 | Angus Hughson Angus is a digital wine media specialist, drinks communicator and publisher. He is the founder of Winepilot, the co-publisher of The Vintage Journal, Australian Editor for Vinous and Drinks Editor for WISH Magazine in The Australian as well as the author of Worldwine. Angus has also worked extensively in eCommerce, analytics, sales and marketing for key start ups and supermarkets in retail and wine storage. He holds a Doctorate in Psychology from the University of Sydney and the Diploma in Wine and Spirits (WSET). |
 | Andrew Shedden Endeavour Group - Dan Murphys Head of Fine Wine Andrew is the Head of Fine Wine Buying for the Endeavour Group. Andrew and his team of buyers source the best wines from small – medium sized wineries across Australia and abroad and curate the range available to customers across key Endeavour banners including the Dan Murphy’s, BWS and Langton’s businesses. Outside of just buying the stuff, Andrew has completed all levels of WSET wine education, including a dipWSET completed a few years ago. Andrew also dabbles in making some very average Pinot Noir on the Mornington Peninsula that (thankfully) no one other than his long-suffering family gets to see. |
| Anthony Barnes, CPA. Anthony is the Founder and Director at Vinstrat Advisory, delivering CFO, client accounting services, and financial control and performance solutions. He is a senior finance professional with a demonstrated history of working in Wine, Food and Beverage, Hospitality, Tourism and FMCG sectors across supply chain, manufacturing, commercial and corporate centre functions. He has achieved success by effectively managing and communicating the financial position of companies, while providing support services and leading high performing finance teams in privately owned micro and small enterprises, publicly listed and private equity SMEs and multinationals. |
 | Cathy Huyghe Cathy Huyghe is an entrepreneur, writer and mindfulness proponent. She is the co-founder Enolytics, a technology-centric disruptor and provider of business solutions for the wine industry. She writes about the business and politics of the wine industry in her column for Forbes online, and she also co-creates the content for A Balanced Glass, a community dedicated to wellness in the wine and spirits world. All three of those ventures have been recognized for their innovative contributions, and in 2021 Huyghe was named one of the industry’s Most Inspiring People by the Wine Industry Network. |
 | Chris Torres What types of experiences appeal to travellers? How long will they travel for? What still ‘frightens’ them about travel post-pandemic? How we travel has changed for good but the important aspect is… we want to travel. In this video, Chris Torres, of the Tourism Marketing Agency, shares his findings from a consumer focus group he conducted with over 2000 travellers. These findings will give you a better sense of what your customers may be thinking while helping you with product creation, pricing, and with marketing of your business. |
 | Crystelle Topatan Crystelle is a passionate businesswoman, entrepreneur, and educator. As one of Australia's leading business automation strategists, Crystelle has spent 23+ years working in Marketing and Business Operations across many industry sectors. She founded Launchy.io, an award-winning Business Automation Agency to service to growing demand in Australia to leverage automation in business. As an experienced business automation expert, Crystelle is passionate about working with business owners who are dissatisfied with their current results and simply want to accelerate growth and profit. She has walked in the shoes of a start-up business owner and understands what it takes to run a growing, global business, having built Launchy from just herself to 20 strong team members and a solid referral partner network. Crystelle has been engaged by businesses of all levels for her down-to-earth business strategy advice and continues to share her learnings through educational events and one-on-one advice. |
 | Dan Howard Bio coming soon |
 | Dan Sims Bio coming soon |
 | Dr Darren Oemcke Darren is a partner in Hydra Consulting a business, working across wine, food, spirits and manufacturing. His extensive wine sector work ranges from winery and packaging facilities and winery operations through to consumer analysis, exporting, sales and wine business education. His focus includes effective operations, growth, adaptation and consumer engagement. He works extensively with start-up’s in EdTech, marketing, AgTech, WineTech and tourism. He is the Chair of Riverland Wine, Managing Director of experience-based tourism business Invina, Director of Surfing South Australia, Director of Magmell Pty Ltd and Head Coach of the FOMENT wine and tourism tech accelerator. As well as a Master’s degree in management from the ANU, Darren has studied business and leadership at internationally leading business schools including the University of Adelaide, the Melbourne Business School, Harvard and Monash-Mt Eliza School of Business. He has Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD qualifications in Engineering, and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He is part the Wine Business group in the Adelaide Business School teaching entrepreneurship and wine retail. He is currently delivering the Western Australia Wines to the World Program, and led the development of an innovative export capability building program for the wine industry Growing Wine Exports) that includes a strong on-line component and is very hands-on. He co-hosts with Simon West the weekly wine trade podcast. ‘Aussie Wine Chat’, which focuses on international and domestic trade, interviewing guests from around the world on wine trade, sales, consumers and tourism; and has mentored in the Wine Industry Mentoring Program, New Venture Institute, Venture Dorm, the Conduit Accel hyper accelerator, Innovyz and Musitec incubation/ acceleration programs, is a previous member of Bio Angles in South Australia and of the Accelerating Commercialisation Experts Network. |
 | Dave Gerner AgTech Program Manager at Wine Australia Bio coming soon |
