Management

Maria Gabriela Soto

CEO

Gaby Soto is the CEO of Alpasion and one of the original founding investors. Gaby initially scouted the Alpasion property and worked with professionals and local experts to create the business plan and help guide the project to its current structure. This wide-ranging effort has included building the six-room lodge, hiring staff, working with the agronomist and winemaker for the vineyard creation, overseeing the restaurant’s construction, and barrel room well as the winery in progress. All this was accomplished while also working to gain exposure of Alpasion to discriminating palates worldwide. As these aspects of business evolved and Gaby hired a local management team, she has turned her attention to focus on marketing and sales. Through her efforts, along with support from many of our shareholders, our award-winning wine is now available at discerning restaurants and wine merchants in Europe, Asia, South America, and the U.S.A.

A trained attorney, Gaby spent ten years working in the financial services industry for Amicorp Group in various international offices before joining Alpasion full time in 2009. At Amicorp, she worked with clients to provide tailor-made services involving corporate and trust management services, fund administration, private wealth and estate planning, corporate, asset and project finance structuring, and business process outsourcing.

Gaby graduated from law school at the Universidad del Zulia in Maracaibo, Venezuela. A native of Venezuela, Gaby today lives primarily in Miami when she is not traveling around the globe promoting, discussing, and tasting world-class wine.

Toine Knipping

Executive Director & General Guidance

As a co-founder and lead investor, Toine is instrumental in guiding the overall evolution of the Alpasion project.  His vision and exceptionally broad range of business, cultural and travel experiences enable him to inspire the entire Alpasion team as the project progresses from farm to bottle winery.  His leadership style and overall approach to obstacles provide inspiration to those around him to develop their own creative and sustainable solutions to challenges.

Coming from a farming family and having been raised on an orchard, he has fond childhood memories of planting, growing and maintaining fruit vines.  Today, his interest is more focused on the technical aspects of the Alpasion wine making process.  In addition to the ongoing development of knowledge about wine making, being a part of this project also enables him to continually meet all kinds of new people from different countries and to hear their stories.  With this worldwide network, he gets to experience people learning to work together, often times becoming friends and creating the ability to organize things in different parts of the world.

In his free time, Toine likes to write books.  Writing enables him to organize his thoughts.  Once he writes these thoughts, he can close the door and move on to the next project.  One such project that he is most proud of is the Kamar Mandi project in northern Bali.  Kamar Mandis are outhouses that consist of a latrine and a bathing feature with a septic tank system.  Lack of access to sanitation facilities in the poor northern communities of Bali contributes to the spread of diseases that inhibit all aspects of life in the area.  Toine’s support of the project resulted in 750 families having access to safe sanitation facilities and this changed whole communities for the better. Another of Toine’s projects is the establishment of a nature reserve in South Africa.  He loves watching the animals with his son and seeing how preservation improves the balance among the different animals.  In fact, Toine was in South Africa at the preserve during the first three months of the pandemic.  It was a rare opportunity to spend time with his son and get to know him in a different manner. He was also able to observe how poaching was dramatically reduced during the pandemic due to the fact that transporting the illegal victims became virtually impossible due to all of the worldwide restrictions.  While Toine loves nature and animals, he is particularly passionate about saving the Rhinoceros in Africa.

Like most of the folks involved with Alpasion, Toine loves food and wine.  He has his own lasagne recipe he likes to make that has cinnamon as a special ingredient,  and it pairs well with the Alpasion Grand Petite Verdot.

For his day job, Toine is the Co-Founder and CEO of Amicorp Group, an independent global service provider of a broad range of assurance, administrative, legal, corporate secretarial and support services.  He grew up in The Netherlands, is a constant world traveler and has his home base in Dubai.

Supervisory Board of Directors

Angela Smith

When I was studying for my MBA at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, I had a lofty dream of working in the wine industry. I sought internships in California with big name wine producers but it was not to be. I ended up with an internship in Houston, Texas focusing on processes for a software installation for a small outsourcing company. It was here that I met my future husband, Mark W (a Baylor University graduate), who was working for the client.

