Wine Victoria Chair & CEO Updates

New appointments to the Wine Victoria team. An update from our CEO and Board.

The board of Wine Victoria has announced the appointment of Stephanie Duboudin into the permanent role of CEO and board member, and Dan Sims as the new Chair.

Stephanie has been Chair of Wine Victoria since November 2021 and has been interim CEO since January 2023. In moving from an Interim CEO role to permanent Stephanie has stood down as the Chair of Wine Victoria to focus solely on the operations of the association.

“It's been a pleasure working for our members over the last two years as Chair and I'm looking forward to continuing this in my role as CEO. We have so many important programs underway to benefit our members spanning viticulture, Drink Vic tasting, Sustainable Winegrowing Australia (SWA), and expanding market access, particularly in Asia, the UK, and the US. Dan has contributed significantly to the association over the last two years as a board member, he has an enormous passion for the industry and the team, and I are excited to be working with him to bring continued growth and benefits to our members.” – Stephanie Duboudin.

Dan has been selling, judging, writing about and promoting wine for more than two decades. Starting his career as a Sommelier in some of Melbourne’s best restaurants, Dan was named the Inaugural Sommelier of the Year 2008 by the Age Good Food and Wine Guide. A Len Evans Scholar, Dan has been a Wine Victoria board member since 2021, he spent 8 foundational years on the National Executive of Sommeliers Australia and sat on the Drinks Committee of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.

Dan has regularly marketed and promoted wine at events such as Melbourne Food & Wine Festival and Good Food & Wine Show before founding and running REVEL since 2012, which has run highly successful wine events across Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong, (including Pinot Palooza) to a whole new generation of wine lovers.

He was awarded Best Digital Wine Communicator in 2018 by the Wine Communicators of Australia with REVEL twice receiving the Marketing & Communications Award in the Wine Industry Impact Awards (2016 & 2019).

On his appointment Dan said, "Victorian wine has never been better: we’re creative, we’re ambitious, and we’ve always got an eye on the future sustainability and diversity of our community. As a proud Victorian and former sommelier, I’m so humbled to be given this opportunity to build on the phenomenal work of outgoing Chair Stephanie Duboudin (who remains as CEO). I can’t wait to get stuck in - and I look forward to working with and hearing from all sectors of the Victorian wine community as we showcase our incredible talent to the world.”

We look forward to welcoming our new Chair and to continuing our work on behalf of the Victorian wine industry under the leadership of Stephanie.