Julie Lumgair is an award-winning consulting and hands-on winemaker. Her wines span eighteen vintages and 25 varietals from Napa Valley, Sonoma County and Italy. She has served in many combined estate winemaking and winegrowing roles with a keen eye on agricultural and cellar practices increasing both sustainability and top quality. Her calling cards are consistently producing acclaimed wines that reflect their place, excellence in winery operations, substantial innovation and trial programs feasible for artisan wineries’ scale, a passionate attention to customer delight and long-lasting relationships.

Ray Johnson is the Executive Director of the Wine Business Institute at Sonoma State, the first university in the United States to offer a BS in Wine Business in 1998, the first to offer a Wine MBA in 2008 and the first in the world to offer an Executive Wine MBA in 2012.

Johnson joined the wine business in 1986 at the Christian Brothers’ Greystone Cellars in Saint Helena, California. He went on to sell wine, first on the supplier side, and later in retail, working directly with consumers. He earned his Master’s in Wine Business from the University of Adelaide in South Australia and taught for fourteen years.

Vanessa Shimer is the Vice President of Human Resources at Trefethen Family Vineyards a family-owned estate vineyard and winery in the Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley. She recently launched a companywide survey focusing on employee feedback on topics such as culture, communication, and learning and development. In addition, she is developing the DEI framework, initiatives, and goals to be launched across the organization this year.