Wine Entrepreneurship 3-Day Summer 2009 Intensive

Thursday, June 18th - Saturday, June 20th
8-5 pm, Darwin Hall 103

• A buffet breakfast and lunch provided
• Champagne reception
• Guest Speakers

Ray Johnson, industry expert and author of The Good Life Guide to Enjoying Wine serves as the Assistant Director of the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. His work on regional branding has been published in the International Journal of Wine Business Research, Practical Winery & Vineyard and Vineyard & Winery Management. Ray has a Masters in Wine Business from the University of Adelaide in South Australia.

Ray will lead one of the Wine Business Program's most popular professional development courses Wine Entrepreneurship in an intensive 3-Day Series. It's a very difficult time for many in the industry with seemingly endless bad news. If you want to launch a new venture, from developing a new vineyard to building a new brand, this intensive course could make a significant difference to your success. The course features a high caliber of experts and successful entrepreneurs who will share their real-world experience on the important components of a successful wine business.

At the end of 3 days, participants will have the tools in hand to create a business plan that they can apply to a future opportunity. Those already in the industry will find the class useful for improving their existing business plans, or refining their management of one of their winery's business units. Utilize this current downturn in the economy to reposition your business or prepare to launch a new venture. Topics to be addressed include: Competitive strategy, raising capital, credit from the banking perspective, valuation and capital costs for wine business and vineyard development, entity structure, how financial, legal and succession issues play into the choice, cash management and corporate housekeeping, managing growth, brand protection, developing a marketing plan, direct to consumer sales, public relations, managing logistics and distribution, human resources, leadership, exit strategies and the unique legal challenges associated with the wine business.

Registration and Fee Information: BUS 800 #1120 (24 CEU) $975

For further information please call Renée Thompson at 707-664-2260 or Extended Education at 707-664-2394 to register.

Refunds: Full refund granted up to June 1, 2009. Partial refund of $825 granted through June 18, 2009. No refund granted beginning Friday, June 19, 2009.

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Testimonials

Peter Young of Dry Stack Cellars: "Everything has been great. Instructors have been enthusiastic and very knowledgeable on their topics. And the variety of topics covered has been excellent." 

Gary Kimmel of Kimmel Vineyards: "The class has been great and exceeded expectations.  Ray (Johnson) is very knowledgeable and connected in all aspects of the business and brings a wealth of info to the class, comments and recommendations.  The guest speakers have been tops in their field."

Summer '09 Guest Lecturers

The following experts have already committed to join Johnson in addressing the summer session of Wine Entrepreneurship.

Armand Gilinsky, Professor of Business at Sonoma State University, former Director of SSU's Entrepreneurship Center, will lead the class in developing the keys aspects of a strategic plan. During the session, Gilinsky review the development of your business' mission and vision statements, goals and objectives as well as conducting a SWOT analysis.

Gilinsky was also former Director of the Wine Business Program and Small Business Institute. Dr. Gilinsky has had extensive consulting experience with more than 30 companies, including members of the wine industry. His areas of specialty include strategic planning and venture planning. He has authored numerous business case studies and several articles on entrepreneurial strategy and has held a teaching appointment at the Harvard Business School.

Susan Cagann, Special Counsel at Farella Braun + Martel in the Business Transactions Division, will provide an overview of the laws and compliance issues particular to the wine industry.

Prior to private practice, Cagann served in both executive and legal capacities for Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates and Jackson Family Farms.  Her many roles included counsel on and management of the full range of legal matters, including environmental regulations compliance, including water rights and quality issues; federal and state regulations on the production, marketing and distribution of wine and Proposition 65 compliance.  She was also a senior attorney at Safeway Inc., where she managed legal compliance in sales and marketing, advertising, consumer protection and privacy, e-commerce, weights and measures, unfair trade practices and transportation. 

Jean Hackenburg, Owner of Hummingbird Hill Vineyards, former CFO and Chairman of the Board of Sonoma Coast Vineyards, will teach the importance of Cash Management and Corporate Housekeeping. Cash flow is the heart of every business.  The wine business has unique cash requirements that, if not managed carefully, can easily and quickly put your business out of control.  Hackenburg will teach the basics of what to look for to determine whether your winery's health is improving or declining.

