Before the summer break, Measured Conversations asked Helen Medina, CEO of the World Spirits Alliance, to author our final blog post of the season.
It feels fitting that my final weeks with the association included the moment I cherish most on our calendar: the Annual Event.
There is something quite remarkable about bringing together members, partners, policymakers and friends from across the global spirits community. It captures why organisations like the WSA exist: to convene, to build relationships, and to create space for honest conversation about the future of a sector I have come to love deeply.
Spirits carry centuries of craft and culture, from the copper stills of the Highlands to the agave fields of Jalisco. Ours is an industry of patience and perfection, where tradition and innovation sit side by side in the same glass. Representing it on the world stage has been a privilege that I will not soon forget.
Tradition, though, offers no exemption from turbulence. This year, we gathered amid real structural change. Governments are recalibrating globalisation, trading openness for resilience and domestic priorities, and geopolitical uncertainty is making business harder to predict.
Alcohol policy is firmly inside this shift. Too often, narratives race ahead of the evidence on harm reduction or on how consumer behaviour is actually changing, and our industry has to work twice as hard to bring the debate back to the facts.
That is precisely why this year’s event mattered so much, and why I consider it a resounding success.
Together we locked in our strategy for the years ahead, anchored in evidence-led advocacy on responsible drinking, taxation and illicit trade. We deliberately sought out external perspectives and asked ourselves hard questions about how to perform better in the advocacy space. What struck me most was the appetite for that challenge across the room. Through our meetings, including our sessions with the World Trade Organization (WTO), one message came through unmistakably: dialogue delivers.
Looking around the room in Geneva, I found myself thinking back to where we started.
When I became CEO in April 2024, the WSA was a young organisation still finding its footing in the international policy landscapes. In just over two years, we grew our membership, we strengthened our industry’s voice, and our work has taken us into rooms with institutions across the world like the WHO, the WTO, and the OECD.
I leave behind an organisation that is credible, confident and increasingly consequential in the conversations shaping our sector worldwide. Having achieved this, I will be stepping down from my role at the end of July and will work with the WSA leadership to ensure a smooth handover. While that makes this a natural moment for reflection, it is also a moment of confidence. The WSA is stronger than ever, and I know its best chapters are still ahead.
None of this was built alone. Our success was made possible by an exceptional team, an engaged Board, committed member companies, and the policymakers, diplomats and partners who chose to engage with us. I am delighted to say the WSA will be in very good hands, with more to share on that in the coming months.
The work, of course, continues. The case for evidence, for dialogue and for this industry’s place in the world does not rest on any one person; it rests on all of us who make it daily. I hand it over with complete confidence and with genuine excitement about where you will take it.
To all of you: thank you for the trust, the partnership, and the conversations we have shared. They are what I will carry with me. Your engagement has made a meaningful difference, and I look forward to seeing how the organisation continues to grow with your support.
Helen Medina