College of Business

 College of Business News Room 

May 15, 2009

CONTACT:
Frances Ryan, WSU CB Marketing and Communications Manager
509/335-3957, frances_ryan@wsu.edu  

Jud Preece, WSU Alumni Association and Wine-By-Cougars
509/335-6905, jpreece@wsu.edu  

WSU Alumni Association Offers Scholarship for New Wine Business Management Major

PULLMAN, Wash. – The Washington State University Alumni Association (WSUAA) is proud to announce the first scholarship created for students in the School of Hospitality and Business Management’s new wine business management program within the College of Business. The scholarship has been endowed through the generosity and support of the popular WSUAA wine club Wine-By-Cougars (WBC) and the almost 500 WBC members. The scholarship will provide internship hours for students to gain valuable hands-on marketing and sales experience at a winery previously showcased in WBC. The WSUAA and WBC will award the scholarship for the first time this fall.

The new Wine Business Management major was recently approved as part of the courses offered by the School of Hospitality Management in the College of Business. The major will be offered to students beginning fall 2009 and was developed in response to the growth and significance of the business of wine in Washington State. The program’s overarching objective is to provide a pool of highly skilled business leaders focused on the burgeoning wine industry. Toward this effort, graduates of the program will be educated across a broad range of wine business and related functional areas from the management of wine production to the identification and development of demand generators.

Norm McKibben, president and current managing partner of Walla Walla’s Pepper Bridge Winery, noted, “Wineries don’t go out of business by making bad wine. They go out of business by making bad business decisions.” Through the new scholarship, WBC hopes to promote the success of WSU alumni wineries by supporting world-class business management education for the next generation of wine industry leaders.

This new major is unique to hospitality programs in America. It is also highly interdisciplinary and draws on the many strengths at WSU. The new program is “resource neutral,” with a curriculum based on courses already offered at WSU.

To learn more about Wine-By-Cougars, visit http://www.winebycougars.com.  

For more information about the Wine Business Management program, contact Justin Marquart, CB director of development, at marquart@wsu.edu or 509-335-7392 or the Wine Business Management Program Director, Dr. Dennis Reynolds at der@wsu.edu or 509-335-4344, or visit http://www.business.wsu.edu/wine.  

The WSU College of Business spans the four campuses of WSU with the largest campus in Pullman and urban campuses located in Spokane, Vancouver, and the Tri-Cities area. The college conducts scholarly and applied research, and offers degree programs in a variety of business disciplines, and in hospitality business management, supplementing face-to-face offerings through innovative online learning and international programs. For more information, visit the college’s Web site at http://www.business.wsu.edu.
WSU College of Business, PO Box 644750, Washington State University, Pullman WA 99164-4750, 888-585-5433, Contact Us