DIANE DREY
Has been involved in the food industry for
over thirty years. She was President of a bottled water manufacturing company which distributed five gallon water and other
refreshment products to offices in the New York metropolitan area. In 2008 she sold the business to an international
firm and joyfully entered early retirement.
Diane holds an MBA in Finance and is a graduate of the Harvard
Business School OPM executive education program.
Since "retirement" Diane has become a business counselor
with Score (www.score.org) a resource partner of the US Small Business Administration. She advises entrepreneurs wishing to start or expand their company
on issues including finance, marketing, personnel development, and strategic planning.
Diane's passion has
always been traveling, and over the years she has traveled extensively in Europe and now more recently Asia.
In
early 2009 she spent two months touring southwest China and visited the Sichuan Institute for Higher Cuisine. She was inspired
to start this program to bring English speaking people to China to learn Sichuan cooking, in part by reading Fuchsia Dunlop's
memoir, and in part because she enjoys organizing events and bringing people together.
Diane believes life improves when you add a bit of Sichuan
peppercorn.
