Regional Representatives
Robin Lail
Robin Lail is the founding winemaker and partner at Lail Vineyards. Her extensive background and history in the Napa Valley have given her a unique perspective on the valley and its wines. Robin grew up among the vineyards of Napa’s great Inglenook estate, founded in 1879 by her great-grand uncle, Gustave Niebaum.
She graduated from Stanford University in 1962, and in 1977 began her wine career at Robert Mondavi Winery under the tutelage of her mentor, Robert Mondavi. While at the Mondavi, she directed the creation of the first Auction Napa Valley. In 1982, Robin co-founded Dominus Estate with Bordeaux’s Christian Moueix, and a year later co-founded Merryvale Vineyards with Bill Harlan. In 1995 she launched Lail Vineyards with her two daughters, Erin and Shannon.
AMERICAN AMBASSADOR TO THE PORTO PROTOCOL, USA
Kenn Pogash
Kenn is passionate about wine and everything connected with it. His career, built on Consultative Selling and Project Management, required that he actively listen and clearly communicate goals, responsibility, performance and, most importantly, manage everyone’s expectations. His training and experience provided him with a sensitivity to cultural and communication differences among business and social groups.
Now Kenn is combining his passion for the entire culture of wine, his professional training and experience to help ameliorate the Climate Change that affects our planet’s future and the future of wine.
Kenn obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Textile Management and Marketing, Masters Degree in Clinical Social Work, and the WSET Advanced Certificate.
CONSULTANT AND WSET ADVANCED CERTIFICATE, USA
SYLVIA PETZ
Managing Partner and CEO at NBI – Natural Business Intelligence. Biologist, specialized in Ecology (FCUL). Former Ecosystem Manager at Esporão. Lecturer at postgraduate courses in Sustainability Management at IDEFE/ISEG. Scientific Advisor in the Working Group for the implementation of an R&D agenda for the Wines of Alentejo and member of the Porto Protocol Global Steering Committee. Collaborated with WWF on the “New Generation Plantations” and “HABEaS-Hotspot Areas for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services” projects and was part of the nuclear team of the ‘Earth Condominium’ and ‘Green Cork’ projects, coordinated by Quercus.
Formerly Sustainability Manager at ISG Business and Economics School and Sun Concept – Solar Boat Builders, a start-up dedicated to the construction of electric solar boats. Post graduated in Geography and Spatial Planning (FCSH-NOVA) and Strategy and Management (IST-UL). Senior advisor in agroecology, biodiversity, ecosystem services and sustainability.
CONSULTANCY AND COMMUNICATION FOR WINERIES, NORTHERN EUROPE
Wendy Cameron
Wendy is an experienced winemaker who commenced her career working in her parent’s family winery in North East Victoria before joining Brown Family Wine Group. There she spent the next 17 years, initially as a hands-on winemaker but then became Head of Winemaking where she had responsibility for the vineyards and wineries in Victoria and Tasmania and the development and production of their diverse range of grape varieties and wine styles.
Wendy has been a committee member of the Australian Society Viticulture and Oenology (ASVO) and was awarded the inaugural ASVO Winemaker of the Year Award in 2012 and was made a Fellow of the ASVO in 2020.
Wendy became a Master of Wine in 2015 and has recently submitted her PhD “Effect of temperature on grapevine phenology” which she did at The University of Melbourne.
THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
ANTONY SÁNCHEZ-ORTIZ
Toni Sánchez joined Perinet Winery’s team in 2015 to direct the vineyard work and the winemaking process. For twenty years, he has worked full time in the Spanish appellation Priorat. Toni was honed by his Master’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Barcelona and then he studied winemaking at the University of Tarragona (Spain) and the University Victor Segalen in Bordeaux (France). After a few years doing research he finished his PhD entitled ‘Priorat Vineyard vulnerability and water stress assessment in the context of global climate change’. Toni’s conviction is that great wine results from an intimate knowledge of the land, thus he continues to deepen his knowledge of how Priorat wines are affected by global warming.
WINEMAKER AT PERINET WINERY, SPAIN
STEVEN CAMPBELL
Steven Campbell was a restauranteur and owned a neighborhood bistro, La Maison (1978-1985) before opening one of Toronto’s first wine bars, the Delisle Wine Bar in 1985. At the Delisle, he won 8 Wine Spectator Awards of Excellence (1988-1995) for having one of the greatest wine lists in the world. In 1990, he became a certified Sommelier and in 1994 purchased Lifford Wine Agency that he owned until -2020. By 2000, Lifford became one of the largest suppliers of premium wines to the hospitality sector and became a carbon-neutral company in 2005. Lifford won numerous awards from the hospitality industry and led many community-based philanthropic wine events to raise funds for healthcare, the arts, and the environment – planting over 90,000 trees with Tree Canada between 2005-2020. In 2018, he created the world’s first international family of carbon neutral wines Campbell Kind Wines from six countries. Steven was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws from York University in 2019 in recognition of his community leadership and environmental stewardship. He is an inductee of the Commanderie du Bontemps de Medoc and the Confraria do Vinho do Porto, and a member of the boards of directors of the Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers’ Ontario Chapter (since 2016) and Grapes for Humanity (since 2020). With Grapes for Humanity, he has led charitable wine auctions to support the hospitality industry during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to battle the climate crisis. As of summer of 2022 over $1 million has been raised to support the battle against the Climate Crisis with donations to organizations such as Tree Canada and the Nature Conservancy of Canada. He is now honored to be the Canadian representative for the Porto Protocol.
REGIONAL REPRESENTATIVE TO THE PORTO PROTOCOL, CANADA
FLORENCIA GOMÉZ
Florencia is an Argentinian wine professional with over 12 years of experience all along the wine supply chain. She is currently a stage 2 MW candidate based in London. After getting her winemaking degree, she spent the first six years making wine in Argentina, the US, France, and Croatia. This international approach got her to work as an Export Manager for Europe, where she discovered her passion for communicating wine. In 2019 she started her own business, where she uses her 360 experience to communicate, promote, and grow wine brands around the globe. She is passionate about modern wine brands with a shared love for innovation, sustainability, technology, and consumers trends.
