Cyril Chappellet

Age as of March 1, 2024: 68

Residence Location:     St Helena, CA

Place of Operation:       St Helena, CA

Business Experience: For the last nine years I have served as the CEO and Chairman of our family business, Chappellet Vineyard and Winery. After 21 years of working to promote our product and direct our farming, winemaking, finance, and sales organizations, I succeeded my father as the CEO. In my tenure as CEO we have tripled the size of our business and gained a stronger reputation within the industry globally. I oversee every aspect of the business from finance and farming to human resources and hospitality. With 85 employees including remote and non-English speaking workers, I work hard to foster a strong culture and sense of team.

Education: BA in Agricultural Business

Current Boards: Chappellet Vinyard & Winery, Napa Valley Vintners, Napa Community Firewise Foundation, Napa Valley Vintners Healthcare Facility, Charlie Russell Riders, American AgCredit.

Strategic & Visionary Thinking: To me, being focused on the future and following a long-term strategic plan is critical to the success of our business. Mother Nature and the economy can throw us some curveballs, so staying at 10,000 feet versus getting stuck the weeds is critical to moving forward and meeting goals. The use of outside resources brings a new perspective to our business that can be tremendously helpful. I enjoy engaging with smart people with innovative ideas as I think it makes me and my business stronger.

Corporate Governance: Governance is like guardrails and critical to staying on course when addressing challenges. My work on the American AgCredit Governance Committee has helped me create stronger guidelines for my business. It has taught me that having a well-structured governance program that is dynamic and allows some flexibility is important.

Financial Expertise: Early in my career I was a financial analyst for a large multi-national company. I spent most of my time analyzing businesses with the objective of either buying or selling a company. This foundation has been vital to my running our business where my CFO and I spend a tremendous amount of time looking at how to make our company’s financial footing stronger.

Communication: This just might be my strongest suit, and I believe that it is a critical part of any successful endeavor. Speaking comes naturally to me be it addressing our team, a large group, or promoting our wines at a dinner. I am able to engage with people from all walks of life at their level and to engage those who are non-participatory, so their voices are heard.

Technology: Over the years I have learned that technology and the innovations that come from it are a critical part of every business. Technology is an important part of farming, and we need to continue to look at ways it can make our businesses better. It has advanced just about every aspect of my business. It has helped our farming operations reduce water use and test vine health, our winemaking team improve wine quality, our hospitality team interact with our customers and sell wine online. Where AI takes us is yet to be seen but we are looking at how it can help us build stronger relationships with our customers.

Human Resource Management: I think that people can be a blessing and a curse. Great people who work well together as a team make you better. Bad apples can bring you down. To me the most important role of Human Resources is fostering a strong culture within a business and helping team members grow and develop.

Risk Management: Every decision that I make has some degree of risk. It is my job to assess the magnitude of risk and evaluate the downside vs. the upside of every decision in order to mitigate risk and make thoughtful decisions

Leadership: I am a trusted leader in my business, my industry, and community. I’ve been told that I have an innate ability to lead and thus have been put in many leadership roles. As a leader I work to build consensus, foster collaboration and trust, motivate others, and not be afraid to make tough decisions.