Dr. Liz Thach, MW is a professor, wine writer, and consultant based in Napa and Sonoma, California.

She also holds the position of President of the Wine Market Council, a non-profit dedicated to providing forward-looking market research on U.S. wine consumer buying habits, attitudes and trends.

Liz is an award-winning author and educator, specializing in wine business strategy, marketing, leadership/executive development, and wine lifestyle. Liz’s passion is wine, and she has visited most of the major wine regions of the world and more than 70 countries.

Prior to her wine career, Liz worked for more than 10 years as an HR executive and manager in Fortune 500 companies, before transitioning to Sonoma State University(SSU) in 2000 to teach management and wine business classes in their Bachelors and MBA programs. While there, she taught thousands of students, conducted multiple international research projects, presented at more than 100 conferences, and published 9 books and over 200 articles, including consumer/trade journal and academic publications. She retired from SSU in May 2023, and now teaches online wine classes for Stanford Continuing Studies, in addition to her writing and consulting work.

Liz was the first woman in California and the 7th woman in the US to become a Master of Wine (MW), leading to the California Legislature honoring her with Resolution No. 422, and the California State University system granting her the title of Distinguished Professor of Wine for life. She also holds a Ph.D. in Human Resource Development from Texas A&M University, an M.A. in Organizational Communication and Management from Texas Tech University, and a B.A. in English from Notre Dame de Namur University in California.