Ted Diamantis is a 1st generation Greek-American Born in Chicago. His father was the principal of one of the largest Greek schools in Chicago for over 40 yrs and had Greek radio programs for over 55 yrs ( the oldest continuous running Greek radio program in the US at the time ). His mother was also a Greek school teacher and on air personality on the radio programs with his father. He graduated from Northern Illinois University, with Degrees in Economics and Political Science. In his first steps of his business career he worked for Allstate Insurance Commercial Division and later on for Gallagher Basset/ AJ Gallagher. In 1992 he launched Diamonds importers and since then he imports Greek wines to the United States with an ever-growing success.
In this interview* Ted Diamantis is telling his formidable story of how he started and gradually expanded a fabulous Greek wine import company in the US, about his business tactics, the obstacles he faced, the persons that gave him a hand or inspired him to become the big importer of Greek wines that he is today, his plans, vision and all about imports of Greek wines to America for the last 25 years. Ted Diamantis explains how the perception about the Greek wine is considerably improving in the US and how stronger marketing is still needed for the Greek wine to further penetrate the vast American market especially in the off-premise sector.
He also explains which Greek wine varieties are prominent in the US and underlines that the ancient Greek varieties are the future. He makes clear that Greece cannot be a player in the high volume/low price world but should focus on producing high quality wines at approachable prices. Ted Diamantis believes that there are ways to reconnect the 2nd and 3rd generation Greek-Americans with Hellenism and believes that the Greek-American organizations have a decisive role to play on that.
He finally considers that bringing people closer to quality Greek agricultural products is of the utmost priority for the image and growth of Greece.