 | Dean Carroll Dean Carroll is the CEO of Brown Family Wine Group. With a rich background in wine, drinks and FMCG, leadership, business and sales. With a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from Melbourne University, Dean believes in continual improvement and acquiring knowledge as a natural learner. This adaptive mindset has seen Dean’s professional endeavours grow and support his team and community. He recently joined a Mastermind Mentor List CEO group. |
 | Ewan Proctor Ewan is a wine and beverage industry professional with 25 years experience ranging from managing award winning boutique regional wineries and restaurants, to representing global luxury brands in challenging and dynamic export markets across Asia and North America. He played a central role in the meteoric rise of Penfolds in China between 2015-2018 where he was the Head of Education for Treasury Wine Estates. Currently he is the ANZ Sourcing Manager for Vivino, the worlds most successful wine app, and is simultaneously developing the domestic marketplace while opening up new export pathways for Australian Wine. |
 | Genevieve d'Ament Bio coming soon |
 | Glenn Barrington Glenn is the Partnerships manager at Rezdy, the world's leading online booking and distribution platform. Glenn is undoubtedly a travel addict, having visited more than 50 countries so he was always going to make a career out of it. With more than 10 years experience in the industry and working for big brands such as Contiki, Glenn is now forming relationships all over the world to help tourism operators make the most of their business through Rezdys suite of products. Rezdy is the world’s leading independent B2B SaaS booking and distribution platform for tours, activities and attractions. Their powerful booking software helps thousands of tour and activity operators, in over 100 countries, save time and grow their direct business. |
 | Jeremy Oliver Jeremy will be MC to this year's Wine Industry IMPACT Conference. |
 | Kate Schilling Bio coming soon |
| Lee McLean Bio coming soon |
L Bio coming soon | |
 | Matt Fowles Matt left his career in the law to launch his career in the wine industry back in March 2006. Coming from a long line of farmers, it was the natural thing to do. While his chief responsibility is the business of wine, he spends much of his time feeding his connection to the Strathbogie Ranges. Whether that is time in the vineyard, playing with wine or hunting for his table – he truly understands this land. In 2007, he was invited into the inaugural Future Leaders program created by peak industry bodies to foster the next generation of leaders in the wine industry in Australia. He was then invited to be an observer of the Medium Winemaker’s Committee of the Winemaker’s Federation of Australia. During this time, he was exposed to the best strategic minds and experience of wineries across Australia. In 2010, his wine Ladies who Shoot their Lunch Shiraz – a style that he pioneered – won the Trophy in the Great Australian Shiraz Challenge for Australia’s Best Shiraz. Fowles was the first ever Victorian winery to win the prestigious award. In 2019, he joined the Board of Wine Victoria where, amongst other things, he Chairs the Trade desk and is helping to define a strategy for Victorian wine exports into the US market. In 2020, his 2018 Ladies who Shoot their Lunch Shiraz was named in Wine Spectator’s Top 100 of all wines globally. |
 | Michael Whitehead ANZ Michael Whitehead is Head of Food, Beverage and Agribusiness Industry Insights for ANZ. Previously, Michael worked for Macquarie Agricultural Funds Management in New York, as Executive Director of Rabobank’s Food & Agribusiness Advisory team in North America, as well as for the UN and the International Red Cross in Switzerland. He also has experience in agricultural production and consulting, particularly in Australia and China. Michael has a BA from La Trobe University, and MBA from the Melbourne Business School and the Rotterdam School of Management, and has completed the Harvard Business School Advanced Agribusiness Course. |
 | Nick Blair Nick Blair, Co-Owner and Director – Vision Wine Partners Pty Ltd After more than 40 years in the Liquor industry, Nick has gained the respect and friendship of many key people in the international wine and spirit industry through his dedication, commitment, adaptability, experience, and proven track record across many facets of the industry. With retail experience in leading fine wine stores and managing independent retail outlets; Brand Owner experience primarily in international sales and marketing roles with the Pernod Ricard Group; Restaurant owner and co-founder of Vision Wine Partners, when it comes to wine, Nick has pretty much done it all. |
 | Peta Granger Peta is a purpose-led business leader specialising in retail strategy, brand innovation and creating award winning customer experiences and has just wrapped up 20 years with the global cosmetic retailer Lush. As the Director of Lush ANZ she turned the loss making business into a leading ethical retailer and made company values the main driver of employee engagement. Peta is passionate about ethical trade, sustainability, regenerative systems and using business, trade and profit to create impact that pushes Australia into a more progressive direction. These days she is a business consultant, company director and her mission is driving purpose-led business into the mainstream. At the Wine Impact Conference she’ll be sharing lessons in how to build connection, momentum and a community people want to be a part of. |
 | Paul Van der Lee Bio coming soon |
