Between the Vines New face at BCWA board table


Laura Thurnheer brings business background and female perspective. By Judie Steeves


T


he fledgling B.C. Wine Authority now has its first board member from the


Okanagan Valley and its first woman member. Laura Thurnheer, a business professor at Okanagan College in Kelowna, was selected by the industry advisory committee last year to join accountant Hugh Gordon of North Saanich and lawyer Jeffrey Thomas of North Vancouver on the board. Board members must be completely independent of the wine industry in order to ensure there are no conflicts of interest in decision-making on legal certification of wines as Vintners’ Quality Alliance and on accurate labelling of B.C. wines. Thurnheer grew up in Kelowna,


where her parents owned several small businesses, so her career path into business was a natural one. She left the Okanagan at 17 to


attend UBC, graduating with a degree in commerce, and took a position with Esso Petroleum Canada as its first female representative. After meeting her Swiss husband in Winnipeg, they moved to Europe, where she worked for Dow International. The couple moved back to Kelowna


with their two-year-old son about 18 years ago and Thurnheer was self- employed for a number of years. She then worked for Community Futures for five years, became involved in the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce and then took a job at UBCO in Human Resources, during its transition from Okanagan University College. Thurnheer had always wanted to


teach post-secondary education, so on weekends she worked on her Master’s in Business Administration and achieved that in 2007. She accepted an offer from Okanagan College to take on the post as professor in the School of Business and this is her fifth year there. Thurnheer says she has watched the


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The Okanagan Valley’s first member of the B.C. Wine Authority board is Laura Thurnheer.


progress of the B.C. wine industry during the past 18 years, its devastation and re-birth as a premium wine region, and she’s a big promoter of the industry, and excited to have been asked to join the board of the BCWA. Although Thurnheer enjoys a glass


of wine, she admits to not being ‘schooled’ in wines, but says she’s been learning much more about wines since being asked to join the board. With so many wineries on the small


and medium-sized end of the spectrum, as well as the large wineries, she says she believes it’s her experience with small business that made her an attractive addition to the board. She has had some experience on the Tourism Kelowna board and in the agri-tourism field, so has been able to apply that background in her new position. The board meets several times a


year with the industry advisory committee, which is made up of representatives from throughout the province, and from wineries of different sizes, to provide a diversified group.


However, Thurnheer notes the British Columbia FRUIT GROWER • Spring 2012


BCWA board frequently holds meetings by conference call to avoid the expense of travelling around the province. “We’re financially strapped. We


have only the percentage from members, so we must be frugal,” she commented. That’s partly why the board is only three members. The board chairman, Jeff Thomas,


has done a lot of work on behalf of industry, she noted. There has been some frustration


with some of the regulations that were put in place when the new authority was formed, so the board is looking at lobbying the province to make some changes. There’s been good support from growers for the new grower registry, which will allow the authority to trace the grapes in every bottle of wine back to their source, she noted. The authority is now working on certification of labs. Thurnheer said the board is aware


that growers need to see value for their money and the board wants to support membership. It’s been helpful for the board to


have one member here in the Okanagan, with the administration office in Penticton, she said.


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