2019 Oregon Wine Symposium | Attract and Retain: Best HR Practices and the Oregon Wine Industry Salary Survey

Lesley is an accomplished wine industry entrepreneur and CEO with a focus on change management. Over the past 27 years in the wine industry she has started up the equivalent of nine new businesses, acquired and integrated four companies, and led during periods of dramatic change. As co-founder and former CEO of the Ambrosia Wine Catalogue/The Winetasting Network (which she sold in 2004), she has deep experience in consumer-direct marketing of fine wines. Lesley has served on the board of 11 wine-related companies and trade associations. In 2008, she co-founded the WISE Academy, which provides education, training and certification for winery consumer-direct professionals across wine regions throughout the United States and in New Zealand. In 2014 she co-founded SOLVE Services, which provides financial analysis, planning and decision support services for wineries. Today she spends most of her time coaching winery leaders through growth-related challenges and opportunities. Beyond wine, Lesley is a member of the YPO where she has held numerous local, regional and international board and leadership positions. Lesley is also a third-generation Napa Valley native from a grape growing family, with a B.A. from Wesleyan University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

After spending 20 years as an executive in financial services, Ellen gave up the corporate world to work in the wine industry. In 1998 she joined Rudd Winery in Napa, where she launched and managed a new luxury wine brand. During her 10 years there, she also served as the executive director of the Rudd Group, which included Rudd Winery, Dean & DeLuca, Edge Hill Winery, Distillery No. 209, PRESS Restaurant and Oakville Grocery. In 2004 she and her husband Robert decided to move north and purchase their estate vineyard in McMinnville. In addition to co-managing Brittan Vineyards, Ellen served as the first director of wine education at Linfield College. She is also chair emerita of the Oregon Wine Board, past president of the Oregon Winegrowers Association and currently serves on the boards of the International Pinot Noir Celebration, the Oregon Chardonnay Celebration and Visit McMinnville.

Dr. Jeff D. Peterson is a member of the Wine Studies and Sociology programs at Linfield College. He conducts the yearly Oregon Wine Labor Survey through the Evenstad Center for Wine Education and teaches courses in viticulture, the geography of wine and the sociology of work and occupations of wine.