Napa Valley residents Damian Archbold and Claire Hobday wouldn’t dare describe themselves as a global power couple, but that’s how their families describe them. Their four children have all enjoyed global success in different fields and give huge credit to the love and guidance provided by Damian and Claire. “Dad and Claire are wonderful parents. Their influence and support have helped us each grow and contribute all over the world,” said Connor, the founder of international tech company, Tracksuit.
“I think both Claire and I are willing to accept that if we can define “global power” as being great parents with three passports that our children also hold, and with which each has flourished, then we are okay with that,” laughed Damian, founder of a small successful winery, vineyard, and luxury real estate business in Napa. Claire is the CEO of a dynamic commercial solar company, and between the two, they’ve launched a family of superstars.
Daughter Lisa (aka Kiwi) is fluent/conversant in five languages and was chosen for New Zealand’s Olympic judo team as a young teen. She has a successful multi-media career in Europe, the Middle East, and the US. Oldest son Damien has been a Doctor Without Borders in the Gaza Strip, a Royal Flying Doctor in Australia, an anesthesiologist in Ireland, and helped lead the efforts to save lives at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens when the hospital was at the epicenter of the Covid epidemic, and he was a staff anesthesiologist. Preston (the youngest) is an elite, highly decorated Naval diving medical technician.
Damian and Claire with their global clan, pictured recently in NYC
As a parent, it’s easy to default to one’s children’s accomplishments when recounting your own life, and Damian and Claire have much to be proud of when it comes to their brood. But the duo boasts a list of their own accomplishments, giving further credence to the tagline bestowed by Connor.
The two met in 2006 in New Zealand at an Auckland Anniversary Day fireworks display; as Damian said, the fireworks have not stopped since. At the time, Damian, divorced and turning 50, learned he had a very aggressive form of Mixo-Fibro Sarcoma, a deadly cancer with a 15% survival rate. “I told Claire she did not have to buy into this, but she stuck by my side through the surgery, 36 radiation treatments, doctor visits, scans, etc., that went on for five years until I was finally deemed clear,” said Damian, clearly in awe of Claire’s dedication.
They each had moved to New Zealand, recognizing the country as a wonderful place to raise children. “Looking at how they have turned out and the opportunities it has presented them makes us feel we made the right decision,” said Claire, who was born in Bermuda and raised in the US and England. Damian was born in Ireland and raised in Canada and the US. He and his first wife had visited New Zealand on their honeymoon and had vowed to return. “The kids were at a perfect age to make a move like this, and so with millions of dollars of investor money in hand, an investor visa, which would grant us citizenship in two years, and a great business plan, we made the move,” said Damian, who had started his career as a teacher for the County of San Diego, working inside a juvenile detention facility. While teaching, he earned his MBA and subsequently joined a Fortune 500 environmental company where he became vice president of sales and marketing for their environmental instrument division.
A serial entrepreneur, Damian then founded his own instrument company, creating state-of-the-art constituent gas monitoring systems, the patent of which he unfortunately lost to an unscrupulous competitor. Down but not out, he then raised several million dollars on Wall St. to start a new company featuring a bond that could be issued wholesale over the internet, which was just beginning to gain widespread acceptance. He decided that New Zealand was the best place to launch this product.
Damian Archbold with Compass Realtor, Lynne Brown
At the time, he was also running his own boutique investment banking firm, which led to nine New Zealand and Australian companies in his portfolio on behalf of a Bermuda-based insurance group. The relationships Damian built on Wall Street led two investors to request that he set up a company to help them begin a venture capital fund. On their behalf, he successfully managed the fund as they dictated for more than ten years. During that time, he battled and eventually recovered from his first experience with a deadly disease, prostate cancer, the experience of which he recounted in a self-deprecating, self-published book entitled “Lucky Stiff.”
As Damian was making his way into the business world and raising his three children, Claire was completing her CPA training with PWC in England and raising an infant son. After completing her qualification, she took a position with PWC in Zimbabwe, Africa. “It was a life-changing experience,” said Claire. “Most weekends, I would bundle three-year-old Preston into the car and drive deep into the countryside of Zimbabwe, Botswana, and South Africa.”
She eventually moved to New Zealand with her son and worked for PWC, but ultimately decided to move out of consulting and into corporate accounting. Thus, she became the New Zealand head of finance for movie camera equipment company Panavision, which led to other executive financial roles with large international companies such as Coca Cola, before landing the role of head of finance for Treasury Wine Estates in New Zealand, which included a seat on the Board of Directors— and the eventual move to Napa.
When the Treasury Wine Estates Napa transfer occurred in 2013, Damian’s venture fund was winding down. Three kids were living outside New Zealand, with the fourth about to travel the world. The stars were aligned, so Claire and Damian settled in Napa in 2015, where Damian decided to renew the California real estate license he received in 1982 to supplement his income as a teacher. “I always loved real estate,” said Damian. “Claire always used to joke that my idea of a great day out was visiting open homes.”
Considered one of the top realtors in Napa Valley, Damian credits his Napa real estate breakthrough to the local cycling club Clydesdale’s, where one of the members asked him to look at a vineyard property she had developed. “She was trying to sell it but felt the current agent she had at the time was undervaluing it,” said Damian, who took over the listing and sold the property for $1 million more than the previous agent had valued it. “I began to see a niche for myself, with my background allowing me to value properties differently. Even if I come to the same number as other agents, I believe I can justify the price in a more thorough way.”
His expertise has since contributed to many local vineyard, winery, and home sales, including one of the largest small winery sales in Napa history, that of Seven Stones, for $34 million. “While I can offer some unique expertise to winery and vineyard properties for sale, my background also has provided me with a type of discipline and a deep understanding of fiduciary responsibility and transparency that make all my clients feel more at peace during the selling or buying process,” said Damian. “It’s just part of my work ethic and applies to smaller homes as much as multi-million dollar properties.”
Photo by Joel Weiss
Meanwhile, Claire moved from publicly-held wine company Treasury Wine Estates to work in family-owned wine businesses between 2014 and 2022—first as Director of Finance at Harlan Estate, then as CFO of Charles Krug Winery. “Having the chance to work with two storied families of wine was wonderful,” said Claire. “The long-term vision and patience of family-run wineries gels with the vagaries of nature: they’ve had decades of experience with temperamental harvests, which for a finance executive can be nail-biting. They’ve seen it all.”
Offered the CEO role at Napa-based commercial solar company BPi in 2022, Claire still has firm roots in wine. “We’ve completed many installations at wineries and vineyard properties and are proud to contribute to the ongoing sustainability of our Napa Valley neighbors.”
Gypsies for most of their lives, Damian and Claire both feel they finally have found permanence. “We love Napa, and while we think globally, we act locally and are so happy to call this place our home.”
