Shari and Garen Staglin
For more than 50 years, Shari and Garen Staglin have dedicated themselves to giving back to people less fortunate and causes they support.
Their focus on brain health research, resulting from their son Brandon’s early onset of schizophrenia in 1990, had earned them the reputation as the “first family” of philanthropy for brain health. The motto of Staglin Family Vineyard is “great wine for great causes" and through its operation and their leadership and support of various charitable causes, they have indeed lived up to that philosophy.
Shari and Garen purchased their historic 70-acre ranch in the heart of the Rutherford Bench, in Napa Valley, California in December 1985 with their children, Brandon and Shannon. Their organically farmed property has been proclaimed as the elite vineyard in Rutherford, Napa Valley. In the last 40 years, their charitable wine auction lots and leadership of events have generated almost $40 million in proceeds, more for charity than any other vintner from any vineyard in the world.
Shari and Garen are founders of leading organizations in the quest to find accelerated cures for all brain disorders through cutting edge research and reducing stigma and discrimination. These include One Mind, Bring Change2Mind, and the Healthy Brains Global Initiative. For the last 30 years they have hosted a Music Festival for Brain Health at their property. To date, the Music Festival, and their other related efforts have raised over $600 million for mental health charities and research.
Shari was a leader in health care management and recruiting for many years before becoming CEO of Staglin Family Vineyard. Daughter, Shannon now serves as President and son, Brandon is a leader at One Mind. Garen has been an active venture capital and private equity investor for the last 45 years and assists with financial aspects and public relations and chairs One Mind and HBGI. Shari and Garen met on a blind date at UCLA and are soon to celebrate their 57th wedding anniversary.
Shari and Garen both earned their bachelor’s degrees from UCLA in 1966. Garen later earned his MBA at Stanford in 1968 and Shari her MPA at NYU in 1975. In the late 1980s, Shari studied viticulture and oenology at U.C. Davis.
Together with donations of their wines and chairing of charitable campaigns, they have raised a total of $1.2 Billion making them one of the most philanthropic leaders in the wine industry.
