Our Company boasts some of the world’s leading wine educators, academics, and business excellence experts brought together by a passion for wine and a desire to spread that passion to others.
Amato De Civita
Amato De Civita
Amato De Civita is President and owner of Wine Awakenings Inc, a Niagara based company specializing in the science of advanced sensory evaluation of wine. He is also co-founder and partner of Journey to Excellence, a Toronto based business advisory and consulting firm that helps organizations achieve business excellence in their operations. Visit the Journey To Excellence website
Amato actively advises in the areas of strategic planning, marketing strategy, process improvement, training, and sustainability for companies of all sizes in industries related to high tech, packaging, real estate, and higher education. He is a board member and part owner of a large emerging Internet company and is a periodic contributor to the Conference Board of Canada Executive Conferences. He also regularly contributes articles and blog content for industry publications in the area of his newly developed and much sought-after expertise in the emerging field of leisure education and its effects on consumerism.
Upon graduating from Concordia University in Montreal in 1982, Amato joined Xerox Canada and throughout his early roles, which included sales, product management, and sales management in Montreal, he quickly established a solid reputation of strong leadership and peak performance. Upon moving to Xerox Headquarters in Toronto in 1998, he successfully led the Canadian finance and leasing division and the company’s very strategic production systems division and, subsequently, was promoted to Vice President, Customer Relations in 2001 where he led the team that built and deployed the first customer relationship management strategy in the company’s history.
Subsequently, he held positions of Vice President and GM of the New England Operations while based in Boston and upon returning to Canada in 2006, he led the new Graphic Communications division for Xerox Canada. Unprecedented performance improvements in both these assignments earned him the coveted CEO Award of Excellence and the President’s Club Award.
In 2008, Amato decided to retire from Xerox and embrace his aspirations of entrepreneurship and his passion to teach and coach by leveraging the vast leadership and operational excellence experience he had accrued.
Amato holds a B.A degree (Communication Studies) from Concordia University in Montreal and is a graduate of the Queen’s Executive Program. He holds a business program degree from l’Université de Montréal and is a recent graduate of the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, North Carolina. He is Six Sigma “green belt” certified and holds a private degree in mycology.
Amato presently serves on the board of various charitable organizations in both Montreal and in Toronto and he is actively involved with higher education establishments in both Canada and in the US.
Professor Gary Pickering
Professor Gary Pickering
Professor Pickering is also a member of the Vintners’ Quality Alliance (VQA) Standards & Development Committee, the VQA Experts’ Tasting Panel and the American Society of Enology and Viticulture. He is also the North American editor of the Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment and a member of the Honorary Editorial Board for the International Journal of Wine Research. Professor Pickering is also the inventor of the white wine mouthfeel wheel, and co-developer of the Wine Awakenings Wine Aroma Kits. In addition to serving as President of Picksen International Inc, Gary serves as an international wine judge, most recently for Cuvee and InterVin.
Professor Gary Pickering is also the owner of Picksen International Inc, a sensory and oenology consulting company providing expert services to the wine and alcoholic beverage industry. Specializing in all areas of wine quality and flavour, including sensory and chemical analysis, taint identification, insurance and expert witness services, Picksen also sells exceptional wine education products.
Our Team
Our Company boasts some of the world’s leading wine educators, academics, and business excellence experts brought together by a passion for wine and a desire to spread that passion to others.
Amato De Civita
Amato De Civita
Amato De Civita is President and owner of Wine Awakenings Inc, a Niagara based company specializing in the science of advanced sensory evaluation of wine. He is also co-founder and partner of Journey to Excellence, a Toronto based business advisory and consulting firm that helps organizations achieve business excellence in their operations. Visit the Journey To Excellence website
Amato actively advises in the areas of strategic planning, marketing strategy, process improvement, training, and sustainability for companies of all sizes in industries related to high tech, packaging, real estate, and higher education. He is a board member and part owner of a large emerging Internet company and is a periodic contributor to the Conference Board of Canada Executive Conferences. He also regularly contributes articles and blog content for industry publications in the area of his newly developed and much sought-after expertise in the emerging field of leisure education and its effects on consumerism.
Upon graduating from Concordia University in Montreal in 1982, Amato joined Xerox Canada and throughout his early roles, which included sales, product management, and sales management in Montreal, he quickly established a solid reputation of strong leadership and peak performance. Upon moving to Xerox Headquarters in Toronto in 1998, he successfully led the Canadian finance and leasing division and the company’s very strategic production systems division and, subsequently, was promoted to Vice President, Customer Relations in 2001 where he led the team that built and deployed the first customer relationship management strategy in the company’s history.
Subsequently, he held positions of Vice President and GM of the New England Operations while based in Boston and upon returning to Canada in 2006, he led the new Graphic Communications division for Xerox Canada. Unprecedented performance improvements in both these assignments earned him the coveted CEO Award of Excellence and the President’s Club Award.
In 2008, Amato decided to retire from Xerox and embrace his aspirations of entrepreneurship and his passion to teach and coach by leveraging the vast leadership and operational excellence experience he had accrued.
Amato holds a B.A degree (Communication Studies) from Concordia University in Montreal and is a graduate of the Queen’s Executive Program. He holds a business program degree from l’Université de Montréal and is a recent graduate of the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, North Carolina. He is Six Sigma “green belt” certified and holds a private degree in mycology.
Amato presently serves on the board of various charitable organizations in both Montreal and in Toronto and he is actively involved with higher education establishments in both Canada and in the US.
Professor Gary Pickering
Professor Gary Pickering
Professor Pickering is also a member of the Vintners’ Quality Alliance (VQA) Standards & Development Committee, the VQA Experts’ Tasting Panel and the American Society of Enology and Viticulture. He is also the North American editor of the Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment and a member of the Honorary Editorial Board for the International Journal of Wine Research. Professor Pickering is also the inventor of the white wine mouthfeel wheel, and co-developer of the Wine Awakenings Wine Aroma Kits. In addition to serving as President of Picksen International Inc, Gary serves as an international wine judge, most recently for Cuvee and InterVin.
Professor Gary Pickering is also the owner of Picksen International Inc, a sensory and oenology consulting company providing expert services to the wine and alcoholic beverage industry. Specializing in all areas of wine quality and flavour, including sensory and chemical analysis, taint identification, insurance and expert witness services, Picksen also sells exceptional wine education products.