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24 WINES&VINES April 2015 WINE INDUSTRY NEWS CALIFORNIA New co-CEO at Coppola Steven Spadarotto is the new co-CEO of Francis Ford Coppola Presents in Geyserville, Calif., join- ing sitting CEO Jay Shoemaker in the new dual role. Spadarotto has nearly 30 years of wine industry experience and comes to Coppola from Stag's Leap Wine Cellars of Napa, Calif., where he was vice president and general manager. Spadarotto will succeed Shoe- maker, who is retiring at the end of the year. St. Francis founder dies Joe Martin, who founded St. Fran- cis Winery & Vineyards in Sonoma, Calif., in 1979 after growing grapes for several years, died Feb. 26 at the age of 80. Martin purchased a 100-acre property in the Sonoma Valley in 1971 and planted Merlot, Chardonnay and other wine grape cultivars. After watching wines made with his grapes win awards, Martin founded St. Francis with partner Lloyd Canton, and the two earned national acclaim for their wines. In 2004 Martin sold the win- ery to the Kopf family, which owns Kobrand Wine & Spirits. New operations head at Thornhill The Thornhill Cos. of Camarillo, Calif., announced Marshall Miller had been promoted from opera- tions specialist to the expanded role of head of operations. Miller will take a larger and more defined role in overseeing the operations of the Thornhill Companies' various wineries, vineyards and alternative crop-farming projects. Thornhill Cos. includes Bien Nacido Vine- yards & Winery, Central Coast Wine Services, French Camp Vine- yards, Paso Robles Wine Services and Turn Key Wine Brands. Firm fined for back wages The U.S. Department of Labor is requiring a farm labor contractor to pay more than $163,000 to 59 migrant workers after investigators determined the company failed to pay the workers for three weeks of labor during the 2014 harvest in Mendocino County. The required payment includes $99,953 in back wages and $63,274 in damages. According to a department state- ment, the wage and hour division cited Manuel Quezada of Orland, Calif., for violations in August and September 2014 at Roederer Es- tate in Mendocino County, where he has provided work crews for the past 10 years. Less than a week after learning of the investigation's findings, Roederer agreed to sign an enhanced compliance agree- ment requiring stringent reviews of its farm labor contractors' prac- tices. Quezada was cited for sev- eral violations including not paying employees at least biweekly or semimonthly, not providing wage statements to workers and not disclosing employment conditions to workers. Hearst hires new winemaking team Hearst Ranch Winery of San Simeon, Calif., announced Soren Christensen as its new winemaker. Christensen has nearly 15 years of experience in winemaking and most recently spent three vintages working at Alta Colina winery in Paso Robles, Calif. The winery also announced the addition of consult- ing winemaker Guillaume Fabre, Regional News Marshall Miller Soren Christensen