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September 2017 WINES&VINES 25 WINE INDUSTRY NEWS solutions and telematics at CNH Industrial, and he worked at Leica Geosystems, where he helped de- velop agriculture products including SaaS telematics services. Mecham will be in charge of developing new ventures, partnerships and addi- tional revenue streams for Hortau within the agriculture industry. New hires at Cork Supply Tom Godfrey joined Cork Supply USA in Benicia, Calif., as operations manager for cork and distributed products. Godfrey has 19 years of experience in supply chain planning, operations and program manage- ment and will oversee cork produc- tion and shipping teams. In addition to degrees in management and eco- nomics, Godfrey is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. The company also hired Tyler Smythe as the new operations team prepress technician. Prior to joining Cork Supply, Smythe worked as prepress technician for Multi- Color Corp. (formerly Collotype) and has more than 17 years of experi- ence in the printing industry. Cooperages 1912 donates to SSU Cooperages 1912 announced it is donating $10,000 per year for the next five years ($50,000 total) to the Wine Business Institute at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, Calif. The donation directly benefits the Wine Industry Scholars Program created to fund scholarships for first-generation college students. The move reflects the company's ongoing support of wine-education programs throughout the United States, including partnerships with California Polytechnic State Uni- versity, San Luis Obispo; California State University, Fresno; the Univer- sity of California, Davis; Washington State University and the University of Missouri. Cooperages 1912 is a fourth-generation, family-owned company that produces oak barrels under the brands T.W. Boswell and World Cooperage. V2 and Mercer form agreement V2 Wine Group of Sonoma, Calif., and Mercer Wine Estates of Prosser, Wash., announced a sales and mar- keting agreement between the two companies effective Aug. 1. Under the terms of the arrangement, V2 Wine Group will provide sales and marketing services and manage the distribution network of Mercer throughout the United States and Canada. The winery first planted grapes in 1972 in Washington state's Horse Heaven Hills AVA and is owned by brothers Robert and Willis Mercer, fourth-generation farmers. Umpqua names wine banker Umpqua Bank hired Rebecca Fa- bisch Miller as senior vice president and regional director of commercial banking for the bank's Santa Rosa, Napa, Sacramento, Roseville and Modesto offices in California. A banking veteran with nearly 25 years of experience, Miller also will head Umpqua's wine specialty and public finance groups and focus on growing the bank's market share among companies in the region with lending needs of more than $10 million. Prior to joining Umpqua, Fabisch Miller held posi- tions with Wells Fargo & Co., U.S. Bank and Bank of America. Vinventions hires California sales manager Vinventions, the parent company of Nomacorc, announced Alex- andra Stump joined its team as a sales manager in California. Stump has worked for 14 years in the wine packaging business and will be based primarily out of Napa and Sonoma counties. She will be responsible for providing custom- ers with Vinventions' full range of product offerings with a focus on the Vintop screwcap. Tom Godfrey