Executive at Healdsburg’s Aperture Cellars wins 2020 North Bay Business Journal CFO award
As tasting rooms where shuttered and the coronavirus threat loomed, Simon Haidamous helped Aperture Cellars and Devil Proof Vineyards provide alternative ways to reach customers and protect employees.
The North Bay Business Journal is honoring Haidamous with a CFO Recognition Award, one of leaders recognized from a variety of businesses and nonprofits throughout Napa, Sonoma and Marin counties. Award winners were honored Aug. 28 in a Business Journal Virtual Event.
Number of company employees: 12
Professional background: I’ve been the CFO at Aperture and Devil Proof Vineyards since 2018, when I represented a Texas-based investment group in a partnership with founder/winemaker Jesse Katz.
Currently I am also the vice president, Operations & Finance at Crane Capital Group, the investment company led by Jim Crane, the owner of the Houston Astros. Prior to Aperture and Crane, I was the director of Finance & Investor Relations at Halcón Resources, an upstream natural resources company.
Earlier in my career I worked at The Sterling Group, a middle market private equity firm and the investment bank Barclays Capital.
Education: Bachelor’s degrees in finance and the Business Honors Program from The University of Texas at Austin
How has the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic disruption changed how you carry out your job at your current employer?
My role is to plan, provide support for growth, manage expenses and personnel and ensure we can accomplish our goals within our targets for leverage and liquidity. In that sense little has changed, but COVID-19 has certainly forced our team to be more creative and resourceful in how we achieve those goals.
What changes have come because of the pandemic in the industry you work in? Identify which changes are temporary and which, if any, are lasting.
Besides the more changes in employee safety (masks, gloves), we have altered our approach to in person tastings. For example, we have scaled back the number of groups we entertain, while ramping up the frequency of cleaning activities.
Our tasting facility was also designed with flexible rooms that remove walls and doors, creating a seamless indoor/outdoor experience. I believe these changes are relatively permanent as consumers look to our facilities as a welcoming and safe place to enjoy wine.
Tell us about a recent success your company has had: Despite the fires and other obstacles, we completed the construction of our winery and tasting room on time and on budget. The winery permit was issued on Friday Sept. 13th and fruit was brought in the next morning for harvest.
What advice would you give to young emerging financial leaders?
Be flexible and never stop networking; you never know how one individual can change the trajectory of your career. I was working in an entirely different industry before wine and was asked to join Aperture from a mentor I kept in touch with.
How do you think your business will change in the next five years?
The wine industry has to adapt to the needs and preferences of Millennial and Gen Z consumers.
There are so many great wines being produced in California and we need to make sure we’re telling a story that resonates with an increasingly younger buyer. I love drinking wine with my parents and their friends. My challenge will be having my kids and their friends want to drink wine with me!
What is a decision you wish you hadn't made? What did you learn from it?
That would be a great conversation over a bottle of wine!
The truth is, I make mistakes all the time. I think the key is always being on the right side of any integrity related issue and only making other types of mistakes once.
What is your most memorable business experience?
Earlier this summer, I was fortunate to bring my family to the Aperture estate.
I was beaming with pride as they visited the new facilities and walked through the redeveloped vineyards. Seeing their reactions validated the months and thousands of details that went into the construction process.
What is your greatest business success?
Closing the recapitalization in Aperture and leading the construction of the winery and tasting room. Even as an active wine consumer, I was a relative outsider to the wine industry and leveraged my prior project management and finance experiences to deliver a world class facility in about two years.
Today I am receiving calls to support other wineries and projects in Sonoma and Napa which is incredibly humbling.
What was your toughest business decision?
I was the 20th employee at a start-up that grew to about 700 employees in three years.
In 2016 we went through a significant restructuring. As a management team, we had to drastically right size the business and pivot strategies while maintaining employee morale. The decision was essentially made for us by the market, but executing that decision in a compassionate way was very challenging.
What would your friends and family be surprised to find out about you?
My life is an open book, but some friends might be surprised with my love of yacht rock music (specifically Hall & Oates).
Personally, what is the biggest lesson you have taken from the events of the last few months?
To be flexible and adaptable.
Hope is not a strategy and you have to continually innovate and create change and action in an uncertain environment. At Aperture, we implemented virtual wine tastings, partnerships with chefs and other alternative campaigns towards replacing our traditional sales channels.
Tell us about your community involvement activities: I am actively involved with The Parish School, a school focused on empowering children with learning and language differences. Coincidentally, my wife worked at Parish before our son, who is on the autism spectrum, enrolled in classes.
Quick takes
Most admired businessperson outside the company: My father is a Lebanese immigrant and a serial entrepreneur. He taught me the value of honest, hard work and the best bet is the one you put on yourself.
Current reading: “Hillbilly Elegy” by J. D. Vance
Most want to meet: Frank Lloyd Wright
Stress relievers: Running, mediation, drinking wine
Favorite activities outside work: Golf, spending time with my two boys and mid-century modern architecture
Is there anything we may have missed that you would like to add?
Thank you for the recognition! I’m really flattered my name would even come up in a conversation like this
