Profile of Steve Slater, Vice President, General Manager for Southern Wine & Spirits of Southern California

Steve Slater is responsible for managing the day-to-day sales and operations of Southern Wine & Spirits and American Wine & Spirits divisions in Southern California. Mr. Slater is a 16-year veteran of the company. A former foreign correspondent for Voice of America in Brazil, he began his career in the wine and spirits industry working as the general manager of a fine wine shop in San Diego. Mr. Slater came up through the ranks at Southern, where he started out as a broad-market sales person. He has held numerous SWS management positions since then, including: first off-premise wine manager for Orange County; Cerritos off-premise branch wine manager; Riverside branch manager; San Diego branch manager; General Wine Manager for Southern California; Vice President, General Sales Manager for American Wine & Spirits; Vice President, General Sales Manager for Pacific Wine & Spirits; and, until his most recent promotion, Vice President, General Sales Manager for Southern Wine & Spirits.

When it comes to guiding business principals, Mr. Slater focuses on fundamentals. “Our role is to provide the best service in the market to our customers and our supplier partners,” he says.

During his tenure at Southern, Mr. Slater has been repeatedly recognized by the company for his management expertise. He has garnered the 2001 Ted Simpkins Award of Excellence, the 2004 Diageo Distributor of the Year Award with Patrick Daul (Vice President and General Manager of Pacific Wine & Spirits of California), and the 1999 Southern California SWS Executive of the Year Award.

In addition to his professional accomplishments, Mr. Slater pursues a wide variety of personal interests. He is a member of the Dream Foundation, Waterkeeper Foundation, Chaine des Rotisseurs, and Les Amis d’Escoffier. He owns a vintage Jaguar XK 150 – which he enjoys displaying at auto rallies – collects acoustic and vintage electric guitars, and plays folk and pop music. A licensed falconer for nine years, Mr. Slater is married to his wife of 24 years, whom he met in Brazil, is fluent in Portuguese, and has two children.