Wine Business Institute Board of Directors

President & Owner, Korbel Champagne Cellars

Gary Heck is the owner, President, and Chairman of Korbel Champagne Cellars. Heck was appointed as the President in 1982 and has continued the legacy of his father, Korbel's previous owner. Heck grew up in the champagne-making business and now produces the leading premium champagne in this country. Learn more about Gary Heck.

Proprietor, Ron Rubin Winery | CEO

Ron Rubin is dedicated to enriching people's lives through premium teas, education, and innovation - emphasizing a "Sip by Sip Rather Than Gulp by Gulp" lifestyle. Rubin is also the owner of the River Road Family Vineyards and Winery, a small-production winery located in the Green Valley of Russian River Valley American Viticulture Area located in Sonoma County, California. Learn more about Ron Rubin.

Vice President, Capital Markets Group, American AgCredit

Ed is a financial services professional with over 25 years of experience in business development, structuring and underwriting corporate finance transactions for middle market and large corporate companies in the food and beverage industries. Learn more about Ed Adams.

Proprietor, Six Sigma Ranch & Winery

In 2000, Kaj Ahlmann and his wife purchased a 4,300-acre ranch in Lake County and named it Six Sigma Ranch. The release of the first wine under the label, Six Sigma Ranch, was celebrated in 2006. Kaj Ahlmann applies the Six Sigma methods on this ranch in both the grape growing and winemaking processes, and continuously monitors and refines data at each stage. Learn more about Kaj Ahlmann.

Partner in Charge, North Bay | Assurance | Wine & Craft Beverage | BPM LLP

Michelle is a Partner in Assurance and Craft Beverage Industry Group Leader at BPM. Her area of expertise is GAAP-compliant financial accounting and reporting. She serves middle-market, privately-held, family owner-managed, and institutionally owned businesses and publicly held companies. She is active in the Firm’s recruiting efforts at SSU and leads the Firm’s WIN! Initiative. Michelle is a 5th-generation Californian. She was born and raised in the agricultural community of California’s Central Coast where her great-grandparents were cattle ranchers. Michelle Ausburn holds an active CPA license in California. Learn more about Michelle Ausburn.

Managing Director, Rabobank North America Wholesale

André has over 20 years of international experience covering corporate banking and economic development. He is a senior coverage banker with responsibilities to drive strategy for and deepen relationships primarily with Rabobank’s global corporate Beverage and Consumer Food clients based in the US. André grew up in the UK and has lived in Japan, Guyana, and Dubai before settling in the US. Learn more about André Baladi.

VP/General Manager - Kosta Browne, Canvasback, Goldeneye Wineries

As VP/General Manager for Kosta Browne, Canvasback, and Goldeneye wineries, Neil Bernardi works with the winemaking teams to chart the direction of each winery, and to extract a profound sense of place from every wine. Neil was born and raised in Northern California. After living briefly in Florence, Italy, he attended UC Davis to study Italian, Viticulture, and Enology. Since joining the Duckhorn Portfolio in 2005, Neil has held numerous key positions, including tenures as the assistant winemaker for both Goldeneye and Migration, winemaker for Migration, and as the general manager for Sonoma County winegrowing. In 2018, Neil was recognized by Wine Enthusiast Magazine as one of the “trailblazers who are shaping the future of wine in America,” when he was named a “Top 40 Under 40 Tastemaker.”  In addition, Neil is currently a stage two Master of Wine student. He resides in Sonoma County with his wife and three children. Learn more about Neil Bernardi.

Vice-President, General Manager at Peter Michael Winery

Lindsey Stowe serves as Peter Michael Winery’s Vice-President/General Manager after the role of Chief Financial Officer for five years with the winery. As Vice-President/General Manager, Lindsey leads the daily operations of the winery on behalf of the second generation of the Michael family, Paul and Emily Michael. She earned a B.S. in Accounting from University of South Carolina, and an M.S. in Accounting from College of Charleston. Lindsey holds both her CPA and CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner) licenses. Learn more about Lindsey Stowe.

President & CFO, Price Family Vineyards & Estates

Tom and Bill Price established Classic Wines in 2007. Classic Wines and its affiliates own interests in several wine companies including Buccella, Gary Farrell, Kistler Vineyards, LUTUM and Three Sticks. Independent from the wine companies, Classic Wines and its affiliates own 300 planted acres and 6 vineyard properties including Durell Vineyards and Gap's Crown Vineyard. Prior to joining Classic Wines, Tom was a Managing Director with Global Wine Partners. Tom currently serves on the Pride Mountain Vineyards Board of Managers. Learn more about Tom Bonomi.

West Division Managing Director Emeritus, Brown-Forman

Chris heads up sales and marketing execution within the Western United States. Chris has been with Brown-Forman since 1985. Chris is an alumnus of Sonoma State University, has an MBA from the University of Phoenix, and is a graduate of the UCLA Anderson Executive Program in Management. Learn more about Chris Burt.

Vice President/Partner, Turrentine Brokerage

Brian Clements, who has negotiated over half a billion dollars worth of wine grape contracts during the last twenty-five years, is well-rooted in the agricultural side of the wine business, with all of its complexity and constant changes. Brian is Vice-President and Partner at Turrentine Brokerage, where he manages an industry-leading team of grape brokers dedicated to helping brand owners fuel sales growth, growers find the best homes for their fruit and financiers manage risk and take advantage of supply cycles. Learn more about Brian Clements.