Hackenburg is a senior finance and operations executive with over thirty years in the hardware, software and wine industries, ranging from start-ups to large publicly held organizations. In 2005 she joined Sonoma Coast Vineyards, a small ultra premium winery as their financial advisor and CFO. She helped restructure and reposition the business to strengthen the balance sheet and to be more interesting to investors. She ultimately became Chairman of the Board and orchestrated the sale of the winery to Windsor Vineyards in April 2008. Jean and her husband grow Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir on 12 hillside acres in the Sonoma Coast AVA. She is also a member of the North Bay Angels and serves on the board as a past Chairman.

David Stoll, Partner at Farella, Braun and Martel, will share his expertise in protecting the brand identity that business owners work so hard to develop.
Stoll maintains an active role in the firm's Wine Industry practice and splits his time between San Francisco and the firm's St. Helena office, representing wineries and vineyard owners, large and small.  He works with wine clients in connection with branding and compliance issues, grape contracts, mergers and acquisitions and consulting arrangements.  In addition, Stoll provides expert advice regarding the use and protection of wine-related trademarks and trade names, including the names of wineries, their wine brands, and the increasingly common use of proprietary and vineyard designated names. 

Stephen Schwitalla, General Manager and CEO of the Sonoma County Vintners Co-op, and Founder of Pack N' Ship Direct, will share his knowledge on logistics and moving your product efficiently through approved channels across the US and worldwide. He will discuss wine logistics via two primary channels of trade: distributor (business to business) and consumer-direct. He will cover the distributor warehousing industry in general and the Co-op's role in that as well as how their Pack N' Ship Direct assists wineries in reaching consumers directly, legally and cost effectively.

Schwitalla enjoyed a successful career in top management at McLane Intl./Wal-Mart. Not wanting to sit idle in retirement, he became CEO of the Sonoma County Vintners Co-op. He has built that organization to a level of success today such that they serve 250 wineries from Santa Barbara to Seattle. Mr. Schwitalla also serves on the Community Bank Board for Santa Rosa's North Coast Bank and is Co-Chairman of the Sonoma based Culinary Society of America, an emerging leader in multi-media life-style, “concierge” services worldwide.

Alex Klein, Assistant Vice President of American AgCredit, will lead a module called Winery Finance: a short course. During the presentation, Klein will describe the economics of starting a small to medium size winery and provide a window into the lender's expectations when evaluating a proposal for financing.

American AgCredit is a borrower owned Co-operative providing a variety of services to the agricultural industry and is part of the nationwide Farm Credit System. They provide lending services to 38 counties in California and all of Nevada through 21 local offices.

Klein graduated from California State University in Sacramento with a degree in Economics. He has been with American AgCredit in Sonoma County for 22 years maintaining a designated portfolio of loans centered in vineyards and wineries. He is involved in all aspects of the credit process. He also provides input as the central region representative of the marketing staff at American AgCredit. Alex currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Russian River Valley Winegrowers Association.

Diane Silber-Cohen, MS, CRC, CDMS, will present the most important considerations in the area of employee relations from hiring and terminations to worker’s compensation.

Silber-Cohen brings her experience in human resources management to employers in the food and wine industry, as well as other venues including healthcare, workforce development, insurance companies, law firms and related disciplines for private and public employers.

Focusing on cost effectiveness with human capital as the prime resource for employers, Diane has developed and administered programs targeting the bottom line. As California Rehabilitation Coordinator for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, she developed and implemented their first in-house Return to Work program for industrially injured employees, simultaneously increasing services and reducing costs, which served as a model for other employers.
Concurrently, she served as a Chairperson with the California Self-Insurers’ Association, reviewing and lobbying legislation. Presently, she is Retention Services Manager with the City & County, San Francisco and also continues an independent management consultation practice.

Recently completing a certificate through the International Sommelier Guild, Diane enhances her understanding of the wine world and its complexities as a vibrant business sector in a highly competitive, global twenty-first century marketplace.

