Close Menu
Top 10

TOTC’s top 10 best international brand ambassadors

These are the world’s best international spirits brand ambassadors – a job that is as demanding as it is rewarding – as longlisted by the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards 2017.

An audience member takes a picture as Bacardí ambassador Dickie Cullimore makes a presentation at the Bacardí Legacy Cocktail Competition 2017

Earlier this week the New Orleans-based spirits and cocktail festival named the nominees for each of the 24 categories in the 2017 Spirited Awards.

While it’s often pipped as the best job in booze, the role of brand ambassador is not solely adventures, events, and a home bar stocked with your favourite spirit. Though a natural progression for many modern bartenders, the job demands late nights, endless travel and constant schmoozing.

Many of the skills that make a solid bartender will also make for a great brand ambassador: charisma, knowledge, confidence, credibility, intuition, work ethic, storytelling and energy. Discover the individuals who have honed these skills so well, they’ve been recognised as the best in their field in the pages that follow.

Click through to view profiles of the world’s best international brand ambassadors, as selected by the Spirited Awards 2017 judging panel.

Sebastian Hamilton-Mudge, Beefeater Gin

A former freelance drinks consultant, Hamilton-Mudge worked alongside Plymouth Gin for a total of 14 years before he joined Chivas Brothers to become the international brand ambassador for Beefeater in 2011. He now represents Beefeater and Plymouth globally, visiting both established and emerging markets across the globe to educate bartenders, consumers and the press about the past, present and future of the brands.

He also develops tasting rituals, conducts talks about food pairing and contemporary cocktails, ands help to develop promotional and educational tools such as POS, competitions and events – including the Beefeater MIXLDN competition. Hamilton-Mudge has also developed the only nationally recognised qualification in professional cocktail bartending.

Richard Neil Irwin, Bacardí

Long-serving member of the Bacardí training team Richard Neil Irwin is currently the brand ambassador for Asia, the Middle East and Africa, and can often be found presenting in Sydney, Berlin, New Orleans, Moscow, London, Paris and beyond. Based in Dubai, his role frequently takes him back home to South Africa where he started his career as junior bartender and then bar manager at Billy the BUMS.

Irwin was approached by Bacardi to head up their national training programmes, which expanded to include Africa and the developing markets throughout the Middle East and South East Asia. Bacardi Legacy has been a highlight of Irwin’s career, as an integral player in developing the competition across the Middle East & Africa. In the last three years, five bartenders he has mentored have made the final eight of the global competition.

Camille Ralph Vidal, St Germain

Camille Ralph Vidal – aka, Madame St-Germain – is the global ambassador for French elderflower liqueur St-Germain. She studied History of Art before switching to marketing and event management, and cut her teeth on the global cocktail scene in Australia, later working at high end bars such as Experimental Cocktail Club in London and Golden Monkey in Melbourne.

After making the move from NYC to London this April, Vidal continues to spread the love for St Germain around the world, driven by her passion for cocktail culture, and you’ll always find her hosting an aperitif hour or sipping on cocktails somewhere around the world. Most recently, Vidal launched the brand’s first coffee table book, How to Drink French Fluently, which includes recipes from top bartenders across the US.

Ian Burrell, global rum ambassador

Bartender, hip-hop artist, TV presenter, professional basketball player… and now self-styled global rum ambassador. Burrell first dived into the cocktail world in the early 90’s and soon attracted the attention of J Wray & Nephew, who made him the first rum brand ambassador in the UK. In 2007, Burrell launched the UK RumFest, the world’s first international rum festival, which went on to inspire regional editions across the globe – some of which he has personally helped to launch.

Today he is recognised as the global ambassador for rum, and travels the world conducting rum seminars, academies, tastings and masterclasses as well as judging cocktail competitions. He consults various rum companies, curating promotional strategies, and marketing and creating new brands. In 2014, he broke the Guinness World Record for the largest organised rum tasting and masterclass.

George Němec, Becherovka

Internationally acclaimed bartender from the Czech Republic, Jiří George Němec, cites 2004 as a “significant turning point” in his life: the year he won the title of Australian Bartender of the Year. In total, he racked up eight years in the country working for various gastronomy businesses, and in 2009 moved to Shanghai to launch Gosney & Kallman’s Chinatown bar, where he remain as an independent cocktail and premium alcohol consultant.

In 2010 he began working as a Becherovka Original brand consultant at Czech pavilion, EXPO 2010, and later went on to secure the role of international brand ambassador. He regularly trains Czech bartenders at the Becherovka Bar Session in Karlovy Vary, and foreign bartenders at Bohemian Bar Club programme.

Dickie Cullimore, Bacardí

Having left a law degree in the late 1990s to learn the craft of bartending, Cullimore made a name for himself early in his career, representing New Zealand in both flair and mixology competitions internationally. Several years running some of New Zealand’s most iconic venues allowed him to take an instrumental role in pioneering the cocktail industry in his homeland.

In 2011, Cullimore become portfolio ambassador for Bacardí New Zealand, where he lead a series of category training programmes. As global ambassador for the brand since 2015, he ensures the Bacardí Legacy Global Cocktail Competition continues to grow, and nurtures and celebrates the global family of bartenders it fosters.

Raj Nagra, Bombay Gins

Picture credit: Facebook

Nagra started his career at a hotel in Sydney, where he worked with three London bartenders – and before long he was managing leading bars and clubs in Australia and the UK. In 1999 Nagra moved to Dubai to consult on the Jumeirah Emirates Hotel Tower, returning to Australia shortly after to enjoy more consulting and bartender training.

In 2001 he was approached by Bacardi, and began working on the Bacardí and Bombay Sapphire brands as one of the first ambassadors in the country. As the role developed, a regional role came up in Shanghai, followed by a national US post that saw Nagra move to Miami. This lead him to the position of global brand ambassador for Bombay Spirits Company, based in New York.

Joe McCanta, Grey Goose

Southern Californian Joe McCanta began his career with music in mind. An aspiring jazz pianist, McCanta studied music first at the University of Southern California, then New England Conservatory in Boston under five-time Grammy nominee Brad Mehldau. A stint at a local wine store led him to a job as a sommelier, and then to mixology, before he launched a cocktail catering company.

McCanta was approached by a Turkish businessman, and took a job in Turkey, where he led the bar programme at a vegan restaurant. There, he entered Grey Goose’s ‘Dream Bar’ cocktail competition, and began working as a special events bartender for the brand. He was later hired as the UK brand ambassador and eventually took on the role of global ambassador in London.

Konstantin “CoCo” Prochorowski, Hendrick’s Gin

Konstantin “CoCo” Prochorowski started his career in 2009 at Berlin’s vaudeville-inspired cocktail bar Stagger Lee. In 2010, he left the capital city state to travel the world with the Experimental Cocktail Club, travelling to ECC Chinatown in London, Prescription in Paris and ECC Lower East Side in New York, before returning to London once more where he joined Tony Conigliaro’s 69 Colebrook Row.

Coco returned to Berlin in 2013, joining Hendrick’s Gin as the brand ambassador for Germany where he has remained ever since.

Meimi Sanchez, Havana Club

Born in Cuba, Sanchez first stepped behind the bar at Rick’s in Edinburgh in a bid to discover her dream job. Before long she began working at Bramble, where, she says, her career “took off” with the support and motivation of the bar team there.

Lured by the bright lights of London, Sanchez headed south to become Havana Club’s UK brand ambassador, later becoming the brand’s global ambassador.

It looks like you're in Asia, would you like to be redirected to the Drinks Business Asia edition?

Yes, take me to the Asia edition No