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Associate

Track: Marketing Analytics

4 Secrets to a Happy, If Unlikely, Marriage: Wine, Data and Why It Works

Wednesday, April 14, 11-11:40am EDT

The mission of Enolytics is to unleash the power of data analysis for the wine and spirits industry. That means we’re marrying two industries that, for the most part, have barely gone on a first date. On one side of the aisle are state-of-the-art data capabilities and the hard-wired quantitative business of analytics. On the other side is a hyper-traditional, agricultural, lifestyle business where success is built on the “soft skills” of hospitality. How can such an unlikely marriage – wine on one side, data analytics on the other — possibly work? This session proposes four keys to unlocking the secrets of a happy and prosperous marriage. And, just like any good romance, it’s the unexpected twists and turns that keep things interesting.

Cathy Huyghe image

Cathy Huyghe

Cathy Huyghe

Co-founded at Enolytics

Cathy Huyghe is an award-winning journalist and entrepreneur, and a dynamic and engaging public speaker. A two-time graduate of Harvard University, first from the Graduate School of Design and then from the Journalism program, she transitioned to a career in wine after working successfully on negotiation projects in the Middle East.

As a journalist, Huyghe was shortlisted in 2019 as the Louis Roederer Columnist of the Year for her Forbes column on the business and politics of the wine industry, and she won the Born Digital Wine Award in 2020 for Best Interview for her article on misogyny in the wine industry. She is a featured commentator for the “Reign of Terroir” episode in the Netflix series Rotten, which has been nominated for an Emmy award. Her writing has also been seen and heard on the BBC, the Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, NPR and WNYC. She is a columnist (“Life, Entrepreneurially”) for Inc.com and her first book, Hungry for Wine: Seeing the World through the Lens of a Wine Glass, won the World Gourmand Award for Women in Wine in 2016.

As an entrepreneur, Huyghe co-founded Enolytics, which was featured as the protagonist for a Harvard Business School case study in business analytics. Enolytics provides data-driven business intelligence to beverage alcohol companies around the world; its client list includes Bollinger Champagne, Marchesi Frescobaldi, Wines of California, Wines of Chile, Gonzàlez-Byass and Freixenet-Mionetto.

Enolytics was a finalist for the Born Digital Wine Award in Innovation in 2019. Huyghe is also the co-creator of content for A Balanced Glass, a community dedicated to wellness in the wine industry, which was a 2019 Drinks Innovator for SevenFifty Daily.

Huyghe’s community involvement includes serving on the Atlanta Commission on Women, grant reviewer for the Food Well Alliance, past president of the Harvard Club of Georgia, member of the Board of Directors for the Harvard Alumni Association, and founder of the Harvard Alumni in Wine and Food shared interest group.

Huyghe’s experience in the hospitality industry includes working in the kitchens of some of the world’s most renown chefs, such as Thomas Keller (at Bouchon at The Venetian in Las Vegas), Jean-Pierre Vigato (at Apicius in Paris) and Alice Waters (at Chez Panisse in Berkeley).

She is a certified yoga teacher, and is trained in meditation and negotiation. She lives in Atlanta with her husband, their twin boys and their Bernese Mountain Dog named Karma.