Carrie Yunker leads Bell’s Brewery as Executive Vice President after joining the team as a receptionist over two decades ago. Holding multiple leadership roles within the company over the years, she has helped guide Bell's to national distribution with iconic brands such Two Hearted IPA and Oberon Ale. As Executive Vice President, Carrie is the visionary and leader behind Bell’s strategic plans. In addition, she works closely with New Belgium Brewing’s leadership team to position the breweries as leaders both in the craft beer industry and beyond. She supports 1300+ employees across the nation and oversees day-to-day company operations with a commitment to recognizing, elevating, and celebrating the individual value a person brings to the organization. Carrie is largely credited for developing Bell’s coveted people-centric culture. A prominent leader at Bell’s, in the state of Michigan, and within the industry at large, Carrie’s passion for positively impacting Bell’s coworkers and the community propels her desire for demanding more from business. She was a founding member of the National Craft Beer Human Resource Group, and is currently a board member of the National Women in Beer Alliance. She is deeply invested in her local Kalamazoo community, and she serves as chair of the Alumni Committee for the Kalamazoo Valley Community Foundation and a Director for Southwest Michigan First. In all she does, Carrie leads with a passion for doing right by people, and is committed to striving for a more inclusive and inviting work environment for all.

Ryan Lake is a Managing Director at Arlington Capital Advisors, a boutique investment banking firm focused exclusively on advising consumer businesses. He has over 20 years of investment banking and commercial banking experience and has sourced, structured, and negotiated over 60 transactions for beverage brands, suppliers, importers, distributors and retailers across beer, wine, spirits, RTD and non-alcoholic beverages. Ryan and the team at Arlington have successfully completed over $10 billion worth of transactions for beverage clients around the world.

Alcohol Category Manager for ExtraMile Convenience Stores LLC (EMCS), Michelle currently oversees all aspects of merchandising related to wine, beer, and spirits across the full network of over 700 licensed stations operating in 9 states. Michelle joined EMCS in October 2021 and comes with over 15 years of merchandising and operations experience. She has worked in both large format and c-store chains at Target and 7-Eleven. Before leaving 7-Eleven, she held the position of Store Readiness Manager for the Western United States covering all new store growth, acquisitions, and change of ownership. Prior to this, Michelle worked as a Business Consultant for a territory of franchised stores and served as the zone merchandising category lead for both alcohol and non- alcoholic beverages.

My career in the beverage industry started out on the retail side working at bars and restaurants in Chicago until my first supplier job with SAB selling Pilsner Urquell previous to their acquisition of Miller Brewing Company. Opportunity to build out a new sales team at Goose Island led me there during their transition from an externally led sales and marketing organization to recreation of an internal team. My next move was to Heineken/USA as a part of the Star Brand Imports team managing distributors along with developing and implementing the annual business plans across the Midwest. When Heineken made the decision to close our import division it led me back to craft beer and to Dogfish Head where the middle of America became my home managing their distributor side of the business along with On Premise National accounts. My final stop before beginning this next step was at Revolution Brewing back home in Chicago for the last eight years building out their sales, marketing and logistics side of the business from case zero. 3 Tier Beverages is based out of the Logan Square neighborhood in Chicago where it shares office space with a wife, two daughters and a 100lb Chocolate Labrador who thinks he is a lap dog. 3 decades of genuine, authentic and real experience in the beverage industry working for you.