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Robert Hill Smith, australian Mentor of the Wine MBA

Robert Hill Smith, proprietor of Yalumba, Australia's oldest family owned winery, is the Mentor of the Wine MBA 2008/2009. The program, created by BEM – Bordeaux Management School in 2001, is the only international MBA program rooted in the global wine industry.

Yalumba: an Australian ambassador

Yalumba, located in the heart of the Barossa Valley in Southern Australia, was founded in 1849 by Samuel Smith, British migrant and English brewer. Yalumba, -aboriginal for "all the land around"- is composed of family owned vineyards in various wine regions: King Valley Victoria, Eden Valley, Pipers River in Tasmania, Malborough in New Zealand. The group owns a distribution company which sells Australian wines and imports such reputed wine brands as William Fevre, RDC, Hugel,Guigal, Antinori, Gaja, Masi, Torres, Champagne Pol Roger and Giesen.

The Yalumba Wine Company is committed to sustainable winemaking and environmental improvement. To address this commitment, we have developed an environmental program, which is implemented using an environmental management system based on ISO 14001.

The Wine MBA Mentor: a cohesive strength for the 2008/2009 class

The BEM Wine MBA trains the future leaders of the global wine industry. The participants are all high potential executives who are brought the knowledge, techniques and network essential to develop their business and professional activities.

Being this year's class Mentor, Robert Hill Smith has two main roles: he brings his intellectual support and experience to the class; and contributes to enlarge the participants' professional network brought by the program internationally.

The current Wine MBA class is composed of 15 participants, in majority wine industry practitioners, of 10 nationalities: Chilean, Argentinean, Brazilian, North American, French, Russian, South Korean, Singaporean, English, Irish.

Robert Hill Smith is a Member of the Winemakers Federation of Australia and a Member of the Board of the Market Development Advisory Council.