beverage-industry
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Jeremy Shepherd Has Spent Two Decades Learning Where a Brand Meets the Buyer
Before Jeremy Shepherd became Brown-Forman's chief marketing officer, he spent two decades close to the places where strategy gets tested - markets, distributors, stores and teams. His route from Canada to London to Louisville explains the operator behind the title.
Liang Crow
Liang Crow is listed in business-contact directories as Chief Executive Officer of Juicero, the San Francisco cold-press juice company that became a defining parable of Silicon Valley hardware ambition. Juicero built a Wi-Fi-connected countertop press paired with proprietary single-serving produce packs, raised roughly $120 million from marquee investors, and priced its first machine at $699. In April 2017 Bloomberg reporters showed the packs could be squeezed by hand, the company suspended sales that September, and it was defunct by December. Crow's name is attached to the CEO chair in Apollo and similar records; beyond that role listing, little independent public biography is verifiable.
Mark Hellendrung
Mark Hellendrung is the Rhode Island native who bought a fading 1890 beer brand for less than $100,000 and made it New England's again. As owner and CEO of Narragansett Brewing Company, he resurrected a lager that had nearly vanished, brought brewing back to Rhode Island after a 30-plus-year exile, and opened a waterfront brewery and beer hall on the Providence harborfront. Before beer, he ran Nantucket Nectars and coached the team at Magic Hat. His pitch has always been the same: stay homegrown, stay local, and don't sell out to the big guys.
David Lester
David Lester is the co-founder and former President of OLIPOP PBC, the prebiotic soda brand that grew from a $100,000 bet into a $1.85 billion company in under seven years. A former Diageo brand marketer who worked with Smirnoff, Gordon's Gin, and Johnnie Walker across three continents, Lester paired his CPG expertise with co-founder Ben Goodwin's scientific formulation genius to create a soda that supports gut health without sacrificing the nostalgia of a cold fizzy drink. OLIPOP now generates over $425 million in annual revenue, holds 65,000+ retail doors, and controls 87% of the functional soda category - a category it essentially invented.
Michael Pengue
Michael J. Pengue is the Chief Executive Officer of Hint Inc., the San Francisco-based maker of unsweetened fruit-infused water that pioneered the better-for-you flavored water category. With more than 30 years in the beverage industry, Pengue has led multibillion-dollar businesses at Nestlé Waters North America, helped orchestrate the $1.65 billion sale of Bai Brands to Dr Pepper Snapple, and built ZOA Energy into the fastest-growing energy drink in the US before its acquisition by Molson Coors. Appointed CEO of Hint in November 2024, he is leading a comprehensive 2026 brand relaunch designed to reframe hydration as desire rather than discipline.