Flora Chang
Flora Chang, owner of Napa Valley wine brand Plinth and former owner of the renowned Nine Suns Winery, enjoyed a varied professional past that included pharmaceuticals, behavioral economics, entrepreneurship, wine, and technology investing. All were centered on a singular objective—helping people live more fulfilled and healthy lives. Her wine journey was a pilgrimage from metropolis to mountaintop and from science to art. Originally from New York, where she worked with cancer patients as a pharmacist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Flora's move west is where she found opportunity for impact. In California, she built a career heading large pharmacy operations when seeds of interest for wine began to sprout. Flora founded what would become one of the most sought-after wine brands in Napa—Nine Suns. Throughout the ensuing decade, she integrated her chemistry experience and a newly acquired MBA from the Wharton School of Business to manage and grow Nine Suns, creating a distinctive wine portfolio influenced by the industry's leading winemakers. The subsequent success of Nine Suns resulted in its 2022 sale to cult brand Realm Cellars and a shift to cultivating the Plinth label. Beyond wine, Flora's medical and marketing expertise led to consulting roles for global pharmaceutical companies and health tech start-ups, as well as a position at Irrational Labs, deploying people-first behavioral economics and science solutions. She is an early-stage investor in technology startups, having made investments in the gaming and transportation sectors. Flora's mission to remain a lifelong student and practitioner has helped shape her wide-ranging and interconnected skill set—one comprised of healthcare, behavioral economics, operations, entrepreneurship, and technology investment, all centered around the objective of healthier and happier individuals.