Mount Veeder - Known for Cabernet Sauvignon Blends

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Antoine Chaya is a well-established technology professional who holds leadership responsibilities with Oracle Corporation. A longtime wine enthusiast, Antoine Chaya is particularly drawn to varieties from the Napa Valley.

One distinct American Viticultural Area (AVA) featured in a recent Wine Enthusiast article is Mount Veeder, which was only formally recognized as an AVA in the early 1990s, spanning 25 square miles west of Napa and Yountville. Unlike other mountains in the region, the terrain is home to relatively few commercially planted vineyards and is characterized by forests rich in oak, pine, and fir trees. 

Relatively close to the Bay, wines from makers such as Pott Wines, Lagier-Meredith, and Mithra are typically blended to make cabernet sauvignons. The blue and black berries are extremely small and pair earthy minerality with floral aromatic accents. Surprisingly, the mountain, which receives high rainfall, stays warmer during winter than the floor of the valley and tends to avoid frost. This lengthens the harvest as much as three weeks beyond most Napa vineyards and boosts production capacities.

Skills for Successful Strategic Account Management

Author, academic, and information technology professional Antoine Chaya holds an MBA and a PhD in information technology management from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Based in Redwood Shores, California, Antoine Chaya serves as the senior director of strategic accounts at the computer technology company Oracle.

The role of a strategic account manager involves developing and maintaining strategic customer relationships that foster mutual growth and loyalty. To create and deliver value-based solutions that meet the customer's needs and the company's expectations, strategic account managers need a specific set of skills and competencies, the foremost being an understanding of the company’s priorities and overall knowledge of the customer and the industry. Successful strategic account managers possess a high level of financial and business acumen, recognize opportunity, have superior negotiation and communication skills, and place a high value on co-creation.

As managers, these professionals exhibit high-level leadership qualities such as cultural sensitivity and interpersonal relationship skills. They also hold themselves accountable for business outcomes and for the customer/corporate relationship.

Oracle Widens Cloud Accelerator Program for Startups

 


For over a decade, Antoine Chaya has played executive-level roles in the highly competitive software industry. Antoine Chaya, PhD, currently serves as senior director for strategic accounts at Oracle Corporation, based in Redwood Shores, California. The software and cloud platform giant, with sales of $35 billion in 2016, announced in January 2017 the broadening of its Startup Cloud Accelerator program.

Highlighting the fact that Oracle itself was once a startup, the program is designed to enable current startups to become operational as quickly as possible. It is intended for early-stage technology startups. The program provides state-of-the-art technology, free credits on Oracle Cloud, top-notch mentoring and advising, access to partners and customers of Oracle, access to investors, and co-working space.

The pilot program was launched in Bangalore, India, in April 2016. It drew a collection of applicants numbering in the hundreds. Many of the qualified participants are already experiencing success. This cloud-enable program will be establishing a new center in Tel Aviv, Mumbai, Delhi, Paris, Bristol (UK), Sao Paulo, and Singapore. All seven new centers will be open for applications by late 2017.