About — KNIGHTS VALLEY WAGYU

Ranchers

Adam Gordon

Adam has long been a committed environmentalist. He served on the Directors' Cabinet at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and participated in developing the institution’s 100 year plan. Adam is partnering with Stanford University researchers to develop a fire resilience plan for Knights Valley and ensure the ecosystem's long-term survival.

As Managing Partner of Wildflower Ltd in New York, Adam utilizes transformative design, community engagement, and his entrepreneurial skills to create social impact physical infrastructure. Wildflower is Amazon’s leading e-commerce and logistics developer in New York City. They are also building the world's first vertical film studio, Wildflower Studios. Designed by Bjarke Ingels and in partnership with Robert De Niro & Jane Rosenthal, the self-contained creative village will be located in Astoria, Queens. Wildflower's current solar footprint is generating 1.2 million kWh of power annually.

From e-commerce to oceanography, Adam approaches every project with an open mind and curiosity about the underlying dynamics. The objective is not to be the first, or the biggest, or to be different for the sake of novelty. Investors don't want passion projects, but they are best served by projects undertaken with passion and rigor.

Will Densberger

Partnering with Adam Gordon, the launch of Knights Valley Wagyu brings Will’s life experience full circle. Will was born on the Connolly Polled Hereford Ranch in Napa Valley which is now the home of Joseph Phelps Vineyard. Later, he worked summers with this grandfather on the La Herradura Ranch in the Conn Valley area of St. Helena where he developed his grandfather’s approach to natural and stress-free livestock handling.

After securing a degree in Finance, Will entered the world of corporate real estate with Safeway and later affiliates of NY based Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts. Part of that KKR relationship, Will was the senior asset manager for significant Ag-based operations including two 10,000-acre CA ranches, one of which Will sold to The Nature Conservancy. Later Will helped TNC launch a 501(c)3 non-profit company (Conservation Farms and Ranches) under the TNC umbrella focused on Wildlife friendly farming. Will served as CFR’s first CEO.

Will returned to the Knights Valley area in 2005 with his family and began to focus on real estate brokerage with a strong specialty on world-class ranches, vineyards, wineries and related asset types. For balance, Will enjoyed a very successful high school coaching career at St. Helena HS with the women’s varsity basketball program and various roles in the men’s football program allowing him to connect with young people – a huge priority for Will.

Chefs

Kyle Connaughton
3 Michelin Star Chef at Single Thread

Kyle Connaughton began his culinary career in L.A. with an apprenticeship at one of the oldest Japanese restaurants in the city and continued training in both pastry and savory at Spago Beverly Hills, The Dining Room at Ritz Carlton, Lucques, Hama Sushi, and A.O.C. This was followed by several years cooking in Japan for the famed chef Michel Bras and in numerous traditional Japanese cuisine restaurants. In 2006, Kyle joined Heston Blumenthal to become the Head Chef of Research and Development for the Fat Duck Experimental Kitchen.

He is a contributor to the "Modernist Cuisine" series, a co-developer of the Culinary Science Bachelors Degree program for the CIA, and co-author of the book Donabe - Classic and Modern Japanese Clay Pot Cooking. In 2014 Kyle co-founded the culinary development firm Pilot R+D with Dan Felder, Dr. Ali Bouzari, & Dana Peck.

Matthew Kammerer
Michelin Star Chef at Harbor House Inn

Matthew Kammerer is the chef of the first and only Michelin Guide-starred restaurant in Mendocino County, California. For Matt Kammerer, this area is his muse. “I get to walk outside every day and be in nature,” he said. “For me as a chef and what I value, this is the best place I could be.”

In his formative years as a young cook, Kammerer traveled to Melbourne, Australia to train under Chef Dan Hunter at The Royal Mail Hotel and Chef Ben Shewry at Attica. Both restaurants relied heavily on extensive on-site gardens, and Kammerer saw first-hand the benefits of shortening the distance from soil to plate. Not just from an environmental point of view, but as a food professional. “Being able to pick your ingredients the morning before cooking them and serving them, there’s no going back after that,” he said.