The Industry's Premier Direct Shipping Conference
Thursday, June 10, 2010 • Napa Valley Marriott
Our expert speakers and panelists will address key issues affecting your business.
Fred Reichheld
Author, The Ultimate Question
In the June, 2003 edition of Consulting Magazine, Mr. Reichheld was included on their list of the world's top 25 consultants.
According to The New York Times, "[He] put loyalty economics on the map." The Economist refers to him as the "high priest" of loyalty. He is the author of three books and eight Harvard Business Review articles on the subject.
Mr. Reichheld joined Bain in 1977 and was elected to the partnership in 1982. In addition to founding and leading the Loyalty practice, he served the firm in a variety of roles including membership on its Worldwide Management, Nominating, and Compensation Committees. In January 1999, he was elected by the firm to become the first Bain Fellow-a half-time position that enables him to focus primarily on research and writing.
Steve Gross
Director, State Relations, Wine Institute
Steve Gross is Director of State Relations at Wine Institute, where he has been employed since 1986. Steve’s duties entail overseeing the activities of Wine Institute’s six State Relations Regional Counsels as they address state legislation affecting the wine industry, as well as coordinating Wine Institute’s legislative and regulatory activities with staff, contract lobbyists and member wineries.
Steve regularly participates in many national programs dealing with issues facing the wine industry, both on the legislative and regulatory levels. Steve serves on the Board of Directors of both Sustainable Conservation and the California Council for Environmental and Economic Balance (CCEEB). He also serves on the Sonoma State University Wine Business Institute’s Executive Board. A native of Nebraska, Steve brought to Wine Institute knowledge garnered during his ten years of employment in the on-sale food and beverage industry, as well as extensive experience in political campaigns and legislative activism.
Evan Lawson
Senior Partner, Lawson & Weitzen, LLP
Since graduating from the Boston University School of Law in 1967, Evan Lawson has devoted his professional life to the art and science of trial work, amassing extensive experience in all aspects of dispute resolution and appellate practice. In 1969 he was appointed legal counsel to the Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission, where he served for three years developing a specialty in state and federal regulation. In 1973 he founded Lawson & Weitzen, LLP, which has received the Highest Martindale Hubble rating for thirty years and is now ranked 55th among the 100 largest law firms in Massachusetts.
Evan’s practice concentrates on civil litigation with an emphasis on trade practices litigation, alcoholic beverages licensing and regulation, supplier-wholesaler disputes, media law and defense of complex professional liability claims, and mergers and acquisitions of alcoholic beverages wholesalers. In the course of his practice Evan has also represented clients on behalf of insurers in the media, marine, engineering and environmental fields. He has been the principal attorney in over 100 appellate cases, including cases involving the relationship between the Commerce Clause and the 21st Amendment, and two in the United States Supreme Court. In 1996 he successfully represented a Rhode Island liquor retailer before the United States Supreme Court in 44 Liquormart v. State of Rhode Island, which established a First Amendment right to advertise alcoholic beverages prices and overturned a previous Supreme Court ruling that the 21st Amendment gave an “added presumption of validity” to state regulation of alcoholic beverages.
Jim Gordon
Editor, Wines & Vines
Jim Gordon has been covering the wine industry as an editor and reporter for more than 25 years. In 2006 he became editor of Wines & Vines, the magazine for North American winemakers and grape growers, based in San Rafael, Calif. Under his leadership the magazine has solidified its emphasis on boutique wineries in all regions of North America, launched ambitious daily headlines coverage of industry news at WinesandVines.com, redesigned the print magazine and website, and supplemented the writing team with more professionals in grape growing and winemaking.
Gordon also directs the annual Symposium for Professional Wine Writers at Meadowood Napa Valley. Gordon was the editor of the St. Helena Star newspaper in Napa Valley in the 1980s. He was managing editor of Wine Spectator for 12 years, and editor in chief of Appellation / Wine Country Living magazine for four, during which time he helped create Wine Country Living TV for NBC station KNTV in San Jose. He began his journalism career on the campus newspaper at Denison University in Ohio. A resident of Napa, Calif., since 2001, he is in his 21st vintage as an amateur winemaker.
Matt Botting
General Counsel, California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control
Matthew Botting was appointed by ABC Director Steven Hardy to the position of ABC General Counsel in August, 2008. Botting has 16 years of state government legal experience, including six years with ABC and four years as a Deputy Attorney General. He was ABC’s Chief Legal Counsel from 2000-2004 before he was hired away by private industry. Botting returned to ABC in 2005 as a Staff Counsel III where he served until his latest appointment to General Counsel to the Director. He has a Law Degree from Otago University in New Zealand and also has a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from the same University. Botting began his government career in 1992 as a Staff Counsel for the State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF), he was hired as a Deputy Attorney General in 1996 where he served until ABC hired him as Chief Counsel in 2000.
John Hinman
Partner, Hinman & Carmichael
John A. Hinman is a partner in the San Francisco law firm of Hinman & Carmichael LLP. The firm was founded in 1985 and specializes in 21st Amendment and alcoholic beverage law and regulations. Prior to founding his law firm, John served as Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel of Sonoma Vineyards, Inc., from 1978 to 1984; a publicly traded company that, among other businesses, owned and operated wineries and vineyards in two states as well as the then largest national direct shipper of wine in the United States. John currently serves as General Counsel to the Specialty Wine Retailer’s Association and the California Music and Culture Association.
John currently represents wineries, breweries, wine, beer and spirits wholesalers and importers, hotels, resorts, restaurants, grocery and drug store chains and other industry members. John defends his clients against administrative disciplinary actions brought by federal and state alcoholic beverage control regulators across the country, assists his clients in negotiating product distribution agreements and mediating disputes, and counsels his clients on regulatory and corporate strategies related to beverage alcohol production, importation and marketing. John, has written over a dozen published articles and treatises on various facets of alcoholic beverage regulation, is a 1974 graduate of Columbia University School of Law and a 1971 graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara. John is a member of the California Bar and the US Supreme Court Bar.
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