The Executive Leadership Board (ELB) is an important and influential advisory group for the UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology. Composed of invited industry leaders, educators, wine appreciators and selected friends and colleagues, ELB members lend expert counsel and assistance to the Department in setting and accomplishing its long-range strategic goals. To date, the ELB has been instrumental in departmental strategic planning exercises, as well as helping the Department to implement its vision—including fundraising for our newer facilities and key staff positions.
Chair: Jeff Meier, President & COO (Retired), J. Lohr Vineyards
1st Vice Chair: Carolyn Wente, CEO, Wente Family Estates
2nd Vice Chair: Anthony Bourke, Founder & CEO, Mach 2 Consulting
Immediate Past Chair: Janet Trefethen, CEO, Trefethen Vineyards
View the Complete Roster of ELB Members
Why join the ELB?
Our strategic vision for the Department will ensure its future, as well as the competitiveness of the industry. We would welcome your energy and skill in implementing this vision.
Our current strategic vision includes:
- Improving and strengthening our relationship with the wine and grape industries
- Significantly increasing industry investment in research, including an effort to quantify the expected returns on this investment
- Creating new means of communicating with and delivering new knowledge to our stakeholders
- Strengthening our teaching program to graduate more highly-trained students, in addition to growing our research and outreach efforts
- Building strong relationships with our alumni
- Building and equipping world class facilities to support all aspects of our mission
In addition to investing in the Department's future through engagement in our strategic vision, members of the ELB develop personal relationships with a diverse group of other ELB members and with faculty members of the Department, and they participate in the vibrant life of the University. They are a very special resource. The Department realizes that its vision of excellence can only be achieved through maintaining effective working relationships with its colleagues in the trade and with the general public—the ELB and its members are an important part of this.
The ELB is constantly broadening and expanding the depth of its board, and we wish to reach out to not only industry members, but those with a genuine interest in viticulture and enology education, including ancillary businesses that may have affiliations with the wine industry. We would be delighted to hear from you. To learn more about the ELB’s membership requirements please contact the current membership chairman via Caroline Bamforth Firman.
Responsibilities and Commitments
Members of the ELB agree to the following responsibilities:
- Actively engage in an advisory and strategic capacity
- Participate in high-level fundraising projects
- Act as professional, knowledgeable public ambassadors for the Department
Members of the ELB attend 3-4 annual board meetings each year at UC Davis or fellow member’s wineries. In addition, each member joins standing or ad hoc committees matching their interest, which typically meet via conference calls. The ELB standing committees include Development, Membership, and Program (working on activities that further the departmental vision).
The annual dues for the ELB are $4,000, which allows the board to be self-sufficient and helps to fund the salaries of the Department's Program Representative and Director of Industry Relations, a key link to our communications with our industries.