Gallo Family

Caroline Coleman Bailey is a third-generation member of the Gallo family and her experience within the company includes public relations, corporate and brand communications, as well as marketing and sales. She has served as the lead spokesperson for the Gallo Family. Learn more about Caroline Bailey.

Vicky Farrow – CEO, Amista Vineyards

Vicky Farrow is CEO of Amista Vineyards, a small 3,000-case, a direct-to-consumer winery in Healdsburg, California, co-founded with her husband in 2004. Vicky came to the wine business after a career in technology companies.  As a senior executive, she played an essential role in an array of transformations—the startup of a research organization, the turnaround of a company during chapter 11 bankruptcy, the maturation of a Silicon Valley high tech company and the spin-off of a communications company from a former regulated monopoly. She was vice president and officer at Lucent Technologies, where she led a global team of 800 people. In 2000 she launched a career as an executive coach and change management advisor. Vicky has worked with several world-class organizations including Hewlett Packard, Stanford University, Cisco Systems, Williams-Sonoma, Levi, Adobe, Sun Microsystems, Duty Free Shops and Sephora USA. In addition, she spent three years as a partner at Scion Advisors where she worked with family-owned wine businesses in Napa and Sonoma and co-led two CEO Roundtables comprised of the top CEOs from wine businesses across Northern California. She and her husband Michael live on their estate vineyards in Healdsburg with their two shelties, Dylan and Torin. Learn more about Vicky Farrow.

Partner, Breathless Wines, Business Development Manager, Rack & Riddle Custom Wine Services

Cynthia is a partner with her sisters in a boutique winery, Breathless Wines, that specializes in traditional method sparkling wine and unique guest experiences.  Additionally, she leads the business development team at Rack & Riddle Custom Wine Services, a growing custom crush operation specializing in production of Methode Champenoise sparkling wines.  Cynthia spent the first 15 years of her career in accounting and became a securities-licensed CFO before being invited to join the team at Rack & Riddle in 2010. That decision paved the way to jump from accounting to sales and do what she loves the most – serve the client.  For the past 12 years, Cynthia has been integral in growing the sparkling private label business to over 200k cases of successful, thriving brands. Learn more about Cynthia Faust.

Principal and Co-Founder, Zepponi & Company

Experienced Mergers & Acquisitions and corporate finance professional with nearly two decades of advising high-growth, multi-channel consumer brands in the beverage alcohol industry. Learn more about Matt Franklin.

Director of State Relations, CA Wine Institute

Steve Gross is Director of State Relations at Wine Institute, where he has been employed since 1986. Steve's duties entail overseeing the activities of Wine Institute's six State Relations Regional Counsels and Regional Managers as they address state legislation affecting the wine industry, as well as coordinating Wine Institute's legislative and regulatory activities with staff, contract lobbyists and member wineries. Learn more about Steve Gross.

President, RNDC West Region, Republic National Distributing Company

Johnson joined RNDC in 1991 as the Executive Vice President of South Texas. He held a number of progressive career roles until being appointed to the position of Region President in 2011. Johnson has been in the wine and spirits industry for more than 25 years and began his career in the supplier tier working with E & J Gallo. Johnson is an active member of the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA) and Vistage and previously served on the board of trustees for the United Way, University of the Incarnate Word Development Board and the San Antonio Sports Foundation. Learn more about Jay Johnson.

Executive Director, Wine Business Institute

As executive director of the Wine Business Institute at Sonoma State University, Ray's role includes organizational development and program execution as well as operational oversight of programs and events at the future Wine Spectator Learning Center. Previously his work in the VESTA alliance as well as with his company - TasteWine - has led to teaching seminars from San Francisco to New York. His international experience and network in Australia, Europe, Canada, and South Africa will connect students and alumni to wineries across the globe. Learn more about Ray Johnson.

Vice Chairman, The Vincraft Group

Walt Klenz began his California wine industry career in 1973. In 1976, he was named Director of Marketing at Beringer Vineyards. Klenz held a number of senior marketing, financial and operations positions at Beringer until his appointment in 1990 as President. After Beringer was sold to Foster's Group in 2000, he headed Foster's global wine business. Klenz served on the Advisory Board of ASC Fine Wines from 2008 to 2010 and also serves on the Board of Directors of J. Lohr Winery and Columbia Sportswear Company. He is a past President of Napa Valley Vintners and a past Chairman of the Wine Institute. Learn more about Walt Klenz.

Chief Executive Officer, Crimson Wine Group

With extensive global experience in the fine wine sector, Jen joined Crimson Wine Group as its Chief Executive Officer in December 2019. She brings to the company inspirational leadership skills and an industrywide reputation for delivering results and leading high-performing teams in a collaborative and innovative style. Prior to joining Crimson, Jen was Senior Vice President of U.S. Luxury and Direct-to-Consumer Sales, Americas, at Treasury Wine Estates (TWE), a publicly traded global wine company, based in Melbourne, Australia. A Northwest native, Jen previously was Director of National Wholesale, Export and Direct-to-Consumer Sales at Willakenzie Estate and was Pacific Senior Regional Sales Manager at Chalone Wine Group. She began her hospitality industry career more than 20 years ago as a wine buyer and training manager at several fine-dining restaurants in Seattle. Learn more about Jen Locke.