Amy is the Proprietor and President of Gemstone Vineyard and oversees all operations with her Napa-based team in Yountville, California. Gemstone has produced award-winning Cabernet Sauvignon wines from its 17-acre estate vineyard for the past 25 years. Amy and her team work closely in the blending and crafting of their wines alongside their winemaker, Thomas Rivers Brown, who has received numerous accolades including Wine Spectator’s “Top Gun” and Food & Wine Magazine’s “Winemaker of the Year”.
Amy serves as General Partner of Willowtree Venture Fund LP, a portfolio focused on advancing early-stage consumer companies and funds disrupting all areas of the consumer space including CPG, retail, apparel, dining and hospitality. Exists have included Warby Parker, Sufferfest Beer Company and impact investment d.Light solar home systems.
In her philanthropic role as Director of the Marks Family Foundation, Amy awards risk-tolerant grants across a broad array of issue areas, but with a primary focus on giving to disease research, education and the arts. Here she is working to establish a focus area on women and girls as it relates to education and international development. As part of her philanthropy work, Amy is currently leading a project in Vietnam aimed to lower the rate of unintended pregnancies amongst youth, where the abortion rate is the highest in the world. This project is her focus as a member of The Maverick Collective, an initiative co-founded by Melinda Gates, and backed by the global NGO, Population Services International. Most recently, Amy spearheaded an initiative to evacuate a targeted list of Afghan women activists in response to the Taliban takeover, marking a viral campaign that raised over $7 Million dollars in a span of 2 weeks that led to the evacuation of nearly 1,000 women and their family members. Amy takes an active, “roll your sleeves up” approach to the various philanthropic endeavors in which she is involved.
Prior to moving back to her native California in 2013, Amy founded and operated a boutique catering and event business in New York City, which serviced the wedding, corporate and special event market. Earlier in her career, Amy led creative consulting projects for Fortune 500 clients at the world-renowned creative agency frog design, Inc.
Amy holds a B.A. degree from the George Washington University in Washington, DC and a certification of Effective Philanthropy from the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society. She currently lives in Orinda, California with her husband and three children.
Amy currently serves on the nonprofit boards of the V Foundation for Cancer Research, College Track and Project Glimmer, and for-profit boards Spa Girls Cocktails and Casa del Sol Tequila in an advisory role. Amy joined the V Wine Celebration Board in 2014, her and her family are long-time supporters of the V Foundation for Cancer Research.
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