Wine, Running, Travel and Rock Stardom

By Mary Thorsby

Nathalie Tremblay
Acting CEO, JJ Buckley Fine Wines, since July 2014; joined the company April 2012.

What it does: JJ Buckley is one of America’s leading online retailers of the world’s finest wines. The group is dedicated to blending tradition and innovation to deliver personalized wine services and recognized expertise to wine lovers and enthusiasts. (Check them out at http://www.jjbuckley.com)

Background:
“A mix of chance, adventure and passion for the outdoors and wine brought me to California. The professional opportunity presented itself. I immediately adopted San Francisco and the Bay Area as my home.”

“My background touches a wide range of functions beneath the marketing umbrella, with a recent focus on marketing operations and digital marketing.”

“I have more than 15 years of integrated marketing experience: communications, brand, startups, product and project launches and management, interactive online strategy, acquisition and retention and sales channels performance.”

Work Philosophy and Discovery:
“My strengths as a marketer and business leader are based on leveraging collaboration – promising to listen and walking the talk to get things done as a team.”

“The power of laughter and fun should not be underestimated in today’s extremely competitive businesses.”

“This may be an old saying, but I truly believe it and live by it: ‘Work hard, play hard.’ You become better by putting in the effort and rewarding yourself. This is true as an individual and with your teams.”

Why She Joined the AMA:
“I wanted to get closer to marketing-minded individuals. I work for a small retail business and wear multiple hats in addition to marketing. I want to keep abreast of trends, and I recognize the AMA is an important source for networking and developing new business relationships.”

How She Found Us:
“I found you online, via the national AMA site. I debated between the San Francisco and Silicon Valley chapters, but really appreciated the number of events and intelligent content within the San Francisco chapter.”

 She’s Much Warmer Now
“Since moving to California, I can’t get enough of the outdoors. Coming from Montreal, where winter and cool weather prevent you from enjoying the sun and warmth six months out of the year, the weather here is simply addictive.”

She Runs
“I started running in California and I run almost every day. My partner is an ultra-marathon runner, so perhaps some inspiration to adopt the lifestyle played its part!”

She Lifts
“I am a gym rat and have been for many years. I focus on weight training and cross fit five to six times per week.”

She Sips
“And of course I love wine. Working for a fine wine retailer and being surrounded by passionate and knowledgeable professionals – you can see how my enthusiasm has expanded from career to pleasure to hobby. California wine country is now in my backyard. How can I not visit often?”

She Travels
“A visit to Bordeaux during the 2012 vintage en primeur, a trade industry event, has inspired a series of upcoming personal European wine country discovery trips.”

She’s a Rock Star
“My original passion is music. I am a trained classical singer and spent many years in a rock band covering classic rock to alternative to pop and disco. I haven’t found a group here yet!”

Give her time….

Mary Thorsby is a San Francisco-based copywriter and project manager, specializing in annual reports, web content and beautiful coffee-table books for Microsoft, Johnson and Johnson, Amgen, Humana and other high-tech and biotech firms. She also runs Lightscoop, a device that instantly improves indoor flash photography. http://www.lightscoop.com. Contact her at mary@thorsby.com.