Curriculum Vitae

Mike Fisher is a wine business advisor, ASA, and founding partner of Global Wine Partners (U.S.) LLC (GWP) headquartered in Napa Valley, California.  He was previously with the CPA firm, Motto Kryla & Fisher LLP (MKF) which was established in 1982.  GWP was established in 2004 when MKF’s investment banking business was spun off from MKF.  In 2005, MKF was merged with Frank, Rimerman + Co. LLP. 

GWP provides financial consulting, litigation, valuation, merger and acquisition advisory services exclusively to the wine industry. 

Mike Fisher is extensively involved in wine industry business consulting.  He is a frequent speaker at industry seminars and conferences and has made presentations on winery and vineyard value and economics at conferences sponsored by The Appraisal Institute, The American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers and the American Society of Appraisers.  He has testified on wine industry matters before the California Legislature Assembly and Senate Committees.  His articles have been published in the trade press and he is frequently quoted in the print and broadcast media regarding wine industry issues.  He was the principal contributor to a book published by MKF titled Vineyard Economics, which is a widely used reference source for the wine industry.

Mr. Fisher has prepared hundreds of winery and vineyard valuations and has testified as an expert witness in a number of litigation cases involving the wine industry.  Litigation experience includes distributor terminations, professional malpractice, fraud, bankruptcy, condemnation, income tax, vineyard feasibility, marital dissolution, liability and contract disputes.  His involvement in these cases has principally been related to calculation of economic damages and valuation issues for both wineries and vineyards.  He has testified in over ten cases in Napa, Sonoma, Contra Costa, San Joaquin and Los Angeles County Superior Courts, U.S. Tax Court and U.S. Bankruptcy Court and been deposed in over twenty cases.  He has also been involved as an expert in numerous arbitration and mediation hearings.

He is a member of the American Society of Appraisers and the American Society for Enology and Viticulture.  He has received the professional certification as an Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA) by American Society of Appraisers.  He is a director of the Napa Valley Grapegrowers and the St. Helena Chamber of Commerce.

His prior experience includes positions as CFO of Joseph Phelps Vineyards and as a CPA with PricewaterhouseCoopers.  He has degrees in accounting from the University of Missouri and enology (winemaking) and viticulture (grapegrowing) from the University of California, Davis.