Sonoma’s Cline Family Cellars names new CFO, marketing executives
Steve Jannicelli is the new chief financial officer of Sonoma-based Cline Family Cellars, established 1982.
In addition, the winery, with 750 acres of vineyards, has appointed Hilary Cline as vice president of Marketing and Direct to Consumer Sales.
“As the daughter of Cline Family Cellars founders, Fred and Nancy Cline, Hilary feels a deep connection to the family’s winery and vineyards. She was raised her and is determined to steward her parents’ groundwork on sustainability efforts and their commitment to social responsibility” John Grant, CEO, stated in the announcement. “Hilary’s passion, vision, and energy is a good alignment for leading the family business into the future with the same respect for the land and sustainable practices that have been a huge part of Fred and Nancy’s legacy.”
Cline joined her family’s business in 2015 as part of Cline Family Cellars wholesale sales team and worked for two years in the Northern California and Nevada territories.
After gaining outside production experience at Pernod Ricard in New Zealand, Mumm Napa and Kenwood Winery in Sonoma, the announcement stated that Cline re-joined Cline Family Cellars in 2019, as operations manager to oversee vineyard planning, inventory forecasting and bottling for the family’s 750 acres of vineyards in Sonoma County, in conjunction with launching Gust Wines with her sister, Megan, with small production Chardonnay, pinot noir and syrah offerings sourced from the Cline Family’s Petaluma Gap AVA vineyards.
Prior to joining Cline Family Cellars, Jannicelli served as vice president, Finance and Information Technology for Petaluma-based dairy, Clover Sonoma. He began his career in auditing and consulting with Deloitte & Touche, and was recruited by The Gap/Banana Republic in 1997.
He later left the company to pursue an MBA while working for Peoplesoft and Adobe, and then returned to consulting in “CFO services” in the wine industry for Moss Adams and Burr Pilger Mayer where he created the BPM Wine survey, the winery stated.
