Gina Puente-Brancato

Board

Gina Puente-Brancato, CEO/Co-founder of Puente-Brancato Enterprises, Inc. The companies under that umbrella gross $21 million annually and employ over 145 people from the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Several new locations in DFW International Airport’s Terminal D opened in July 2005, including a second La Bodega Winery and two newsstands – Main Street News and Wall Street News. V. Puente Currency Inc. moved its Travelex operations to Terminal D as well. In early 2006 Puente-Brancato acquired La Buena Vida Vineyards-Grapevine located in the historic district of Grapevine, Texas.

In 2008 Puente-Brancato was selected as a winner in the Dallas Business Journal’s inaugural Women in Business Awards program as one of the Dallas/Fort Worth’s Most Influential Women. In 2007 the DFW International Airport Board of Directors awarded the Retail Concessionaire of the Year Award to La Bodega Winery. Puente-Brancato Enterprises, Inc. was selected as a finalist in the Ernst & Young Celebration of Diversity Workplace of the Year Award. Other finalists were Accor Hospitality, BNSF Railway, J.C. Penney Company and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP. In its December issue Fort Worth Magazine selected the Puente Family as one of the "50 Most Powerful People in Town." The only other family selected was the Bass Family of Fort Worth.

Puente-Brancato was born and raised in Fort Worth, where she later earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Broadcast Journalism at Texas Christian University.

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