Mireille Guiliano
Writer, WebMD, Inc.
Mireille Guiliano (Meer-ray Julie-ano) is president and CEO of Clicquot Inc., the firm she helped found in 1984. One of the few women who have reached the top echelon of the wine and spirits industry, she is recognized as the driving force in building the company's highly regarded national organization, developing its portfolio of ultra-premium wines, and igniting the remarkable growth and brand recognition of its flagship Champagne Veuve Clicquot.
Guiliano has been called a champion of women in business and has been profiled in numerous publications. She is active in the Committee of 200 and works with other groups promoting business opportunities and education for women. She frequently presents nationally and internationally on business topics, especially related to the luxury goods sector, as well as on wine. Guiliano is often a guest on radio and television across America and abroad.
Guiliano has been contributing articles on food, wine, travel, and lifestyle for years to a wide range of publications, including Town & Country and The Quarterly Review of Wines. Her book, French Woman Don't Get Fat has been translated into 10 languages.
A native of France and raised on the world's most famous wine, she is widely regarded as a leading expert on Champagne and possesses prodigious knowledge of gastronomy. She grew up amidst cooks, chefs and restaurateurs, and her enthusiasm for food and wine is contagious.
Educated in Paris, where she studied French and English literature at the Sorbonne and languages at the Institut Superieur d'Interpretariat et de Traduction, Guiliano holds the French equivalent of a master's degree in English and German and certification as a translator/interpreter. She also has a command of Italian and several other languages.
She first arrived in America as an exchange student in Boston and came back for good early in her professional career. She resides in Manhattan with her husband, Edward, president of New York Institute of Technology, and makes frequent trips to their home in Paris for business and pleasure -- always pleasure.
Guiliano is passionate about food and wine and cites breakfast, lunch, and dinner as her favorite pastimes. The sound of corks popping is truly music to her ears.