Executives

Lesley Berglund, WISE Co-Founder & Chairman

Lesley Berglund is a co-founder of the WISE ACADEMY. Lesley is an accomplished wine industry entrepreneur, CEO and board member with a focus on driving industry change. Over the past 18 years in the wine industry she has started up the equivalent of seven new businesses, acquired and integrated four companies and led during periods of dramatic change. As co-founder and former CEO of the Ambrosia Wine Catalogue/the Winetasting Network (which she sold to 1-800 Flowers in 2004) she has deep experience in consumer direct marketing of fine wines. Lesley has served on the board of nine wine-related companies and trade associations. In 2006, she co-founded the Specialty Wine Retailers Association. In 2008, she co-founded the WISE ACADEMY. Lesley serves as Co-Chair of both the Wine Industry Technology Symposium and the Green Wine Summit. She also owns and operates the Aged Cabernet Trust, an aged Cabernet investment company that has provided successful returns to investors for the past 25 vintages.

Lesley has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA, in Economics from Wesleyan University. She is a member of both the Young Presidents Organization and the Entrepreneurs Organization and has completed the Kellogg Woman’s Director Development program. Lesley is a third generation Napa Valley native from a grape growing family.

Mack Schwing, WISE Co-Founder & Principal

Mack Schwing is a co-founder of the WISE ACADEMY. Previously, he was Director of the Wine Business Program at Sonoma State University for five years following his retirement from Deloitte Consulting. At the University, he was responsible for all wine industry business education and developed a passion for wine industry professional education. During his thirty years at Deloitte, he held several senior management positions including Global Director of Information Systems Consulting and Director of Management Consulting for Asia-Pacific.

Mack has an MBA and a BS in Mathematics from Michigan State University. He is a board member of the Sonoma County Food & Wine Center and of Webview, Inc. as well as Co-Chair of the Green Wine Summit. Mack also serves as Vice Chairman, Shone Farm Foundation where he oversees the winery for Santa Rosa Junior College. He also shares his broad wine knowledge as Chairman of the Wine Committee at Fountaingrove Golf & Athletic Club.

John Sterns, Program Director

John Sterns is Program Director for the WISE Academy. Previously, he was Director of Administration and COO for a major law firm in San Francisco. Prior to his career in legal administration John’s wine industry experience included a variety of consumer direct positions within the Winetasting Network (WTN). After starting out in the Ambrosia call center, John took on increased responsibility while at WTN, including Epicurean Club Manager, Ambrosia Supply Manager and Director of Implementation for Winetasting.com where he focused on launching winery e-commerce sites and training winery staff leverage their new technologies. John is a Bay Area native and holds a BA from Stanford University. He also holds a culinary degree from the CIA and also directs an athletic program training cyclists.