CORPORATE
Advisory Board
Steven Ratoff
Mr. Ratoff served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Brown-Forman Corporation, one of the largest American-owned companies in the wine and spirits business and a diversified producer and marketer of fine quality consumer products. Through Brown-Forman Beverages Worldwide, Brown-Forman produces and markets many of the most well-known wines and spirits in the world including Jack Daniels, Southern Comfort, Finlandia Vodka, etc. He also has 15 years in a variety of senior financial positions with Bristol-Myers Squibb. Mr. Ratoff is Chairman of the Axonyx board of directors. He is currently a private investor and a Venture Partner with Proquest Investments. He most recently served as Chairman and Interim Chief Executive Officer of Cima Labs, Inc., a public specialty pharmaceutical company, from May 2003 through its sale to Cephalon, Inc. in August 2004. He was the President and Chief Executive Officer of MacroMed, Inc., a privately owned drug delivery company, from February 2001 to December 2001, and also as director since 1998. Mr. Ratoff is currently a director of Novadel Pharma Inc.
Tom Wilen
Mr. Wilen served as President of Allied Domecq North America, the largest and a $1.3 billion division of publicly traded Allied Domecq PLC, and as Chief Operating Officer for Jim Beam Brands Worldwide, Inc., the $1.2 billion division of publicly traded Fortune Brands, Inc., where he successfully implemented a new global distribution strategy and negotiated a global multi-party joint-venture, Maxxium, with Remy-Cointreau, Highland Distillers and Absolut Vodka. He merged operating companies in 60 countries with 2,200 people and with sales today in excess of $2.0 billion while creating one of the leading global distribution structures in the alcoholic beverage industry. Mr. Wilen has also served on the board of Distilled Spirits Council (DISCUS) in Washington D.C. and he currently serves on The Council of Advisors' Leadership Program for Gerson Lehrman Group, Inc., where he provides advice to major institutional investors with an interest in publicly traded alcoholic beverage companies.
Derek Benham
Mr. Benham is the founder and developer of Blackstone Winery, which was sold to Constellation Brands in 2001. After selling Blackstone, Mr. Benham became the sole proprietor of the Purple Wine Company, one of the largest wine bottlers in Napa Valley. As a brand development company, Purple Wine owns and markets Rock Rabbit, Avalon and Mark West brands, which sold over 400,000 cases in three years.
Olivier Lebret
For the last 10 years, Mr. Lebret has been the President of Baron Philippe de Rothschild, Inc., the New York based company, which oversees the North and Central American distribution and marketing of all wines produced in Bordeaux by the parent company, Baron Philippe de Rothschild, S.A. The wines rank among the most widely known and highly praised wines of the world, from Mouton Cadet, the best-selling Bordeaux brand, to the world-famous, first growth Château Mouton Rothschild and Opus One, the most prestigious California wine.