Woman of the Year 2007

Baroness Coussins

Although she has many strings to her bow, in the drinks trade, Baroness Coussins is best known for the role she played at The Portman Group, where she was CEO from 1996 to 2006. During her ten-year tenure, she championed the concept of social responsibility across the industry as well as promoting consumer education on sensible drinking. She created a self-regulation system for the industry’s marketing standards, securing the endorsement of both government and competition authorities, and set up a charitable company (The Drinkaware Trust) to deliver educational resources

As a non-executive director of the Advertising Standards Authority, she also has a strong influence on the content of UK advertising campaigns and is well-placed to advise drinks companies about what they should and shouldn’t do in order to avoid the threat of government regulation becoming a reality.

 “When Jean Coussins started at The Portman Group, she took on a role that was challenging, to say the least, given the trade’s attitude towards social responsibility at the time. What she managed to achieve by the end of her tenure is testament to her skills and diplomacy in the role,” said one of the drinks business judges.

This was seconded by another member of the judging panel: “The rise in awareness of the social responsibility message within our industry has so much to do with Baroness Coussins’ work.

Ever the consummate professional, she managed, in a difficult industry climate, to get this industry to wake up to the fact that it is our collective responsibility to make a sensible drinking message work for us.”