2025 Speakers

Trycel Alvarez-Pihl is a seasoned finance executive with more than 15 years of progressive leadership experience across accounting, financial planning, operations, and HR in the wine and spirits industry. Most recently, she served as Vice President of Finance for John Anthony Wine & Spirits. She has held senior roles at some of Napa and Sonoma’s most iconic wineries, including Cline Cellars, Clos Du Val, and Heitz Cellar, with a career defined by restructuring finance departments, driving ERP implementations, optimizing cost structures, and delivering board-level reporting and insights. 

As  Managing Director and Head of the Wine & Beverage Group, Adam Beak leads a team with a $1.8-billion loan portfolio and has managed financing for some of the most noteworthy M&A deals in the wine industry. Since joining Bank of the West in 2005, Beak has built a team of relationship bankers based in Napa, Calif., who cover domestic and international companies across the industry, from vineyards and wineries to packagers and distributors.

Carol Isherwood Collison specializes in providing merger and acquisition advisory services to the wine industry. She is a registered securities broker-dealer and a California-licensed real estate broker (CRE #01934586).  ollison is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles with a BA in Economics and Political Science and has a Masters degree in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley.

Oliver Colvin is Chairman of the Board of Directors of WX Brands and responsible for the strategic direction of the Company and supporting its CEO and leadership team. Prior to this role, Oliver was Chief Executive Officer of WX Brands responsible for creating and driving the vision of the Company, building and leading a team of talented, dedicated employees, nurturing a culture of teamwork and respect, establishing the priorities and deploying the resources to achieve WX’s goals. Oliver joined WX in 2000. 

Audra Cooper has years of experience in both the North Coast and Central Coast. Audra began her successful career with Turrentine Brokerage in 2006, providing support for our grape brokers throughout the state. Following her role as grape sales support, Audra was promoted to North Coast Grape Broker. In 2012, Audra transferred to the Central Coast as lead grape broker for the region. She has a keen sense of vineyard details and agricultural development.

Tony Correia is widely recognized as a leading authority on the valuation of vineyards and wineries, and other agricultural and rural properties. He has been an instructor of valuation courses and seminars throughout North America and is a frequent speaker on agricultural properties; valuation, taxation, and estate planning issues; water rights, and the wine industry and vineyard and winery markets. Tony has also qualified as an Expert Witness in many local, State and Federal courts in California, Arizona, Nevada and Illinois. 

With more than 25 years of senior leadership in the Oregon wine industry and a decade of technology startup experience, Gary Mortensen brings a passion for innovation, branding, and storytelling to his role as president of Stoller Wine Group. Gary's strategic vision has grown the company from a modest 9,000 cases to over 300,000 annually, establishing it as a pillar of the Oregon wine industry. Under his leadership, the family-owned portfolio has expanded to include Stoller Family Estate, Chehalem Winery, Elouan, Chemistry, Stoller Swing, and History—alongside the growth of estate vineyards, tasting rooms, wine bars, and production facilities.

Andrea Smalling is the Vice President of Marketing at Bogle Family Vineyards, where she leads brand strategy and creative development for one of California’s most respected family-owned wineries. With over 30 years of experience spanning Procter & Gamble, GALLO, Treasury Wine Estates, Constellation, Foley Family Wines, and WineDirect, Andrea has built and led marketing strategies for brands across every tier of the wine industry—from global icons to entrepreneurial start-ups. 

Scott Stone is Chief Financial Officer at Brown Estate Vineyards in Napa Valley, where he oversees financial strategy, compliance, and operations for the family-owned estate. A licensed California CPA with more than 15 years of experience in the wine industry, he brings deep expertise in FP&A, direct-to-consumer strategy, three-tier distribution, and operational leadership. Prior to joining Brown Estate, Scott was a Partner at Allen Wine Group and spent a decade as GM and CFO at Schug Carneros Estate Winery.

Kaleigh has 9 years of NIQ experience and considerable background working with clients in multiple categories.  She has been involved with the Beverage Alcohol category for the last five years working on Thought Leadership, industry insights, and client specific business questions and projects.  Kaleigh brings a unique skillset of analytic capabilities, as well as commercial selling story creation, and has significant background in bringing consumer insights to the forefront in support of sales trends.  She has been pivotal in the NIQ strategy and tactics for Beverage Alcohol as the industry changes and develops.

Dr. Christopher Thornberg has been called many things throughout his career, but his favorite thing to be called is correct. Notably, he predicted the collapse of the sub-prime real estate bubble in 2006 and the Great Recession that followed. During the Covid-19 pandemic he was one of the few economists on record to correctly push back against the forecasting community’s panicked predictions of a depression. In the past two years, he has again stood against the grain, and stood out, for accurately forecasting that there would be no recession.