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.
Charles Humble • Director of Communications & Interactive Marketing
Charles Humble joined the Oregon Wine Board staff in 2011 from a successful career in communications consulting at several agencies in the Portland area. In his current position, he is responsible for all internal and external OWB communications as well as all online and interactive communications. During his tenure at OWB, he has established a strong track record of communicating the successes and opportunities of the Oregon wine industry.
His accomplishments have included producing the winning bid for the 2012 Wine Bloggers Conference to be held in Portland, August 17-20, 2012. He also orchestrated the communications plan that turned the media environment for the 2011 grape harvest from negative to positive with a focused an hard-hitting campaign that was dubbed “the miracle harvest.” Charles was responsible for the broad and positive coverage of the 2011 Oregon Wine Industry Economic Impact Study which was released in July 2011.
He is a graduate of Linfield College in McMinnville, OR, where he earned a degree in communications. He was a journalist at the Albany Democrat-Herald, Oregon Journal and The Oregonian before joining the public relations profession. He was president and CEO of Insync Communications in Portland before the agency was acquired by Waggener Edstrom Worldwide where he was a senior vice president. Charles resides in Beaverton with his wife, Lynne. His hobbies include wine, sports, reading, running and technology.
Dewey Weddington • Director of Marketing & Education
Dewey Weddington comes to the OWB after a successful career in advertising and brand development that provided the foundation for his rebuilding of the Cooper Mountain Vineyards marketing and sales program, followed by a long tenure as the Vice President of Marketing for the six brands of SakeOne.
Dewey began his wine marketing career at Funk/Levis in Eugene where he managed the firm’s efforts on behalf of King Estate as well as other key clients, such as Monaco Coach Corporation. He moved to Cooper Mountain Vineyards in 2003 to carry forward the rebranding work done by his team at Funk/Levis and assist in winery operations as he poured himself into learning the business. Recruited by SakeOne in 2005, Dewey managed product and brand development, packaging, new and traditional media, public relations, partner alliances, and education covering both Oregon brewed sake and imports. His most recognizable work includes the highly successful G Sake, the rebranding of the Momokawa brand and a host of unconventional, yet highly successful programs that have positioned SakeOne as America’s premium sake company. Dewey’s work with Cooper Mountain Vineyards and SakeOne took him throughout the United States and to France, Japan and Mexico to represent his company and Oregon.
Dewey is a graduate of the University of Oregon with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism/Advertising. Dewey has been aligned with professional associations throughout his career including stints as the President of the Eugene Advertising Federation and the Wineries of Washington County (now known as North Willamette Vintners). While at Cooper Mountain Vineyards he developed Oregon’s first Organic and Biodynamic workshop and recently helped create the successful Sakefest PDX. Today he lives in Tigard and shares his passion for Oregon wine with his wife Donele. His free time is spent hiking, fly-fishing, surfing, gardening and wine-centric travel.
Michelle Mayall • Communications & Interactive Media 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 more than 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.
Foreign Contractors
Mike Coveney • UK Representative for the Oregon Wine Board, Managing Director Hilltop Wines Ltd.
Mike Coveney is an expert in exporting wine. Having gained regional and global sales and marketing experience with Allied Domecq and the California-based Delicato Family Vineyards, he recognized a need for specialist export sales support, particularly with small to medium sized family wineries. In 2004 he founded Hilltop Wines LTd. to assist the development of export sales for global wineries. In 2005 he started working with the Oregon Wine Board to establish a significant UK presence for Oregon wines in this prestigious and influential market. Today he is responsible for all in-market activities, which include numerous trade and consumer events as well as supporting all Oregon wineries eager to establish themselves in the UK.
Motoko Ishii • Japan Representative for the Oregon Wine Board, Owner BASIS Wine Marketing
Motoko Ishii is a wine marketing specialist with more than 20 years experience working in the wine industry. Motoko has represented Wines of Spain, WOSA- Wines of South Africa and New Zealand Wine growers in the Japanese market. In 2003, she began representing the Oregon Wine Board and started promoting Oregon wine in Japan. She currently organizes the annual “Enjoy Oregon Wine Fair” which attracted 98 restaurants and wine shops in 2011. Motoko is an active in wine writer and frequently contributes articles to wine and general interest magazines. She has also supervised the translation editing of Robert Mondavi’s Harvest of Joy and the new word section of The World Atlas of Wine into Japanese.