Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Alumni
  • Login
  • Volunteer
  • Clubs
  • Reunions
  • Bulletin
  • Class Notes
  • Help
  • Give Now
  • Stories
  • Alumni Directory
  • Lifelong Learning
  • Careers
  • Programs & Events
  • Giving
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Alumni→
  • Stories→

Stories

Stories

25 Apr 2016

Trail Blazer

Community effort creates a public greenway through Northern California’s scenic wine country
Re: Chuck McMinn (MBA 1978); By: Jill Radsken
Topics: Relationships-Business and Community RelationsEnvironment-Environmental SustainabilityFood and Beverage-WineSports-Cycling
ShareBar

Photography by Alexander Rubin

Chuck McMinn (MBA 1978) has worked at enough in startups to know that the only guarantee in technology is that today’s hot product will eventually be replaced by more innovative technology.

That’s why McMinn, founder and chair of the Napa Valley Vine Trail Coalition, finds such gratification in the 47-mile bike and pedestrian route soon to connect the six-city region. It will be a legacy enjoyed by generations.

“It’s very psychically rewarding,” he says. “It’s so much fun to be involved in something the entire community wants to happen.”

Spearheading the coalition came out of McMinn’s community outreach efforts as owner of Vineyard 29, in St. Helena, where he moved in 2004 after buying the winery.

“When we started the Vine Trail, I didn’t own a bicycle,” he recalls. “But our family enjoys renting bikes in places where we visit—Washington, DC; Vancouver, BC; Lucerne, Switzerland. It’s a way to see where we are. I couldn’t understand why we didn’t have a bike trail in Napa.”

The push for a cycles-only pathway had been attempted before, in part because Napa has the ninth-highest bicycle accident rate per capita of all California counties, according to the state’s Office of Traffic Safety. But things never really got rolling until McMinn became involved in 2008 and rallied 34 local organizations that now occupy the coalition’s board of directors.

“People don’t realize the power they have when they work together. The startup process opens their eyes to that,” he says.

The ability to build something new, especially the critical thinking required of such a task, was foremost among the skills McMinn honed at HBS, he says.

“It taught me to think for myself, not to regurgitate facts and figures back to a professor. For an engineer who had never spoken publicly before business school, I learned how to articulate a point of view in front of peers—and convince them of the case I was making,” he recalls.

After graduating from HBS, McMinn landed in Silicon Valley at Intel, serving as product manager for the industry-transforming 8086 microprocessor. “The thought was, If I’m going to get involved, get involved in the company that’s at the heart of that business. Being in that flow was critical,” he recalls.

After Intel, McMinn worked at Megatest, Interwest Partners, and Visioneer Communications, Inc., before starting Covad, the nation’s first high-speed Internet service, in 1996.

“We beat the telephone companies to market in six of seven regions,” says McMinn.

He left to start another company, then returned to Covad in 2000 when the tech bubble burst. That was also when he began to enjoy the fruits of his labor, buying and growing Vineyard 29.

“The brand existed, but there was no winery. We extended the product line from two to nine wines, and built a 30,000-square-foot facility. We now make 10,000 cases for ourselves and 3,000 cases for six other wineries,” he says.

McMinn began working on the Vine Trail (a 10-feet-wide asphalt-paved path, with unpaved shoulders for runners) with neighboring winemakers, who donated initial funds to memorialize Tom Shelton, a fellow vintner and vine trail leader who had lost his life to cancer.

“We recruited the Land Trust of Napa County, Napa Valley Grapegrowers, and Napa Valley Vintners to get us started. We also reached out to other organizations of all types in the community. We didn’t want only bike enthusiasts. We wanted to give walkers, skateboarders, and people with baby carriages a voice as well,” he says.

With so many groups in the mix, the Napa Valley Vine Trail Coalition has made quick progress, securing one federal and two state grants of $13 million, in total. In February 2015, the coalition broke ground on a six-mile segment to connect the city of Napa to Yountville, and it is scheduled to have more than 30 percent of the trail completed by June 2016. The entirety of the project is due to finish in 2020.

From Napa Valley Vine Trail

From Napa Valley Vine Trail

“We’ve raised $8 million in local donations of our $12 million goal,” McMinn adds. “We represent thousands in our community, and that has really helped us get the attention of local politicians and grant-making agencies.”

McMinn also supports St. Helena Hospital Foundation and Napa Learns, an education nonprofit that gets technology into the hands of students; but the Vine Trail Coalition has the kind of startup energy that inspires him and his team.

“You learn so much more going out and doing, rather than just analyzing,” he says. “It’s more fun to create something from nothing than to shepherd something that already exists.”

 
ShareBar

Featured Alumni

Chuck McMinn
MBA 1978

Post a Comment

Featured Alumni

Chuck McMinn
MBA 1978

Related Stories

    • 20 Sep 2013
    • HBS Alumni News

    Connections Add Up

    Re: Nan Morrison (MBA 1987); Sally Wood (MBA 1983); David Nelms (MBA 1987); Cynthia Hallenbeck (MBA 1985); Mindy Mount (MBA 1987); Michael E. Porter (Bishop William Lawrence University Professor (Renewal Leave)); By: Jill Radsken
    • 01 Sep 2013
    • Alumni Stories

    Beantown as a Beacon

    Re: Mitch Weiss (MBA 2004); Gerald Chertavian (MBA 1992); Michael E. Porter (Bishop William Lawrence University Professor (Renewal Leave)); Jan W. Rivkin (C. Roland Christensen Professor of Business Administration Senior Associate Dean, Chair, MBA Program)
    • 01 Jun 2005
    • Alumni Stories

    Ideas: Books

    Re: Nathalie Laidler-Kylander (MBA 1992); Andy Zelleke (PHDOB 2003)
    • 01 Mar 2013
    • Alumni Stories

    Making Change

    Re: Elizabeth Scharpf (MBA 2007); Esther Wang (MBA 2009); Sidhant Jena (MBA 2011); Darren Brehm (MBA 2007); Rakhi Mehra (MBA 2009); Abby Falik (MBA 2008); Brian Elliot (MBA 2008); By: Margie Kelley

More Related Stories

Stories Featuring Chuck McMinn

    • 19 May 2016
    • Making A Difference

    Creating a Public Greenway in Northern California’s Scenic Wine Country

    Re: Chuck McMinn (MBA 1978)
 
 
 
 
  • Explore
  • Explore
  • Explore
  • Explore
  • Explore
  • Explore
  • Explore
  • Explore
  • Explore
ǁ
Campus Map
External Relations
Harvard Business School
Teele Hall
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
Phone: 1.617.495.6890
Email: alumni+hbs.edu
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Digital Accessibility
  • Terms of Use
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College