Board of Directors

Toni Powell

Toni Powell is a native San Franciscan who was raised in the Western Addition and educated in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) and San Francisco State University.Toni has worked for the City & County of SF for over 30 years, initially as a para-professional providing tutoring to youth in SFUSD high schools and probation group homes who were failing English and/or Spanish.She has been an employee of the San Francisco Juvenile Probation Department since 1987, first as a Juvenile Hall Counselor and in 1989 as a bilingual Probation Officer. She was the Supervising Probation Officer for Paul Robeson and Diego Rivera MS, a probation school located in the Bayview-Hunters Point community which integrated the arts into the academic curriculum. She supervised Project Impact High School located in the Richmond district which offered on-site individual, group, and family counseling to all students. She also supervised the Department’s first Community-Based Evening Reporting Centers, which provide a safe place for minors to report to after school as well as educational, recreational, vocational, and counseling services. After serving as the first African American female Director of Log Cabin Ranch for 3 years and then becoming the first African American female Director of the Juvenile Justice Center (Juvenile Hall) for 5 years, Toni returned to her position as Supervisory Probation Officer and currently supervises one of the intake units and represents the Department on numerous committees including the Commercially Sexually Exploited Children (CSEC) and Human Trafficking collaboratives. She has been a member of Neighborhood Baptist Church for 35 years where under the Pastorage of E. Lane Hawkins she currently serves the Lord as an Altar Counselor, Mothers’ Board member, Intercessory prayer warrior, Trustee, Usher, and Choir Board member. Toni is the mother of 3 sons born to her and the Late Rev. Earl Powell Jr.

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Born and raised in Los Angeles, Antoinette Cattani started her career bartending at a Mexican restaurant making every flavor of frozen margarita. A chance introduction led her to become part of the team leading Jagermeister’s expansion in California. Via Jagermeister, she met famed liquor importer Sidney Frank who mentored her through the meteoric rise of Grey Goose Vodka and Jagermeister, which reached peak distribution of 3 million cases annually in the U.S. Grey Goose meanwhile grew to sell more than 700,000 cases in its eighth year and sold to Bacardi for $2 billion in 2004.

Antoinette was recruited from Sidney Frank to work at Southern Glazers Wine & Spirits where she gained further insight into the world of wine and spirits sales, distribution and consumption. In 2000 after three years at Southern Glazers, she returned to the supplier side of the business to follow her passion for building new brands. As the first U.S. brand ambassador for Fernet-Branca, she admits to initially feeling ambivalent about the bitter herbal liqueur but like many others grew to love it. If anything, her early impression led to the epiphany that helped her understand what Fernet needed from a marketing perspective. In San Francisco, a city that prides itself on food, independence and sophistication, she nurtured bartender relationships on behalf of the brand and bridged the gap from original spirits aficionados to new consumers searching for the next trending libation. With backpacks full of Fernet minis and a team of bartenders, she single handedly distributed thousands of cases of Fernet to bars up and down California and the US, building Fernet from an obscure Italian brand with little relevance in America to annual sales increases of 30-50 percent and recognition as one of the top five fastest growing global brands. To this day thanks to Antoinette, ordering a shot of Fernet is the “bartenders’ handshake” for industry affiliation.

In 2007, Antoinette leveraged her experience to co-found Cattani Imports with her brother, Carbino Cattani. Cattani Imports has worked with some of the largest wine and spirits suppliers in Europe including Monte delle Vigne Wine; Vinum Tokaj; Lucas Bols; and Pernod Ricard. It also contributed to the success of brands including Bols Genever; Chartreuse; Damrak Gin; and Becherovka Original.

Antoinette has been referred to as the beverage world’s “maven marketer” by the San Francisco Chronicle article. She rarely hesitates to help pave the way for emerging categories in the market via her signature formula of connecting esoteric spirits with the bartending community and vice versa. In 2019, she became the market development manager for the U.S. and European launch of Ming River, a new expression of Sichuan baijiu (Chinese grain spirit) crafted at Luzhou Laojiao, China’s oldest continuously operating distillery.

In 2021, the pandemic necessitated a break from corporate brand development and Antoinette turned her energy to earning a degree in culinary arts and health-supportive holistic nutritIon from the Institute of Culinary Education in Pasadena, California. She parlayed that knowledge into working as a private chef for a family experiencing cancer and diabetes. She also worked behind the bar developing specialty craft cocktails for local establishments, where her experience in sales, marketing and brand development gave her a unique edge as a bartender and she felt she’d come full circle to her margarita slinging roots.

Now, Antoinette represents Beam Suntory as the Prestige Manager for luxury Spirits. Always a mentor and trailblazer, she is candid about her successes and the trial and error she’s experienced ushering young brands onto the national stage. Her advice to anyone looking to break into the industry: “Be ready to handle rejection, fight for the brands you believe in. Be a people person, because this industry is all about building strong relationships and partnering with the right distributors and restaurant owners. They are the foundation of this industry.”

Antoinette lives in San Francisco. When not working you can find her catching up with her daughter or catching live music at local venues. Music is key for a successful market launch!

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Officers

Toni Powell

Tyrone Campbell

Ian Anderson II

Alicia Damele

Board Members

Catherine Sapiro

Patrick Yalon

Antoinette Cattani

Brianna Rivera

Honorary Committee Members

Andrea Dew Steele

Didier Perez

Charles Higgins

Bill Johnston

Kathleen Kelley

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