GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – There’s a change at the top of Swiss Wine Promotion (SWP), the marketing arm of the country’s wine industry. Sébastien Fabbi, secretary general, has decided to leave as his three-year contract comes to an end, to pursue other professional interests, the organization announced in a press release.

He is being replaced on an ad interim basis by Jean-Marc Amez-Droz.

Fabbi was the first director hired to lead the organization, in 2012, after it was re-born following bankruptcy six years earlier. The three years have seen intense activity, as the SWP, whose members are the regional wine professional organizations, has vigorously developed its role and tools, including a multilingual web site, as well as building new partnerships for several key Swiss wine events and for exports.

The SWP is the single body through which the federal agriculture office distributes matching funds to support the wine industry.

Amez-Droz, ad interim secretary general

Jean-Marc Amez-Droz is a graduate of ETH in Zurich, with strong wine marketing experience: he was head of Coop’s wine service, general manager of Provins in Valais, the country’s largest winery, and he was also marketing and sales manager for Schenk, one of the country’s largest private wineries. He worked abroad for the Hess international wine group as Business Development Manager Wine.

Amez-Droz is also familiar firsthand with the world of wine producers; he is actively involved in his family’s French winery –  Chusclan appellation in the Côtes du Rhône Villages area: Château Signac in Bagnols-sur-Cèze.