is read aloud, in sections, by three people.

Career history

• 2018–present
  Chief Executive OfficerThe Shit Wine Guide
• 2013–2018
  Group Director, Cross-Border Palate AlignmentValmere Beverage Governance Group
• 2009–2013
  Head of StrategyFederation of Concerned Sommeliers
• 2002–2009
  Senior Analyst, then PrincipalCorkwright Advisory Partners
• 1997–2002
  Associate, Market PositioningBureau of Vintage Reconciliation

Personal philosophy

Anything worth tasting is worth tracking, and anything worth tracking deserves a quarterly review.

Professional achievements

• Negotiated the Reciprocity Framework between twelve national tasting standards
• Launched the International Wine Intelligence Division and the Global Wine Academy
• Tripled the Institution’s annual output of indices without a corresponding increase in wine

Industry contributions

• Architect of the 2026 Strategic Vision
• Sponsor of the Wine Assessment Institute’s Seven Pours protocol
• Co-author of the Charter of International Excellence