Lauren Ackerman’s career has evolved as a former tech entrepreneur-turned-vintner and philanthropist in the Napa Valley over 26 years. In the mid-1980’s, Lauren created a successful technology marketing organization, working with over 75 information technology companies in the US. Selling the company in 1988, she moved to the Bay Area from Southern California and, became an international management consultant to companies such as Philips Semiconductor, Hewlett Packard and Motorola. In 1994, she moved to the Napa Valley when she and her former husband purchased a 16 acre vineyard property in the Coombsville AVA. They started making wine in 1995 and eventually began selling commercially, starting with the 2003 vintage. Today, Lauren owns/manages Ackerman Family Vineyards, a boutique producer of cabernet sauvignon wines from the organically farmed Stonehaven vineyard.
In 2010, she was inexplicably drawn to a dilapidated Victorian home in downtown Napa. After nine months of negotiation to buy it, she went to work painstakingly restoring what would become Napa’s only authentically historic home that is open to the public for events and wine tasting. Over the next five years, she restored this iconic house and opened it as “The Ackerman Heritage House” in 2015. Today, the Ackerman Heritage House, is a beautiful event space for small weddings, corporate meetings, intimate food and wine experiences, afternoon tea and more.
With a passion for community building, business development, innovative education, entrepreneurship and strategic philanthropy, Lauren has worked with multiple non-profit organizations that range from art to ophthalmology, education and human trafficking. Currently, she serves on the boards of SEE International and Festival Napa Valley. Additionally, Lauren is a Member of the Society of Fellows with the Culinary Institute of America. In all, she has served on more than 12 boards in the Bay Area.
Recently, she was elected to be on the General Advisory Planning Committee (GPAC) 2040, a special committee of 15 members that advises the Mayor and City Council of Napa on strategic initiatives for the next 20 years of Napa’s growth. Lauren completed The Philanthropy Workshop, a global strategic philanthropy program offered by the Rockefeller Foundation in New York, in 2003.
