The man behind the scenes

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I'm a CPG veteran of over 30 years. It all started in 1989, when I began my career as a delivery driver for a local beer & wine wholesaler. Here, I learned how the Grocery, Convenience and Liquor channels operated. From there, I moved to the non-alc side of things and joined Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE), a distributor wholly owned by The Coca-Cola Company. This broadened my knowledge of the industry by working in a centralized system of sales and distribution. 

In 2011, I accepted a role at early craft icon, Jones Soda, but, after one year, the role was eliminated. It was then when my former boss from CCE reached out and asked me to join him at Honest Tea, a brand that had recently been acquired by The Coca-Cola Company. 

Even though I was back at Coca-Cola, I was now working for their Venturing &Emerging Brands team (VEB), where we worked under the leadership of entrepreneur and Honest Tea co-founder, Seth Goldman. I began to really gain an understanding of what it takes to build a brand; production, forecasting, hiring, POS, key accounts, distributor partners, DTC, social media, field marketing, merchandising, managing P&L... the list goes on. 

We managed other brands in Coke's VEB portfolio, as well, including ZICO Coconut Water, illy Coffee, Peace Tea and Hubert's Lemonade. I learned it takes an entrepreneurial mindset to manage early, low-velocity brands, as they command a lot of attention while having limited resources. 

In 2018, Coca-Cola began to scale back its VEB division. Since then, I've worked mostly in the start-up or emerging brands space, where I've been able to use my wealth of experience consulting with CPG brand founders and investors in Fractional Roles, helping them save costs and sell cases.

I live in central Florida with my wife, Laura, our two sons, and our dog, Captain.