The Wine Owners Advisory Board is comprised of leaders in their respective fields drawn from the worlds of financial services, legal services, sales and marketing and wine.
We are fortunate and very grateful to rely upon their wise counsel, not to mention their combined experience, vision and good judgement.
Simon Farr
Entrepreneur with 40 years in the wine business, and Co-Founder of Bibendum in 1979, from which he successfully exited via a trade sale in 2016. Other directorships: Argento Wine Co; Malagas Wine Co (Sijnn Winery); Cru Asset Management; St Andrews Wine Co; Oeno Limited.
Anthony Thomson
Founder & Chairman of Atom - a mobile only bank using state of the art technologies to deliver customer service. Founder & Former Chairman of Metro Bank plc, the first new UK high street retail bank in over 100 years; Co-Founder and Chairman of The Financial Services Forum; visiting Professor at London Metropolitan University Business School; panelist for Sky News and The ITV Business Club.
Malcolm Thwaites
Investment banking veteran who started at Morgan Grenfell before moving to Deutche Bank upon acquisition. He served as the Co-Head of investment banking whilst at Merrill Lynch in Germany and then led Lazard's German banking business. Malcolm is now retired from financial services, allowing him more time to pursue his passion for fine wine appreciation.
Leon Ferera
A Partner at law firm Jones Day, a specialist in domestic and cross-border M&A and private equity transactions, joint ventures, and securities issues. While at the Takeover Panel he was responsible for regulating many takeovers of U.K. public companies and was secretary to the Code Committee.
Stan Metheny
Long-serving CVP at New York Life for 32 years, from 1979 through until 2011, specialized in Ultra High Net Worth clients. Stan is a passionate discoverer of wine, travels regularly in pursuit of the greatest undiscovered producers and runs one of the most exclusive tasting and dinner groups on Wall Street. For the past 12 years he has also been 1st VP of the American Friends of Westminster Cathedral and is an authority on Gregorian chant.
Ian Baynes
Ian is a sales and marketing business leader with 20 years experience in the high-tech, retail, FMCG, gaming & casino markets globally; and an expert in delivering high-value, complex solutions. His track record includes Listed enterprises (IGT & Acxiom), privately owned firms (Atex & TMI) and start-ups (BDR, Traackr). Ian is a Post Graduate in Marketing and is a Fellow of the Institute of Sales & Marketing Management and an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
François Chirumberro
François is a seasoned strategy consultant with Boston Consulting Group in London. He took a four-year break in 2014 to create Eighty-two, a fine wine advisory company he founded with Alexandre de Rothschild, which they subsequently sold to Legrand & Co group. After the exit Francois decided to go back to BCG. Prior to BCG François worked for Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin. François holds a degree in winemaking from Bordeaux University as well as an MBA from Columbia Business School.
Morgan Johnson
A London School of Economics graduate, Morgan spent 10 years in finance, firstly in sales and trading at investment bank JP Morgan, then as a hedge fund trader at Marshall Wace and Och Ziff. A keen sportsman, he's represented both Wales and Saracens at Rugby.
