Our Team

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Katie (pronounced “Kah-tee”) has devoted her entire career to the wine and spirits industry, and today brings over 30 years of public relations expertise to Calhoun & Company Communications. Prior to founding her own agency in 2003, Katie worked with public relations veteran Edwin J. Schwartz for 15 years, managing wine, spirits and restaurant clients for his agency.

Through her work with a wide variety of wine and spirits companies, Katie has developed a broad perspective on the industry and built strong relationships in the press. She travels frequently to meet with media throughout the country and track emerging trends so that she and her staff can generate individualized and meaningful story ideas.

A college year abroad spent in Paris and in Burgundy introduced Katie to the world of fine wine with its ancient traditions and rich history. Upon her return to the United States, she published her college thesis on Women & Champagne in 19th Century France.

Katie’s palate and tasting skills have earned her a place among top wine and spirits professionals as a national competition judge. She has judged at the Sunset Magazine International Wine Competition, San Francisco International Wine Competition, Monterey County Wine Competition, and San Francisco World Spirits Competition; she also served as a regular taster at Wine & Spirits Magazine for over a decade.

With a deep love for kids and education, Katie was a volunteer for 15 years in San Francisco schools, served six years on The Thacher School Alumni Council and is currently in her third term on the Board of Directors at Edgewood Center for Children & Families, supporting thousands of Bay Area at-risk youth with severe mental health challenges, aiming to achieve their full potential.

Katie’s wine industry affiliations include membership with Women for WineSense, Family Winemakers of California, Society of Wine Educators, Association of African American Vintners and Women of the Vine & Spirits. She also serves as a Level Two mentor for Bâttonage and is on the UC Davis Library Wine Writers Collection Advisory Board. In 2023 Katie was invited to join the Executive Leadership Board of the UC Davis Department of Viticulture & Enology.

Katie lives in San Francisco with her husband and has two grown children. She rejoices in electronic-free backpacking trips, enjoys a long horseback ride on a dusty trail, loves to host dinner parties and is fond of travel in pursuit of a great cocktail.

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Michelle has contributed her unique perspective to Calhoun & Company since 2012, bringing with her years of direct wine sales experience, extensive travels to Italy’s major wine regions, and a passion for wine education.

While representing a start-up importer’s wines with a premium distributor, Michelle spear-headed sales efforts and worked with some of the Bay Area’s finest restaurants to develop and expand their wine programs. She also represented several Northern California wineries, successfully placing their wines in key accounts.

Fueled by her passion for wine education, Michelle enjoys conducting wine tasting seminars, where she shares her extensive knowledge of Italy’s diverse grape varietals and growing regions. She believes in ‘bringing terroir to the table,’ and focuses on wines of place and character to help tasters understand what can make a wine special. She has extensive experience in orchestrating large-scale industry events and tastings.

Her credentials include an Advanced Certificate with Distinction from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, professional wine studies at the Culinary Institute of America, and membership in the North American Sommeliers Association, including the Italian Wine Specialist credential. Michelle enjoyed a previous career in international development with the World Bank and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C. She received a B.A. from Bowdoin College and a Master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

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Katina (aka Tinka) brings over 15 years of experience in public relations, strategic communications and digital marketing to Calhoun & Company. With an eye for storytelling and a deep appreciation for media relations, Tinka is a natural brand ambassador for our clients.

Tinka focuses on championing each brand with strategic messaging when building dynamic publicity campaigns. She has experience across several lifestyle industries from working at agencies supporting sports, entertainment, food and beverage, and hospitality clients, to in-house counsel for premier non-profit and higher education institutions. Tinka is a graduate of San Diego State University with a degree in Public Relations. In 2020, she achieved her Accreditation in Public Relations (APR), a credentialed distinction identifying exemplary strategic communications practitioners. She currently serves on the San Francisco Chapter Board of Directors (Board President in 2023) for the Public Relations Society of America.

When she is not working, you can find Tinka traveling the world, trying out San Francisco’s newest and best bars/restaurants, creating beautiful home-cooked meals, curling up with a good book and a great glass of wine, or cheering at a Giants, Warriors or 49ers game!

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Nina supports the Calhoun & Company team as an Account Coordinator and our resident “Clip Master.” With a speciality in databases and systems paired with a love of wine, she adds both strategic and administrative assistance to the Calhoun & Company team.

Nina, a San Jose, California native, graduated from Chico State with a degree in Social Science and a minor in Spanish. She comes to us with over seven years of administrative experience supporting executives at all levels in large and small organizations. Her special talent: developing processes with efficiency and ease in mind.

While finishing her final years of college, she lived abroad in Costa Rica where she met her husband. Nina is new to the wine industry, but she personally enjoys a delicious glass of Chardonnay at the end of a long work day. When she is not working, you can find her kickboxing, salsa dancing, channeling her creativity into a beautiful watercolor piece or spending quality time with her daughter.

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Robert Rinauro is our on-site bookkeeper at Calhoun & Company. He is the founder and Chief Operating Officer of 26th Street Bookkeepers in San Francisco. 26th Street Bookkeepers’ mission is to provide bespoke bookkeeping solutions that satisfy the unique requirements of each and every client. Robert finds solutions that fit individual needs, interests, and temperaments, solutions to make life easier, simpler and stress free. C&C loves the peace of mind Robert brings to our C&C team managing Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable

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Kilan McCardie cultivated a love for diversity in culture and experiences growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area. In between rushing off to dance class and basketball practice, she spent the majority of her time hosting family events with her mother and learning the best kept secrets of her family recipes with her grandmother. Kilan understood that the most important part about growing up surrounded by so much love was the unique experiences and stories that came along with it.

Kilan’s love of storytelling continued to grow in her academic pursuits. She spent 3.5 years living in Los Angeles, immersing herself in a new community, studying Sociology at Loyola Marymount University. She strives to bring her passion for social justice, curated in her time as Black Student Union President, Senator for Diversity and Inclusion, and an Intercultural Facilitator, in all that she does.

Immediately following graduation, Kilan moved back to the Bay Area to pursue a Master of Arts in Professional Communication at University of San Francisco. She studied strategic communication and explored digital marketing. After graduation she used her experience growing up as an athlete and the knowledge from her program to assist young athletes in expanding their personal brand and growing social media platforms for a sports marketing firm.

She plans to continue building her career in public relations and brand storytelling by combining her passion for community, storytelling, sports, and social justice. In her spare time, Kilan enjoys trying new restaurants with friends, traveling to gain new experiences, and knowing she can always come back home to enjoy quality family time with a glass of wine and homemade charcuterie board created with everyone’s favorite snacks in mind.

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Bio coming soon