They say you get jobs with your connections, your skills and your education in the field. Well, Blanche Orbe didn’t have that when she started in the wine industry—but that’s where she’s found herself. After going to school for advertising and design and applying for a position promoting food and wines from France, she has spent the past 20 years immersed in the industry doing marketing, sales and brand management.
“My career has been a combination of luck and risk,” Blanche says. “Luck, in that the companies I’ve worked for gave me great responsibility, which often happens in small companies. Risk, in that I always reached higher.”
Now running Wine In-Motion, a boutique import company, she says “it has all come together and more.” At Wine In-Motion, her portfolio is made up mainly of Port and Portuguese wine, of which she’s a huge proponent.