Selena Cuffe facts for kids
Selena Cuffe was born on November 5, 1975, in Culver City, California. She is an American businesswoman. She is famous for starting a company called Heritage Link Brands, LLC with her husband, Khary Cuffe. This company is the biggest in the world to bring in wine made by Black producers. In January 2024, Selena Cuffe joined the Board of Directors for the Federal Reserve Bank in Los Angeles.
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Selena's Early Life and School
Selena Cuffe grew up in Los Angeles County, California, with her mother. Her father passed away when she was very young.
Her family has a strong history. Her great-great-grandfather was freed from slavery by the Emancipation Proclamation. Her grandfather, Titus Saunders Sr., worked to end segregation in schools in Georgia. He even started the state's first school transportation system that included everyone. Both of Selena's paternal grandparents went to college in the 1920s.
Selena went to Stanford University and earned a degree in International Relations. While there, she joined the Delta Sigma Theta sorority. She also got to intern at an investment bank on Wall Street. Later, she earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School. She also has a special certification in wine from the Wine and Spirits Educational Trust. Selena continues to be involved with her universities, serving on different boards and councils.
Selena's First Jobs
Early in her career, Selena Cuffe worked for United Airlines. She helped sell tickets, promote new flight routes, and develop online travel websites like Hotwire and Orbitz.
She also learned a lot about marketing at the Procter & Gamble Company in Cincinnati, Ohio. There, she helped manage marketing plans for the Pringles brand in countries like Brazil and Mexico.
Before starting her own company, Selena was a Director for the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE). She helped organize student and work exchange programs for over 50,000 people around the world. She left CIEE in January 2007 to focus on her new business.
Starting Heritage Link Brands
In September 2005, Selena was on a business trip in South Africa. She visited the first Soweto Wine Festival in Johannesburg. There, she met winemakers from Seven Sisters winery, one of the few Black-owned wineries in South Africa. They were having trouble selling their wine in the United States and even in their own country.
Selena learned that less than two percent of South Africa's huge wine industry was owned by Black people, even though Black people made up over 80 percent of the country's population. Seeing this unfairness, she wanted to help these winemakers. This gave her the idea for Heritage Link Brands, LLC.
Heritage Link Brands officially started in October 2005. Selena used her own savings and credit cards to fund the company while still working at CIEE. In 2006, she added M'hudi, the first Black-owned family vineyard in South Africa after apartheid, to her company's wine collection. In January 2007, she left her job to work full-time on Heritage Link Brands. The next month, her wines were first sold in a test market at Whole Foods Market.
That spring, Heritage Link Brands started a Wine Club and Shop. In September 2007, TIME magazine wrote about Selena and her company. Today, Heritage Link Brands wines can be found in over 40 states. The company also imports wines from the Fair Trade certified community of Koopmanskloof, sold under the label One World. One World was the first Fair Trade certified wine ever served on a US airline.
Heritage Link Brands has grown a lot. In 2015, Selena began importing wine from France to create the house red and white wine for the musical Waitress. This was Broadway's first show with an all-female creative team. Heritage Link Brands also makes the house wine for other Broadway plays, like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and War Paint.
In 2016, Selena made a deal to be the only importer of wines from Casa Valduga, an award-winning Brazilian wine producer. Casa Valduga has the largest sparkling wine cellar in South America and is listed as one of 1,000 Places to Visit Before You Die.
In South Africa, Selena Cuffe also helped buy part of Silkbush Mountain Vineyards. This is a large property of about 138 hectares (341 acres) in Breedekloof, near Cape Town. It grows many types of grapes, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinotage, and Shiraz.
SodexoMagic
In March 2020, Selena Cuffe became the president of SodexoMAGIC. This company is a partnership between Magic Johnson Enterprises and Sodexo, Inc. It is based in Beverly Hills.
Blackstone Consulting and RJB Properties
In April 2023, Selena Cuffe was named Chief Growth Officer for Blackstone Consulting, Inc. This is a large international service company with 9,000 employees. She also became Chief Growth Officer of RJB Properties, Inc., which provides cleaning and maintenance services for schools, colleges, offices, and other places.
Selena's Family Life
Selena Cuffe is married to Khary Cuffe, who also helped start Heritage Link Brands. They have three children. Khary went to Harvard University. His parents moved to the United States from Jamaica in the 1960s. His uncle, Derrick F. Kellier, was a Member of Parliament and Minister of Agriculture in Jamaica.
Awards and Recognitions
Selena Cuffe has received many awards for her work:
- 2022 UCLA Riordan Programs Hall of Fame Inductee [1]
- 2019 Brooklyn Library Women Trailblazers Award [2]
- 2017 Les Batisseurs de l'Économie Africaine (Africa Economy Builders Award)
- 2016 Life Member, Council on Foreign Relations
- 2016 Riordan Program Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award, UCLA Anderson School of Management
- 2016 Vision in Wine Award, BCAGlobal
- 2015 WABF Venture Competition Judge, University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business
- 2015 Brooklyn Honors, Bedford Stuyvesant YMCA
- 2010 League of Black Women Black Rose Award Recipient
- 2009 Black Enterprise Magazine, "B.E. Next Entrepreneur of the Year"
- 1993 Glamour Magazine College Woman of the Year (other winners include Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Condoleezza Rice, and Martha Stewart)
