(Rohnert Park) – Sonoma State University will host a joint hearing of the California Assembly and Senate Select Committees on the wine industry on Friday, June 28 at the Wine Spectator Learning Center. The meeting will begin at 1:30 p.m. and is open to the public.
State Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, and Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, co-chairs of the Senate Select Committee, will oversee the gathering along with Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, D-Winters, chair of the Assembly Select Committee on Wine. The informational hearing, titled “Cultivating the Next Generation of Wine Industry Leaders and Emerging Markets in California,” will include industry experts addressing such topics as tariffs, the state of wine education and research as well as emerging markets and appellations. The hearing also will be livestreamed at https://youtu.be/k5aL1Ab54PY
"Cultivating the next generation of wine business leaders and supporting the economic growth of the wine industry necessitates collaboration between the private wine community, public education and the government,” said Ray Johnson, executive director of the Wine Business Institute at Sonoma State. “We hope to shed light on mutually beneficial public-private partnerships as a viable option for boosting business and industry by way of filling gaps in human capital, research, technological innovation, infrastructure, and financing."
The meeting will begin with welcoming remarks by Sonoma State University President Judy Sakaki, Dodd, McGuire and Aguiar-Curry followed by the first panel discussion on the state of the wine education and research.
The School of Business and Economics at Sonoma State is the first in the United States to offer an undergraduate degree (since 1998), an MBA (since 2008), and most recently an Executive MBA (since 2012) focused on the business of wine. The school’s Wine Business Institute is housed in the newly opened Wine Spectator Learning Center located in the heart of campus. For more information, go to https://sbe.sonoma.edu/winebiz
ABOUT US: With a student population of 9,300, Sonoma State is a regionally serving public university committed to educational access and excellence. Guided by our core values and driven by a commitment to the liberal arts and sciences, Sonoma State delivers high-quality education through innovative programs that leverage the economic, cultural and natural resources of the North Bay. See more news from SSU at http://news.sonoma.edu/