Together we became more focused on practical career matters and the thought of working in the wine industry quietly receded. However, dining out and drinking wine became our favorite hobby and our love and interest in wine grew. Mark W pursued a career in consulting, public accounting and eventually landed in the oil & gas industry. I went down the path of hedge fund operations during a short stint in Connecticut and eventually enjoyed a thriving real estate career with a boutique real estate firm in Houston, Texas. After achieving a key sales goal, I completely changed focus and embarked on a creative career. I founded Purl & Loop and built a business designing, producing and selling small portable weaving looms to yarn and thread enthusiasts. We owned our own laser machine and had all sorts of fun with custom branding ideas.

Around the time I was starting Purl & Loop, we took a second trip to Argentina and stayed at the Alpasion Lodge. It was a wonderful experience and we made another brief visit while staying in the area for another wine project. At that time, we took the leap and became investors and have been passionate about Alpasion ever since. I look forward to using the social media skills I’ve acquired with Purl & Loop to help with Alpasion’s social media outreach and brand recognition. Since we are currently living primarily in Tulsa, Oklahoma for Mark W’s career as well spending as much of our free time as possible in Houston, I am actively working to support our CEO in bringing the Alpasion brand to Oklahoma and continuing to help it gain more exposure in Texas. We are passionate foodies and wine lovers and spend about 4 evenings a week dining at the bar with our favorite Tulsa and Houston bartenders.

Jorge Santos Carneiro

I am a Portuguese who has been living in Sao Paulo, Brazil with the family for more than 8 years. I am married to Cristina and we have a son, Lourenço, 22 years old living and working in Boston and two daughters, Maria 20 studying in NY and Mariana 17 studying in Brazil.

I have been Executive Vice President for Sage, a UK public company in which I worked for many years, leading its operations in Portugal first, and then in Brazil and Latin America. One and a half years ago I acquired Sage’s operations in Brazil; we are a technology and content business with over 1,100 employees and 130,000 customers in Brazil. I was President of British Chamber of Commerce in Brazil, and I am a non-executive member of the British Embassy Board in Brazil.

Together with some colleagues from Insead, I am one of the founders who went to Mendoza to choose the land in which we started the Alpasion dream. More recently, being an entrepreneur and no longer being part of a public international company, I found myself available to help with no restrictions our wine project. I worked to find our new importer in Brazil, Mr. Philippe Rothschild, with whom, together with Gaby and the team, I have been working to grow our business and brand awareness in Brazil.

Because I truly believe in the project and I am proud of what has been done so far, I decided to significantly increase my shareholder position in Alpasion. I was also involved in taking our wine to Portugal but Brazil is where I believe I should be focused given the size of the market, the good acceptance of Argentinian wines and the fact that there is no significant local  production of quality wines to compete with. Brazil is the natural market for the hospitality side of the business, being already the main source of guests in Alpasion lodge.

I am looking forward to working together with the other board members, our company team and all the Alpasion shareholders and lovers.

William Fischer

William Fischer is the Chief Executive Officer of Harrington Re and has over 32 years of reinsurance industry experience. Prior to joining Harrington Re, he served as the Chief Underwriting Officer for the global Reinsurance operations of AXIS Capital and had worked at AXIS Capital since the company’s inception in 2001, helping to found the company. Bill played an integral role in building AXIS Capital’s global reinsurance business to over $20 billion in cumulative gross written premium across 14 lines of business with experience leading and managing all aspects of the business including underwriting, risk, and capital management.

Bill moved to Bermuda in 2001 to build the reinsurance business and served as President and Chief Executive Officer of AXIS Reinsurance. He returned to the United States in June 2011 to assume the role of Chief Underwriting Officer for AXIS Reinsurance globally. Prior to joining AXIS, he was the Executive Vice President at Everest Re Group and had responsibilities for a variety of reinsurance product lines including property, accident and health and financial products. Bill previously worked at Transatlantic Reinsurance in both the London and New York offices and began his reinsurance career at Skandia America Group in 1987. Before entering into reinsurance, he was a design engineer with Honeywell. Bill holds both a Bachelor of Science in Engineering and a Master of Business Administration from Columbia University as well as graduating from the prestigious Challenge of Leadership program at Insead. He is also one of the founding investors of COL Wine.

