New Co-Chair Appointment to the Annual V Wine Celebration Event

We are delighted to announce a new co-chair to our annual V Foundation Wine Celebration event!

Current board member Amy Marks Dornbusch has been named co-chair, replacing retiring founder and current board member Julie Maples. Amy joins Derek Reisinger, PHR who was appointed as co-chair in 2019.

As founder of the V Foundation Wine Celebration, we wish to extend our sincere appreciation for Julie’s remarkable service during her 23 years as chair, and over 25 years of grit and determined focus to build the event to what it is today. Julie will continue serving as a board member for both the Wine Celebration and the V Foundation. Her leadership provided a steady hand and was the inspiration that led to building the V Foundation Wine Celebration as one of the top charity wine auctions in the country, surpassing $130M raised during her time dedicated to the cause. Julie, we continue to stand #shouldertoshoulder with you, and we thank you for everything that you have accomplished and your continued impact in our efforts towards our goal of victory over cancer!

More About Amy Marks Dornbusch
Amy is the Proprietor and President of Gemstone Vineyard and oversees all operations with her Napa-based team in Yountville, California. Gemstone has produced award-winning Cabernet Sauvignon wines from its 17-acre estate vineyard for the past 25 years. Amy and her team work closely in the blending and crafting of their wines alongside their winemaker, Thomas Rivers Brown, who has received numerous accolades including Wine Spectator’s “Top Gun” and Food & Wine Magazine’s “Winemaker of the Year”.

Amy serves as General Partner of Willowtree Venture Fund LP, a portfolio focused on advancing early-stage consumer companies and funds disrupting all areas of the consumer space including CPG, retail, apparel, dining and hospitality. Exists have included Warby Parker, Sufferfest Beer Company and impact investment d.Light solar home systems.

In her philanthropic role as Director of the Marks Family Foundation, Amy awards risk-tolerant grants across a broad array of issue areas, but with a primary focus on giving to disease research, education and the arts. Here she is working to establish a focus area on women and girls as it relates to education and international development. As part of her philanthropy work, Amy is currently leading a project in Vietnam aimed to lower the rate of unintended pregnancies amongst youth, where the abortion rate is the highest in the world. This project is her focus as a member of The Maverick Collective, an initiative co-founded by Melinda Gates, and backed by the global NGO, Population Services International. Most recently, Amy spearheaded an initiative to evacuate a targeted list of Afghan women activists in response to the Taliban takeover, marking a viral campaign that raised over $7 Million dollars in a span of 2 weeks that led to the evacuation of nearly 1,000 women and their family members. Amy takes an active, “roll your sleeves up” approach to the various philanthropic endeavors in which she is involved.

Prior to moving back to her native California in 2013, Amy founded and operated a boutique catering and event business in New York City, which serviced the wedding, corporate and special event market. Earlier in her career, Amy led creative consulting projects for Fortune 500 clients at the world-renowned creative agency frog design, Inc.
Amy holds a B.A. degree from the George Washington University in Washington, DC and a certification of Effective Philanthropy from the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society. She currently lives in Orinda, California with her husband and three children.

Amy currently serves on the nonprofit boards of the V Foundation Wine Celebration, College Track and Project Glimmer, and for-profit boards Spa Girls Cocktails and Casa del Sol Tequila in an advisory role. Amy joined the V Wine Celebration Board in 2014; her and her family are long-time supporters of the V Foundation for Cancer Research.

More About Derek Reisinger, PHR
Derek Reisinger is an Associate Vice President of Human Resources Operations and Information Systems at the University of Southern California (the largest private sector employer in the city of Los Angeles, responsible for $8 billion annually in economic activity in the region). He is responsible for the strategy and implementation of system-wide HR operational and service support for over 28,000 employees including faculty, staff and student workers. Reporting to the Senior Vice President of Human Resources, Derek serves as a trusted colleague to HR leadership and university stakeholders, ensuring polices process and programs are closely aligned with USC’s mission, values and goals.

Prior to joining USC in November of 2020, Derek worked at Cedars-Sinai Health System (#6 hospital in the US ranked by US News and World Report, 2021) for almost four years. His recent accomplishment there was leading the design, build and implementation of an HR Service Center and cloud-based employee-facing/self-service technologies, the cornerstone of organization’s enterprise-wide operational efficiency and enhanced services initiatives supporting over 15,000 clinical and non-clinical employees.

Derek also served as an HR leader at Warner Bros. Entertainment for nearly ten years. At Warner Bros. he was an Executive Director of HR/Employee Services for over seven years and a Director in Corporate HR/Employee Relations for two years. While at Warner Bros. he led major enterprise-wide enhanced service and technology initiatives for domestic populations. Prior to Warner Bros. Entertainment, he held key service and operational leadership roles at Safeco Insurance and Nordstrom, Inc.

In addition to his Bachelor’s in International Business, Derek possesses a professional Alternative Dispute Resolution certification from Pepperdine School of Law, Straus Institute, Professional Human Resources (PHR) from SHRM/HR Certification Institute and an International Ombuds Association Certification.

Derek grew up in the Bay Area but has lived in Los Angeles over 20 years with his wife and two children.

Derek joined the Wine Board in 2017 and has been Co-Chair since 2019. He brings not only a winning spirit and enthusiasm to the board, but also helps us thread to our original roots since our first event in 1999, where he served as an event volunteer and has remained involved with each event since then.

We are honored to work alongside you both, Amy and Derek, as One Team in pursuit of #VictoryOverCancer!

Learn more about all our board members right here.