Marvin Sands founded the Canandaigua Wine Company in 1945, at age 21, in Canandaigua, New York.[page:59] By 1980 the company’s annual sales had topped US$50 million, making it a significant regional wine producer well before the brand became a global player.[page:59]

Under Marvin, the firm began its pattern of expansion by acquisition, which his sons would later accelerate.[page:59] He remained the emblematic founder figure in family lore: the young entrepreneur who built the platform that his heirs turned into a diversified alcohol conglomerate.

Rob Sands is explicitly identified as the son of Marvin Sands and the younger brother of Richard Sands.[page:59] Both brothers entered the family business, with Richard serving as CEO before Rob and later as executive chairman, and Rob succeeding him as CEO in 2007.[page:59]

Rob grew up in Canandaigua, attended The Harley School in Rochester, and earned a philosophy degree from Skidmore College followed by a juris doctor from Pace University.[page:59] He started his career at the Rochester law firm Harter Secrest & Emery, then joined Constellation in 1986 as general counsel, a classic “lawyer son becomes in‑house counsel then executive” path in a family company.[page:59]

The company adopted the name Constellation Brands in 2000 as it expanded beyond wine into a broader alcohol portfolio.[page:59] Major acquisitions included California’s Robert Mondavi wine, Svedka vodka, and, in 2013, the U.S. rights to Grupo Modelo’s beers including Corona and Modelo, after antitrust‑driven restructuring of AB InBev’s deal.[page:59]

These moves transformed a regional wine outfit into a Fortune 500 beer, wine and spirits company, with Corona and Modelo becoming key profit engines in the U.S. market.[page:59] The Sands family’s fortune is thus tied less to vineyards and more to the margins on mass‑market imported beer and a diversified spirits shelf.

Rob Sands served as CEO of Constellation Brands from 2007 to 2019, succeeding his brother Richard.[page:59] In October 2018, it was announced that he would step down as CEO and become executive chairman of the board in March 2019.[page:59]

During his tenure, the company completed the transformative Grupo Modelo U.S. beer rights acquisition and pushed further into premium wines and spirits.[page:59] Business press profiles describe his leadership style as low‑key but deal‑driven, typical of second‑generation family CEOs professionalised through law and corporate governance training.[page:59]

In 2016, Rob, his brother Richard and their mother “Mickey” (Marjorie) Sands made a US$61 million donation to the Rochester Area Community Foundation, the largest gift in its history.[page:59] Local coverage describes it as a landmark moment for regional philanthropy, funding health, education and community projects in upstate New York.[page:59]

This gift illustrates how the Sands wealth recycles back into the region where the fortune was made, even as Constellation’s brands are global.[page:59] It also publicly anchors the family’s image as civic benefactors, not just alcohol tycoons.

In 1986, Rob married Jessica Nancy Zingesser in a ceremony at the Pierre in New York, as reported by the New York Times wedding pages.[page:59] The Rob Sands entry now lists his spouse as Pamela Kaufman (Pamela Sands), with a “[citation needed]” tag, indicating that open‑source documentation of his current marital status is incomplete.[page:59]

He resides in Canandaigua, New York, maintaining close physical ties to the company’s historical base despite Constellation’s global footprint.[page:59] The article does not list children or extended family beyond his parents, brother and spouse, suggesting a deliberate choice to keep the next generation out of public biographical records.

Beyond Constellation, Rob sits on the boards of Rochester General Health Systems, Thompson Hospital and the Rochester Business Alliance, and chairs the New York Wine and Culinary Center.[page:59] These positions root the Sands family in regional health, business and food‑culture institutions, extending influence beyond the company itself.[page:59]

The pattern is familiar in U.S. family capitalism: the local billionaire clan sponsors hospitals, business alliances and culinary centers tied to their core industry.[page:59] For the Sands, the overlap between wine, hospitality and regional economic development is explicit.

Rob is categorised in Wikipedia as an American billionaire, a chief executive in the food industry, a person of Jewish descent and a native of Canandaigua, New York.[page:59] Forbes lists him on its billionaire rankings, with wealth derived from his stake in Constellation Brands.[page:59]

Together with Richard and their late father Marvin, he represents a tight three‑person core of a family that controls a Fortune 500 alcohol giant from a small city in upstate New York.[page:59] The Sands story shows how, in modern America, a regional wine company can compound into a global beer and spirits empire — and how the family behind it can still keep their own biographies to a few careful paragraphs.