Meeting Erika Hills
My first job in the non-profit art sector was in 1988 as a Special Events Manager for the American Conservatory Theatre (ACT) in San Francisco, CA. I had just turned the corner into my 30’s with a resume thinly filled with work experiences representing entry level positions in the retail, banking and insurance industries. I had nothing to show for my special events producing acumen except for what I had learned as a young girl growing up as the daughter of restaurant/nightclub owners. Oh, to be sure, I helped my parents produce our Chinese New Year events, but I had no idea how all of this could lead to a career that could possibly pay my rent, let alone catapult me towards any sort of meaningful identity.
My first order of business at ACT was to produce their opening night gala. This was high stakes, a one-shot deal at raising the funds that ACT needed to meet their ambitious revenue goals. It was also considered one of the pre-eminent social activities of the Fall season, joining in the line up of the opening galas for the San Francisco Symphony and the San Francisco Opera.
The chairman of ACT’s event was Erika Hills, wife of Austin Hill - the scion of the Hills Brothers Coffee empire. Erika and her committee were at a breathtakingly high echelon to me. For goodness sake, I subsisted on Taylor Jug wines after college and here I was working with the woman who, with her husband, was partnering with famed winemaker Mike Grgich to bolster Grgich Hills Winery which had been formed ten years earlier in Napa.
Austin and Erika Hills. Photo credit: Thomas J. Gibbons
My first series of gala meetings entailed vocabulary that I had never heard of in the social society world. Mind you, when I grew up - the global wine industry as it is now known - had not yet been established. While the Napa Valley Vintners Association was formed in 1944, soon after the repeal of Prohibition, it was not until 1976 when Napa Valley joined the world winemaking stage (1).
I was so out of place at those Gala committee meetings. Every time I tried to insert a comment about my own experiences, the committee cacophony drowned me out. I just could not win. I did not yet have the experience of a verbal counterpunch nor a life experience to hold my own in those conversations.
Erika taught me my first lesson in human relations. Knowing that I was out of my element, she invited me to come to her home in San Francisco for a meeting. She wanted to know more about me, my background, and what I wanted to eventually be. I was just getting started in what I thought would be my career and I didn’t have the confidence to articulate anything meaningful.
What transpired was a seminal career moment. Erika took me under her wing, brought me to her home in Napa to help me understand the wine industry. Tasting Grgich Hills wines was part of my “homework” and she explained how to taste wine and develop my palette.
How does this relate to my career? I have not forgotten how uncomfortable it feels to be an outsider or a newbie in a conversation, social gathering, or a workplace. I have developed strong intuition when sensing someone might be feeling out of place. And when that happens, I always remind myself to extend the same grace that was extended to me by Erika. In many ways, this mirrors the ethos that my parents established at Mah Jong Restaurant, our polynesian-themed family restaurant on Long Island: radical welcoming hospitality.
By the way, this seminal moment also began my lifelong fascination for artisanal wine making, wine education, and amateur wine collecting!
https://www.wineinvestment.com/learn/magazine/2020/09/a-brief-history-of-wine-in-californias-napa-valley/#:~:text=He%20named%20the%20region%20Calistoga,)%20%E2%80%93%20just%20three%20years%20later