Mimi grew up on her family’s vineyard, Bethel Heights. Growing up working in the vineyard and winery, Mimi gained such an appreciation for the industry that she promptly left home after high school. Armed with a BA in History and Classics from Tulane University, Mimi spent the next year working in various National Forests across the west. Her adventures fueled her passion for studying botany, forestry, and ecology. Mimi earned her MS from Oregon State University in Forest Science, and spent the next several years working as a botanist and ecologist for the Forest Service, living in the backcountry. Researching forest health in the wild led Mimi to question many things, notably whether the fate of the natural world will be decided. The unavoidable answer in her heart was that private land – agricultural land, is where the fate of the natural world lies. After spending more than a decade at her family’s estate, Mimi started Hope Well, her vineyard and living laboratory. Making wine that is the true voice of a thriving ecosystem is the aspiration of Hope Well. Mimi also works with other landowners, agencies and organizations to vision and implement the strategies and systems that facilitate durable change toward a vision for the future where agriculture embodies health, beauty, form, function, and stability for all of life.

Part of the Donaldson Bros Gang, owners of Pegasus Bay in North Canterbury. Paul is the baby in the family, so in order to survive he mastered the art of subterfuge, quick-wittedness and disguise. All hotels within a 600km radius have been given fair warning, but only because this family is truly hospitable and generous. Ironically Paul’s first real foray into the world of Pinot came when he was not working in the industry, but living in Wellington and limiting himself to beer. He got the opportunity to attend some night functions at the Pinot NZ 2001 conference, and well…. It was love at first sight. Bringing local knowledge and genuine relationships to the team, Paul will be helping get places, people and most importantly, Pinot where they need to be.

Damon Gameau is an Australian film director, speaker, and author.

After 10 years as an actor in which he appeared in several feature films and television shows, including receiving an AFI nomination for best supporting actor in the film Balibo, Damon turned to directing and activism.

As a director he wrote, directed, and performed the vocals for the 2011 winning Tropfest short film, Animal Beatbox.

In 2015 he released his first feature film ‘That Sugar Film’ which became the highest grossing Australian documentary across Australia and New Zealand of all time. It has received awards from across the world including the 2015 AACTA Award for Best Documentary. The accompanying book, ‘That Sugar Book’ was a best seller in Australia and has since been released in over 20 countries and 8 languages around the world. That Sugar Guide is his latest release.

Damon then completed the documentary ‘2040’ in 2019 with an accompanying book called ‘2040: a handbook for the regeneration’. The film now sits in the top 4 highest grossing documentaries at the Australian cinema. Damon was nominated for the 2020 NSW Australian of the Year for this work.

Damon then co-founded Regen Studios with Anna Kapplan where together they work with philanthropists and NGO’s to build comprehensive impact campaigns for the films to raise money for ecological solutions and awareness in classrooms, board rooms and in Parliaments around the world.

His recent projects were ‘Regenerating Australia’ and the soon to be released ‘Future Council’ feature documentary. Damon also spoke at TEDx Sydney and his talk ‘went viral’ when posted on the global TED platform.