Christoph Zaborowski

As an alumni of COL15 and a wine lover, I am happy being part of the Alpasion Group. I am pleased to support the business as a board member and work towards the success of the Alpasion project by endorsing the sales in Switzerland and also partly in Germany with the use of my contacts in both countries –to find new investors but certainly also to find new customers.

We have had our first wine tasting event in Zürich in 2019 and we will have more to come around Europe as we approach this market. Also, as added good measure, I like using Alpasion wines in business events as giveaways, which help to promote and share the amazing portfolio with all sorts of people.

On the other side, I will support the management with my many years of experience and skills being a board member in different companies. I especially enjoy getting involved in start–up companies where one often faces situations that takes more time than one would originally think when you start a business. I love projects that are in start–up phase when things are new and exciting.

Gabe Conte

Gabe Conte is a director of Contel Fresh and Vera Wine and Spirits in Florham Park, New Jersey.  Contel Fresh is a family run business established in 1976 and is an importer of fresh fruits and vegetables from a multitude of countries.  Vera Wine and Spirits was established in 1992 and is an importer and distributor of selected wines from privately owned and often from family estate wineries.  Having grown up in the business, Gabe has deep and expansive knowledge of wine importation and distribution.  He became a distributor and investor around 2016 and has been instrumental in helping Alpasion expand their distribution capabilities and respond to supply chain challenges as the brand works toward gaining U.S. market share.  He was particularly drawn to Alpasion because it is one of the most successful products in Vera’s portfolio so far.  He appreciates the opportunity to meet and work with the exceptional people dedicated to the success of the project and loves being a customer as well as a part owner of the stunning property in Argentina.

Gabe is a graduate of Rider University in Lawrenceville, New Jersey.  His business provides the opportunity to travel all over the U.S.A. and a great part of the world where he enjoys anywhere that is peaceful and beautiful.  He is a licensed private pilot and enjoys playing golf.

Franc Berg

Other Team Members

Karim Mussi

Consulting Winemaker

Karim Mussi Saffie has presided over Altocedro SA since 1999. He is its winemaker and entrepreneur both by vocation and by training. His family has been linked to the wine trade for over 30 years. Currently the winery is in its twelfth year of life with 10 vintages that ratify fulfilling their original objectives.

Under the format of “La Consulta Terroir Premium Wines,” Karim has succeeded in positioning his brand in the most demanding and important markets in the world, giving Altocedro Global brand recognition. Besides working on his own winery Karim also advises a number of emerging projects in some of the best Argentine growing areas.

In 2007 he was recognized with the award “Outstanding Young Mendoza” by the Consejo Empresario Mendocino in the category “commercial achievements, economic and business”. His Altocedro Malbec Reserva was chosen as one of Wine Spectators “Top 100” Wines of 2008.

Ezequiel Manoni

Resident Winemaker

Ezequiel Manoni is Alpasion’s resident winemaker. Hailing from a family of winemakers, Ezequiel has been exposed to everything in the wine industry since his early youth. Those skills and experiences were sharpened when he formally studied winemaking and were rounded out further while working at Andeluna Cellars.

He joined our project in 2019 serving as our agronomist and resident winemaker. His careful attention and management of the vineyard successfully guided the farming aspect through the unprecedented challenges of 2020 and 2021 at the same time his winemaking skills started to shine.

During his tenure, the Alpasion winery was completed and he oversaw Alpasion’s first estate bottling production in early 2021. Additionally, Ezequiel also guided the vineyard’s organic certification process which was completed in May 2022, resulting in the Alpasion vineyards being certified organic. Ezequiel is responsible for the for the overall quality and style of our award winning wines, bringing you passion in every drop.