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Bill Gunn joined the marketing department of Grants of St James’s in 1968 as a management trainee, thereby embarking on a forty-year career in the wines and spirits trade.

 

After serving in various product management positions he moved to a buying role on passing the Master of Wine examination in 1974. In this capacity he travelled extensively to source wines for companies within the wines & spirits division of Allied Breweries, including the Victoria Wine retail operation, and was appointed Buying Director of Hatch Mansfield & Co.

 

After a period in supermarketing with ASDA as Wines & Spirits Controller and as Development Director of Dent & Reuss, the wines and spirits subsidiary of H P Bulmer plc he moved to become Managing Director of Pol Roger Ltd, the fine wine agency company, on its formation in 1990. It was during his incumbency that Pol Roger regained the Royal Warrant to Her Majesty The Queen in 2004.

 

Having retired as Managing Director in December 2007, Bill remains on the Board of Pol Roger Ltd. He is a past Chairman of the Institute of Masters of Wine and the IMW Education & Examination Board, the Champagne Agents Association and the French Wines Importers Committee of the UK, in which role he was appointed a Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite Agricole for services to French wine. He is also a former member of the Awards Supervisory Board of the Wine & Spirit Education Trust. He has contributed to a number of wine publications, and served as a guest international judge at wine shows in France, Hungary, New Zealand and Australia.

 

He joined the Council of the RWHA in 2007 and continues to serve as a trustee of the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST).

 

Bill is a Liveryman of The Worshipful Company of Fishmongers, and a Freeman of the City of London. Married to Amanda, with two daughters, he lives in Herefordshire. His interests include travel, fly-fishing, hill-walking, classical music and opera.

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