Mary Mills Departs NielsenIQ for 3 Tier Beverages; 3 Tier Continues to Build Team
NielsenIQ veteran Mary Mills has departed the data giant to join Chicago-based 3 Tier Beverages as a consultant.
During her 14 years at NielsenIQ, Mills worked with clients in the food, beverage and consumer goods industries in a variety of roles, including innovation insights, client management and business development. She brings nearly a decade of experience with beverage-alcohol brands to 3 Tier.
“Access to data is essential for bev-alc clients, but access alone without analysis is just a lot of numbers with no context,” 3 Tier co-founder Donn Bischel Jr. said. “3 Tier is excited to continue growing our team with industry experts to help our partners understand and grow their business in the best way possible by tapping into their existing and future data.”
3 Tier continues to build its team, which now includes co-founders Bichsel and Joe Sepka, business development manager Molly McGrath, consultant Danny Brager, product team consultant Stephanie Roatis and business analyst Jackson Kirk.
Kirk joined last month after working in project management for a startup, a role that showed him “how pivotal data was in the overall success of an organization allowing for major insights into where to deploy focus,” according to his bio on 3 Tier’s website. He also served as operations manager for Wildwood, New Jersey-based Lazy Eye Distillery from June 2019-September 2020.
Roatis joined 3 Tier in January after spending more than two years at market research firm IRI in the strategic analytics division where she worked on pricing and promotion analysis, assortment optimization and marketing mix analysis for national CPG brands. She homed in on beverage alcohol during the COVID-19 pandemic and documented thought leadership on the pandemic’s effect on the bev-alc retail landscape.
3 Tier’s services include custom dashboards for tracking depletions and scan data, insights for retailer and distributor presentation and personalized consulting. The firm’s clients include 58 breweries, 46 wineries and 26 distilleries, according to its website.
Uinta Hires Ian Fuller as Director of Brewing Operations
Salt Lake City-headquartered Uinta Brewing has tapped Ian Fuller as director of brewing operations.
Fuller joins Uinta from Alpine, Wyoming-based Melvin Brewing, where he held the same title.
“Ian’s arrival strengthens and supports our outstanding production team at the perfect time,” Uinta president Jeremy Ragonese said in a press release. “After nearly 30 years of crafting some of Utah’s favorite beers, in many ways it feels like Uinta is just getting started. I have no doubt that Ian is the perfect choice to continue that evolution and keep us on pace for developing new and exciting products, as well as continuously improving our existing lineup and brewing operations.”
A nearly two-decade industry veteran, Fuller joined Melvin in 2020 when the brewery brought in a new leadership team, including CEO Frank Magazine.
“Having worked in this region and gotten to know the leaders of the company, I have tremendous respect for the team at Uinta and all that they’ve accomplished together,” Fuller said in the release. “I’m excited to play a role in the longstanding tradition of brewing excellence here, and I look forward to helping us craft the next great Uinta beer.”
Late last year, 29-year-old Uinta was acquired by a joint venture between Stamford, Connecticut-based sales and marketing firm United States Beverage and Colorado-based family office Crestone. The JV bought out Golub Capital, which acquired a controlling interest in the brewery in 2019.
Uinta is the seventh-largest regional craft brewery in the Brewers Association’s Mountain West region (Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming), according to the May/June issue of the New Brewer. In 2021, the brewery’s output declined -8%, to 37,396 barrels.
VP of Marketing Noelle Haley Departs Sierra Nevada
Noelle Haley has exited Sierra Nevada, where she served as VP of marketing for nearly three years, to be the chief marketing officer of Guayakí Yerba Mate.
Haley was the Chico, California-headquartered craft brewery’s first VP of marketing when she joined the company in October 2019. She reported to chief commercial officer Joe Whitney and oversaw the brewery’s advertising, creative, communications, product marketing and product development.
During Haley’s tenure, Sierra Nevada grew its Little Thing family and expanded beyond beer with Strainge Beast hard kombucha and Tea West hard tea.
Los Angeles-based Guayakí Yerba Mate produces ready-to-drink flavored yerba mate teas in bottles and cans, as well as tea bags and loose leaf teas.
Constellation Brands to Promote Joseph Suarez as Head of Investor Relations
Constellation Brands will promote Joseph Suarez to head of investor relations next month, following the retirement of investor relations lead Patty Yahn-Urlaub, the company announced this week.
Yahn-Urlaub has served as SVP of investor relations since April 2007. Her last day with Constellation is July 22.
“On behalf of our entire Constellation Brands family and all those who had the pleasure of working with her, I want to thank Patty for her contributions to our company and our investment community over the years, and wish her the absolute best in her retirement,” chief communications officer Mike McGrew said in a press release. “We look forward to the continued success of our investor relations function under Joseph’s leadership.
“Joseph brings a well-rounded set of leadership experiences in commercial operations, governance, finance, and investor relations to this role,” he continued. “His strategic orientation and understanding of capital markets will serve both our company and investors well in the years to come.”
Suarez joined Constellation in November 2021 as VP of investor relations from Teneo, a global CEO advisory firm where he served as managing director of strategy.
“Our business has tremendous runway for continued success ahead and our investor relations function has a strong foundation thanks to Patty’s leadership over the years,” Suarez said in the release. “Our team looks forward to continuing to raise the bar in the years ahead.”