Office of External Communications

Houston, TX 77204-5017 Fax: 713.743.8199

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 2, 2005

Contact: Marisa Ramirez
713.743.8152 (office)
713.204.9798 (cell)
mrcannon@uh.edu

The University of Houston Wine & Spirits Management Institute will toast the Rydman Family, owners of Spec’s Wines, Spirits & Finer Foods, at a reception and dinner at 6:30 p.m., Monday, Aug. 15 at the UH Hilton. The company, a founding partner of the Institute, has announced it is endowing the Spec’s Charitable Foundation Professorship.

“It has been our great fortune to have the support and friendship of the Rydman family,” Glenn Cordúa y Cruz, Director of the UH Wine & Spirits Management Institute, said. “Their leadership has been instrumental in the success of the Institute and, by extension, the industry.”

JeAnna L. Abbott will become the first Spec’s Charitable Foundation Professor and will teach a course on responsible service of alcoholic beverages at eating and drinking establishments. She currently is a professor in the UH Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management and teaches hospitality business law and ethics.

Congressman Tom DeLay, a UH alumnus, will deliver the keynote address for the private event. Jay Gogue, president of the University of Houston and John Bowen, dean of the College of Hotel and Restaurant Management, will join Cordúa y Cruz in recognizing all the founding partners of the Institute.

The Wine & Spirits Management Institute (W&SMI) is a collaborative effort by the UH College of Hotel and Restaurant Management and leaders in the alcohol beverage industry. Created in 2001, the partners include Spec’s Wines Spirits & Finer Foods, DIAGEO, Glazer’s Family of Companies, Ernest & Julio Gallo Winery, Beringer Blass Wine Estates, Brown-Forman, futurebrands, Robert Mondavi and Allied Domecq Spirits & Wine North America. Industry leaders created the program curriculum to meet the needs of the industry. Classes includes Bar and Beverage Management, Wine & Spirits Category Management and Sensory Evaluation of Alcohol Beverages.

For more information on the UH Wine & Spirits Management Institute, please visit www.wsmi.uh.edu/index.htm

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