 | Peter McAtamney Peter is the founding Principal of Wine Business Solutions (WBS), whose sole focus is providing strategic advisory and management consultancy services to the wine industry. To inform best practice advice, WBS produce the only research into what is on wine lists in 6 of the 7 largest markets for imported wine as well as Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. WBS also benchmarks DtC wine business across Australia, New Zealand and South African and compares this information directly with the same questions asked of US wineries. Over 1400 wine business owners & senior managers have attended WBS’ wine business 2-day workshops during its 18 years of operation. Peter has studied Marketing and Strategy at Columbia University, New York. He has taught Marketing, Strategy, Sales Management and Business Culture as part of the University of Technology, Sydney MBA Program. Peter’s corporate experience includes a Managing Director role with a public listed wine company during which time he was Chairman of Wine Marlborough, on the Marketing Committee for the New Zealand wine industry and an alternate board member for the NZ Winegrowers Board. His 30 + year career in the wine industry includes 10 years working in global distribution management and global strategy formulation for such well-known brands as Freixenet, and Wine Marlborough. He has provided global strategic advice to the Austrian Wine Marketing Board, New Zealand Winegrowers, Wines of South Africa as well as many leading State, Provincial and Regional bodies. |
 | Polly Hammond Polly is Founder, CEO, and the public face of 5forests. She splits her time between Barcelona, Auckland, and Napa, consulting, writing, and speaking about the trends that impact today’s lifestyle businesses. She’s an advisor to New Zealand Trade & Enterprise, host of Uncorked with the Italian Wine Podcast, co-host of the Real Business of Wine with Robert Joseph, and, occasionally, a knitter. Polly is a graduate of the University of Southern California, where she earned degrees in International Relations and French. Those studies led to a deep and abiding love affair with Behavioural Economics, and her work is based on insights into all the crazy and irrational reasons consumers engage with brands. With over 25 years’ experience in growing successful companies, Polly knows firsthand the challenges faced by independent businesses. She approaches each client experience with empathy and understanding for what it takes to adapt and thrive in the real world. |
 | Richard Owens 10 years ago, Richard Owens was a beer drinker and not involved in the wine industry. One evening, an excellent bottle of wine with a wine-loving family friend changed it all. But after constantly coming up against barriers to purchasing wine from wineries – printable PDFs and paper tasting lists – he set out to innovate the customer experience. 10 years later he hired a crack team of tech experts and industry veterans, like Andrew Caillard MW and Ben Copeman-Hill, to create a Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) solution that will empower wineries to take control of their own destinies in the industry: the WithWine App and software. The app makes it easy for consumers to engage with and make repeated purchases from their favourite wineries. Richard often describes the WithWine App as his "gift to the industry" but really it's a gift to people who love wine. |
 | Richard Van Ruth Bio coming soon |
 | Robin Shaw Robin is the founder of award-winning consultancy business Wine Tourism Australia and cellar door sales training company VINTUITION. Recognised as a global wine tourism expert, she works with Australian and international wineries and wine regions to maximise their tourism and cellar door sales potential. Industry leadership roles include WISA committee member, Wine Communicators of Australia mentor and University of Adelaide Course Coordinator and Lecturer in Wine Tourism for the Master of Wine Business program. She is also working with wine critic Jeremy Oliver to produce a travel guide to Australia’s Best Cellar Doors. In her spare time, Robin roams Australia’s wine regions in her trusty motorhome aptly named Grace Vin Tourer seeking out the best wine experiences and doing a little sampling along the way. |
| Rowena Curlewis Rowena is CEO and one of the founding partners of leading drinks design specialist Denomination. Denomination is an award-winning drinks design consultancy based in Australia, the UK and the US. They work for a large cross-section of clients from boutique to international icons. Now in its twentieth year, Denomination aims to continuously push boundaries and do things differently, and lead the drinks design industry in driving sustainability. Rowena’s insight, passion and knowledge about the drinks industry means she is a regular contributor to drinks and design press, and has lectured and chaired panels in design, innovation and drinks packaging. |
 | Shirley Fraser Shirley is a wine strategy professional and innovative problem solver, Facilitating business improvement that is relevant and effective, she is dedicated to unlocking the potential of each business she works with. Shirley connects networks and facilitates collaboration; Cultivating authentic stories, innovation and causes, to leverage brands in their route to market to achieve sustainable success. A Roseworthy graduate, Future Leader alumni, and advisory board member of AWIWA, Shirley is the Executive Officer at WISA – Wine Industry Suppliers Assoc Inc. Passionate about championing supply chain and adoption, and contributing to the sectors future, both within Australia and internationally. |
 | Stephanie Duboudin Stephanie has over 20 years of experience in the wine industry across strategic marketing, consumer and trade research, brand management, innovation, tourism and stakeholder engagement. Starting her career in the wine industry in NY, she has had roles working across the US, Canada, UK, China and Australia. Stephanie established the Australian and NZ operations for global wine insights agency Wine Intelligence and has held roles with Kobrand Corporation NY, Decanter UK, Rathbone Wine Group and Yabby Lake. She is the founder and Managing Director of consumer insights and strategy consultancy, Food and Wine Insights. Chair of Wine Victoria since November 2020 and a National board member of the Wine Communicators of Australia since 2018, Stephanie has been a regular guest speaker and keynote presenter on consumer insights and industry trends, a columnist on trends for Gourmet Traveller Wine and a judge of the Wine Communicators of Australia awards. |
 | Terry Waterson Bio coming soon |
 | Tim Stead bio coming soon |
