DAVID STUDDERT
President

David brings unparalleled wine logistics experience to Wine Country Connect. Starting his career at Airborne Express, he developed the industry-leading wine shipping program becoming the leading shipper of wine. David helped build revenues to over $400,000 per month; far exceeding comparable air-express revenues of better-known rivals Federal Express and UPS.

In 1998 David left Airborne Express to start a first-of-its-kind, multi-state retail operation built to facilitate legally compliant direct-to-consumer shipping into states previously closed to wineries. This breakthrough business model opened up markets for wineries adding 25 million dollars per year in new business to the wine industry. Clients included: Viansa Winery, where David also served as the Director of Logistics for the world’s largest wine club in the industry, Greelings & Wade, Wine.com, Navarro Vineyards, WorldShipNet, 800 Flowers, Wall Street Journal Wine Club and MyWinesDirect.

David, along with his brother George Studdert, formed Wine Country Connect in 2005 following the Supreme Court ruling favoring Producer-Direct delivery of wine. David and his wife Cindy live with their two daughters, Annie and Caroline, in Sonoma.

GEORGE STUDDERT
Managing Director

George brings the entrepreneurial spirit to the team with over 25 years of business experience. George started his career with Lanier Worldwide and quickly excelled becoming District Sales Manager and then appointed to help launch the National Accounts program. In 1995 George was instrumental in securing the largest private account in Lanier’s history generating over 40 million in revenue.

With George’s contacts and business relationships, he was recruited away from Lanier in 1996 by TellerWest, Inc. With his tenure at TellerWest, George helped propel the company to become one of the largest Cash Management System Companies in the Country. Customers included Taco Bell, Kinko’s, Panda Express and Albertsons.

With his enjoyment for outdoors, in 2001 George ventured out on his own forming GJLS, Inc.and partnering with Hydrohoist International to take the California operations to new levels. In 2004, George and his team were awarded the highest increase in revenue over fifteen other operations.

In 2006 George sold GJLS to focus full time on Wine Country Connect. Born in Petaluma, George and his wife Jan live in Sonoma and have two sons.

NEIL MAIERS
Director of Procurement

Neil joined Wine Country Connect in July 2011 as our 'Central Coast Procurement Manager' for Wine.Woot!

Prior to that, he spent fifteen years in Los Angeles working in music video production. He has executive produced scores of music videos and live concert videos for artists like Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Dave Matthews, Foo Fighters, Metallica, Faith Hill and Keith Urban. Many projects under his watch have received or been nominated for MTV, VH1, CMT and Grammy awards.

Sometime in the late 90's, Neil was bitten by the wine bug on a tasting trip to Napa. He subsequently continued his wine journey whenever his schedule allowed him to slip up to Paso Robles or Santa Barbara. In the mid 2000's, Neil founded the wine video/blog site WineExpedition.com, where in addition to authoring the blog, he was the 'man in front of the camera', interviewing winemakers, promoting wineries and covering tasting events up and down California and Oregon. His wine business journey got serious when he was hired by several wineries to produce their website videos, and as a result he was introduced to David and George, who convinced him that he should hang up his music video hat and replace it with a wine hat.

It turns out the wine hat fit nicely, and Neil hasn't taken it off since. In fact he decided to move to Sonoma in 2012, where he currently lives with his wife and two children, and has happily traded the 405 Freeway for Highway 12.