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Alcohol Beverage Importers & Distributors Conference

by BEVERAGE TRADE NETWORK

Robert Bradshaw

President & COO, Cape Classics

Robert Bradshaw is President and Chief Operating Officer of Cape Classics, the premier importer of South African wine to the United States. Mr. Bradshaw joined the importer in January of 2009 as chief operating officer and became President in October 2010. In 2013, he helped create and launch the company’s expansion into fine wine from France, of which Cape Classics is now an industry leader.  In 2016, he was elected President of the Indaba Education Fund, a 501c3 NFP dedicated to bringing world class Montessori early childhood education to the Cape Winelands most vulnerable. 

Prior to joining Cape Classics, Mr. Bradshaw was a senior buyer and national category leader for Trader Joe’s, one of America's most influential food and wine retailers.

Academically he holds an undergraduate degree from Eastern Nazarene College and an MBA from Suffolk University’s Sawyer Business School, named a top 100 business schools by the Financial Times. In 2011 he was awarded the Sawyer Business School Center for Global Business Ethics and Law Annual Sustainability Award. Currently he engages with undergraduate business and oenology students at OIV Paris, Suffolk University and University of Stellenbosch via an annual speaker series.

He has achieved the level of Certified Sommelier by the Court of Master Sommeliers as well as Master of Beer Styles and Evaluation from the Siebel Institute. He is a graduate of the Stagen Leadership Academy ILP and continues to pursue innovative leadership strategies that can help facilitate growth and the success of others both personally and professionally.