2017 Oregon Wine Symposium | Creating a Sustainable Business

Deborah Steinthal is a senior marketing executive and seasoned consultant with a proven approach enabling business owners to position for growth or for exit. She has worked alongside more than 150 CEOs to generate close to a billion dollars of incremental, profitable revenues for her clients. As both a strategic consultant and as an executive, Steinthal has enabled organizations large and small to transform from startup through formalization, restructure due to poor performance, manage through fast growth; and launch new initiatives, products and services both regionally and globally.

Keith Meyers heads the Business Valuation and Litigation Support practice at Perkins & Co. His experience includes working with clients in wholesale and retail, professional services, the funeral industry, manufacturing and other industries. Keith co-leads the Beer, Wine & Spirits Practice Group and has more than 20 years of wine industry experience that includes providing valuations, financial consulting and succession planning for over 40 top wineries in Oregon and Washington.

Erik McLaughlin has more than two decades of experience in the fine wine and alcohol beverage world. Erik provides the unique industry specific knowledge and expertise to maximize value and guide clients through to a successful close. Erik has more than twenty years of experience working in virtually all aspects of the fine wine industry. Erik currently heads Exvere’s Wine and Spirits services.

Gary Mortensen is president of Stoller Family Estate and general manager of Chehalem Winery. He is a technology start-up veteran and an award winning documentary film maker. Mortensen’s tenure in the Oregon wine industry dates back to 1988 where he was Vice President of Sokol Blosser Winery. In 1999, he left the industry to pursue Portland’s emerging tech startup scene where he led the development of the original “Uber ap” (iQTaxi) and later interfaced with the U.S. Intelligence community helping develop data driven solutions for “extreme risk mitigation scenarios”.