Leslie Bramwell-Smith will cover the importance of effective public relations and creating lasting relationships with the media and other gatekeepers.

Bramwell-Smith has an extensive background in marketing and sales including most recently as director of marketing for The Winegrowers of Dry Creek Valley, an association of 65 wineries and 150 growers.

Previously, as executive director for Brutocao Vineyards in Hopland, Bramwell-Smith created the Personal Vineyards program, a lifestyle “time-share”-like wine club for individuals who wanted to experience firsthand being vintners.

And with Brown-Forman Wine Group, on brand management for Bonterra Vineyards, she worked closely with Robert Redford and the Sundance Team (on several projects including The Sundance Film Festival) and developed an award-winning POS campaign, with nationally-acclaimed graphic artist, Michael Schwab (see the Bonterra poster series at www.michaelschwab.com).

While on the Korbel Champagne marketing team, Bramwell-Smith coordinated all the efforts of two large-scale post-Olympic events in Washington, D.C. One was filmed and telecast by NBC as a “Wide World of Sports” special on the Salt Lake City Olympics.

Additionally, she spent 20+ years in the footwear industry, as a territory sales representative for shoe companies including Reebok and Birkenstock. Those years of experience helped to create a very trend-oriented perspective on how she looks at the world—Bramwell-Smith sees marketing today as an ever- changing horizon of opportunities to message to the world.

Currently consulting to the wine industry, Bramwell-Smith brings an “out-of-the-box” approach to making a buzz in today’s vastly changing world.

Jim Salomone and Josaphine Tuchel of PG&E will cover energy cost management and green building opportunities. Wineries and vineyards are increasingly recognizing that comprehensive, strategic energy management is an important method of cost management, as well as key to sustainability planning, greenhouse gas reductions, and competitive business practices.

This overview session led by PG&E will discuss energy cost management from the "continuous energy improvement" perspective, helping students learn how to identify where energy and cost savings opportunities exist, plan energy management projects over 1-5 years, and evaluate the successfulness of these projects.

Specific opportunities for energy management will be presented, including a review of key green building opportunities for building new wineries, harvesting the low hanging fruit in existing buildings, case studies, and a review of PG&E's rebate and incentive programs. Students will be provided with additional resources they can utilize outside of the classroom.

Jim Salomone is a PG&E Ag and Food Processing Energy Efficiency Supervisor. He primarily manages the Customer Energy Efficiency programs for winery, agricultural production, fruit and vegetable processing plants and other food processors for the Northern PG&E territory. Prior to his current position Jim was the PG&E Account Executive for the past 8 years servicing only large corporate and family owned wineries in Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino Counties.

Jim has been with PG&E for 30 years and has held a variety of customer contact management positions in the Central Coast, Central Valley, North Coast and at PG&E's Corporate Headquarters in SF. Jim holds a BS in Agriculture from CSU Chico and an MS in Business Management from University of San Francisco. He has also completed UC Davis' Land Use and Environmental Planning Program Certification.

He is a member of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau and owns a small Sangiovese vineyard in the Alexander Valley where he lives with his wife and makes his own wine.

Josaphine Tuchel Josaphine is a Supervisor and Senior Program Manager in Pacific Gas and Electric Company's Energy Efficiency group, focusing on the agricultural industry sectors in California. Her work at PG&E includes collaboration with the Emerging Technologies team to assess the energy-saving potential within the Ag & Food Processing market for applicable emerging technologies and to facilitate industry adoption.

Josa received her MBA from the UC Davis Graduate School of Management in June 2007 and focused her studies on finance, strategic management and entrepreneurship. She has a B.A. from the University of San Diego in International Relations. While getting her MBA, she worked as an Emerging Venture Analyst (EVA) at the UC Davis Energy Efficiency Center (EEC). Her background includes pricing and financial analysis in the hi-tech and banking industries and business development and consulting in the wine industry.

PG&E Resources: Jim Salomone: phone 707 579-6437. email: jxs8@pge.com Check out www.pge.com for all of your business energy needs including rebates, incentives, rate information, energy audits, online account access and more.