Wine Business Forum

The New Zealand Winegrowers Wine Business Forum 2025 was the must attend event for anyone involved in the business of wine to gain a deeper understanding of the fast-changing landscape of the global wine industry and how to adapt to sustain future growth. As New Zealand Winegrowers celebrated 30 years since the inception of its Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand programme, the forum also explored topics on sustainability and its importance to wine business. With world-class speakers and thought-provoking discussions, attendees gained valuable insights into the strategies and innovations shaping the future of New Zealand wine.

You can check out the 2024 events here.

Speakers

Forum opening by The Hon Todd McClay, Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Forestry, Minister for Trade and Investment and Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs

Todd McClay is the Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Forestry, Minister for Trade and Investment and Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs. He has been the MP for Rotorua since 2008. Todd held several Ministerial roles in the Fifth National Government with portfolios including Trade, State-Owned Enterprises and Revenue. Todd has previously been a diplomat and was the Cook Islands and Niue Ambassador to the European Union. He has worked in business in Europe as well as government and public relations internationally.

Lulie Halstead - Founder and Former CEO of Wine Intelligence 

Lulie is a globally recognised leader in wine and spirits business strategy. As founder and CEO of Wine Intelligence for 20 years, she helped reshape how the drinks industry understands and connects with consumers, using data-led insights to drive growth and innovation. She is a Trustee of WSET and board member of Drinks United, supporting DEI in the UK drinks industry.

In 2021, she established a vineyard in the UK and has been teaching strategy and marketing on wine business master’s programmes globally for more than 20 years. Lulie is now an investor in wine, drinks, and hospitality businesses, advising founders and leadership teams on scaling and preparing for exit. She co-hosts the podcast A Question of Drinks, exploring trends and stories that have shaped the drinks industry.

Rob McMillan - Silicon Valley Bank, Wine Division

One of the most respected voices in the global wine business, Rob McMillan brings unmatched expertise from his role at Silicon Valley Bank and decades of market analysis. Rob is one of the top wine-business analysts in the United States and the author of Silicon Valley Bank’s highly regarded annual State of the Wine Industry Report. With decades of experience researching wine business, his views are sought after and trusted by winery owners, journalists, entrepreneurs, and investors. He is a prominent speaker, both domestically and internationally, and he is extensively quoted in national, regional, and trade press. He has also been named several times as one of the Top 50 Most Influential People in the US wine industry.

Rob’s banking career has spanned 35-plus years — more than 25 with Silicon Valley Bank. In that time, he has held positions of increasing responsibility, including division manager of the Wine Group, executive manager of the bank’s Commercial Division, and several years as a member of Silicon Valley Bank’s Managing Committee. He is currently responsible for establishing new winery relationships and offers private management presentations and strategic consulting to the bank’s clients across the portfolio.

Natalie Wang - Hong Kong-based wine journalist

A Hong Kong-based Chinese wine journalist, Natalie Wang was born and raised in Chongqing, China. She obtained her Master’s degree in Journalism at the University of Hong Kong, and honed her journalist skills with International Herald Tribune, Thomson Reuters, and JNA magazine. She has worked in the wine industry since 2015, first with American wine critic James Suckling and later with the drinks business Hong Kong as its managing editor for Asia.

In mid-January 2019, Wang launched her own media platform Vino Joy News, providing the most trustworthy and authoritative content, data and analysis on China’s wine industry. She was voted one of the Top 50 Most Influential Women working in wine and spirits industry by Women in Wine and Spirits Awards (WINWSA) in 2021 and won the Social Media Award. In 2022, she was nominated for 2023 Wine Communicator of the Year by IWSC, the only Chinese born wine journalist to achieve the distinction. She also serves as the only Chinese wine judge for The 67 Pall Mall Global Wine Communicator Awards, which celebrates excellence in wine writing and communications.

Benjamin Gibson, founder and CEO of Winehub.io

Benjamin Gibson is the founder and CEO of Winehub.io, the largest dedicated wine technology platform for Shopify. Wineries around the globe utilise Winehub’s systems to process wine clubs, loyalty programs, allocations and tasting room experiences. With a background in product engineering, Benjamin brings a wealth of technical expertise and practical insights into the future of digital wine retail. You can often find him speaking at global wine events and the occasional industry podcast.

Kathryn Topp, AI Entrepreneur, Tech Innovator, Futurist, Yabble CEO, and Wine Lover

Kathryn is an influential force in the world of artificial intelligence and insights. Twice honoured as one of the 250 most influential global leaders in market insights by ESOMAR, Kathryn is a transformative figure passionate about using technology to unlock change.  She is a prominent speaker at global conferences, including a recent TEDx Lausanne in Switzerland for female leaders as well as for companies looking to drive change through AI.

As the CEO and founder of Yabble, Kathryn spearheaded the creation of the world's leading generative AI platform for insight generation, which has been recognized both as one of the 25 most innovative platforms globally and one of the top 50 most innovative insights businesses in the world.  In addition, Kathryn has spent 30 years working globally in innovation, insights and business.  Working with consumer brands and technology companies, including across alcoholic and non alcoholic beverages. Kathryn brings a unique perspective on how to use Generative AI in today's market - whether its to deepen knowledge, broaden reach, create greater consumer connection moments or simply doing more with less.

Meagan Littlejohn, Programme Manager of Sustainable Winegrowing

Meagan Littlejohn hails from Canada with a Masters degree from the University of Ottawa focussed on behaviour change, and a background in research and project management. She first joined the Sustainable Winegrowing NZ (SWNZ) team based in Blenheim in May 2018 as the Systems Administrator and has been managing the daily operations of the SWNZ programme as Programme Manager since January 2020. The SWNZ programme began in 1995 and leads with way internationally with approximately 98% of all producing vineyard area in New Zealand SWNZ-certified. Meagan is passionate about advancing the sustainability efforts and credentials of the New Zealand wine industry. As part of Meagan's Wine Business Forum presentation, we will hear from Barry Dick MW, of Waitrose, a UK premium supermarket retailer.

Belinda Jackson - Marketing and Sales Manager, Lawson Dry Hill

Belinda is Marketing & Sales Manager for Lawson’s Dry Hills, New Zealand’s most sustainably certified wine producer. Her responsibilities include strategy and sales for the company’s brands, globally. Over the last ten years, her primary focus has shifted to sustainability as the lead feature of the brand story. Next year is Belinda’s 40th in the wine industry. Her previous roles include being a UK wine buyer for the free-trade on-premise channel, a retail and fine wine buyer, brand management, consultant brand strategist, presenter, writer and author, wine show director, trade marketer, consumer marketer and more. In fact, you could say that Belinda has pushed herself into as many parts of the wine industry as possible!When not immersed in wine, Belinda is President of Marlborough Riding for the Disabled and a Trustee on the Marlborough Electric Power Trust.

David Downs, CEO of The New Zealand Story

David has had a successful career in the private and public sector and is now CEO of The New Zealand Story, an ambitious government-funded organisation marketing New Zealand to the world. He also acts as a consultant and is a director on several boards, including as Chair of The Icehouse, and the Hi-Tech Trust. David is an ex-comedian, TV and radio actor, semi-finalist for New Zealander of the Year, cancer survivor and a published author of the books No.8 Re-wired, No.8 Recharged, A Mild Touch of the Cancer, and Silver Linings. David is the Ambassador for the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research and a living example of the effectiveness of advanced Cancer treatment – CAR T-Cell Therapy. 

If you have any questions, please contact events@nzwine.com.

With thanks to our Sponsor Hillebrand Gori