Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA) Board of Directors elected Chris Underwood, Board of Managers RNDC-West, as Chairman of the Board, a one-year-term role. In an acceptance speech addressed to WSWA, Underwood drew parallels between today’s marketplace and the challenges that have historically faced America’s family-owned wine and spirits distributors by reading select passages from a speech his grandfather, Vern Underwood Sr., gave at the 25th Annual WSWA Convention in May 1968. “It’s clear that the challenges the middle tier faced in 1968 by my grandfather were very similar to those we face today … advancing technologies, the threat of supplier direct-to-consumer sales, consolidation within all three tiers, ensuring smaller suppliers and brands are getting attention, meeting shifting consumer needs and ensuring product diversity; these are all issues wholesalers continue to face … rapid change is something we can claim as our own in 2021,” he said.