OWB Staff

Oregon Wine Center is located in the historic Albers Mill Building at 1200 NW Naito Parkway • Suite 400 • Portland, OR 97209. e-mail: info@oregonwine.org • phone: 503.228.8336 • fax: 503.228.8337

Staff
Tom Danowski • Executive Director
Tom Danowski is a proven marketing and strategy thought-leader with exceptional experience from icon global companies including Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods and the Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery. He was also part of a turnaround team at Cutter & Buck that resurrected the golf apparel brand resulting in a Harvard Business School case study.

Tom has successfully served as a Chief Marketing Officer and as a C.O.O. with operating responsibility for divisions of publicly-traded and private-equity owned companies. His background enables him to build out and lead teams that quickly connect strategic imperatives with business results.

Tom’s portfolio includes consulting clients as diverse as Microsoft, Filson and REI. He contributes on brand strategy to National Public Radio, and has been sourced for articles in Fortune and Entrepreneur magazines. He blogs and has appeared regularly to comment for KING-5 television and NW Cable News. Tom also lectures regularly at the University of Washington’s Foster School and the University of Oregon’s Lundquist College of Business on brand management and strategy.

He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.S. in Journalism (concentration in advertising) from the University of Oregon.

Katie Bray • Marketing & Events Director
Katie Bray graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration and a Certificate of International Studies in Business. In 1997 she moved to Paris where she became Assistant Director of Washington State’s Economic Development Department European Office. During her time there, she helped more than 100 Pacific Northwest companies do business in European markets. In 2002 she was hired as Program Director for the Washington State International Trade Fair Office in Seattle, where she managed PNW pavilions at major international trade shows.  The next year Katie returned to her native Oregon and put her experience to work for the wine industry. With the help of Market Access Program funds from the USDA, she manages the export marketing program for the Oregon Wine Board. She also runs the annual Oregon Wine Industry Symposium and takes on other promotional activities as needed.

Charles Humble • Marketing & Communications Director
Charles Humble, a native Oregonian and longtime resident of the Portland area, has more than 26 years of marketing and communications experience. Most recently, he was a senior vice president at Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, the world’s second largest independent public relations agency with more than $100 million in revenue and 800 employees in 17 global offices. Waggener Edstrom, which is based in Bellevue, Wash., acquired his Portland public relations agency, Insync Communications, where he was a co-founder, in 1998. During his tenure at WE, he was a senior lead on the agency’s Microsoft account, the final 2.5 years of which he spent as a senior executive in its London office. While in London, he directed the Microsoft account in Europe and EMEA as well as managed the agency’s European headquarters office in London.

Before entering public relations in 1986, Charles was a newspaper journalist, starting his career at the Oregon Statesman in Salem followed by positions at the Albany Democrat-Herald, Oregon Journal and The Oregonian, where he was assistant business editor and columnist when he left in 1986. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Linfield College. Charles resides in Beaverton with his wife, Lynne. His hobbies include wine, sports, reading, running and gardening.

Heidi Sloan • Marketing Coordinator
Heidi Sloan graduated from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 2003 with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications focused in Advertising. She worked from 2003-2005 as an Assistant Buyer for Access Business Group. In that role she worked with both special events purchasing and raw material procurement from vendors around the world. She then moved to New York City to study at Pratt Institute. She graduated from Pratt in 2007 with a degree in Graphic Design. Following graduation she began working at Gammon Ragonesi as a graphic designer and worked there for 3 years creating print, packaging, and collateral design for brands including Dreyers/Edys Ice Cream, Nestlé, Häagen-Dazs and Red Bull. In the summer of 2010 she relocated to Astoria, Oregon and began working as a freelance designer and also for Coast River Business Journal. At CRBJ she was the business manager for the monthly publication and was instrumental in layout, design, and bookkeeping. Since relocating to Portland in April, 2011 she has been working as a freelance designer. As Marketing Coordinator for the Oregon Wine Board she manages the trade show at the Oregon Wine Industry Symposium, assists with the Export Program, provides in-house graphic design, and supports other programs as needed.

Michelle Mayall • Communications Coordinator
Michelle Mayall, a native Oregonian, graduated from the University of Oregon in Eugene, in 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Communications and Cinema Studies. While in college, Michelle interned with the Southwestern Company, one of the country’s oldest direct marketing firms, as a direct salesperson working with rural families on educational needs in Iowa, South Dakota, Kansas and Wyoming. Prior to college, she worked at Freightliner Trucks LLC in the Portland office as a data technician from 2004-2006. Michelle came to the Oregon Wine Board in June 2011 as a communications intern and joined fulltime as Communications Coordinator in September 2011. She works on all media outreach and marketing events. She also manages OWB’s mobile application directory and social media.

Karen Walsh • Finance Manager
Karen Walsh spent over 30 years working in Finance while employed by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC). In addition to overseeing the collection of all distilled spirits proceeds statewide, licensing fees, and managing the Distilled Spirits Auditing Division, one of the departments she managed was responsible for the collection and accountability of the State’s malt beverage and wine taxes, and the grape and grape product taxes collected on behalf of the Oregon Wine Board. This relationship led her to the Oregon Wine Board upon her retirement in 2007. She manages all financial transactions and reports for both the Oregon Wine Board and the Oregon Winegrower’s Association. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix.