07/05/2025
The Wine Business Institute (WBI) at Sonoma State University (SSU) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Damien Wilson as Faculty Director. Wilson has been a SSU professor of Wine Business for the past 10 years and is the inaugural Hamel Family Chair of Wine Business Education with SSU’s WBI.
Wilson arrived in California in 2015 with 20 years of professional experience in the wine sector. This commercial experience facilitated him achieving the first-ever Honors Degree in Wine Business with the University of Adelaide, a qualification among his four degrees in the discipline of Wine Business. He joined SSU from Burgundy's School of Wine and Spirits Business, having established a European professorial career after having started with the University of South Australia in 1999.
“We look forward to synergizing Dr Wilson’s experience, knowledge, and passion for the wine industry with the programs and goals of the Wine Business Institute,” said Dean Elisabeth Wade of the College of Science, Technology and Business.
Wilson will begin his term as Faculty Director of the Wine Business Institute on July 1, 2025. In his debut message in the Wine Business Institute Newsletter, he stated:
“The WBI has a clutch of specialized academics in the field of wine business, so we're well placed to offer immediate and long-term solutions to the difficulties facing the global wine business … [and] well positioned to light that pathway for the wine industry as its center of knowledge and as a primary solution to those certification and qualification needs.”
