Advisor Board

Over the past decade, David Schuemann has led CF Napa Brand Design to become one of the world’s preeminent brand agencies specializing in wine, spirits, and beer. During that time, CF Napa has created some of the fastest-growing and most successful brands in the world. The firm’s work has earned international recognition from almost every major design competition in the world and has been showcased in some of the most prestigious museums, including the Museum of Modern Art. CF Napa’s work is part of the permanent collection at the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum at the Smithsonian in New York City, and the permanent collection of the American Design Archives at the Denver Art Museum.

Eli joined Total Wine & More in 2014 to lead the company’s Spirits Buying Team. Eli brings a strong background in brand strategy, product development, assortment management, and integrated marketing to the Merchandising team. Previously, Eli led Anheuser-Busch’s craft beer portfolio and was responsible for twelve craft brands, M&A strategy, and led two Super Bowl ads for Budweiser. Prior to Anheuser-Busch, he served as a brand manager at Procter & Gamble and as a store manager at Wal-Mart and Mervyn’s. Eli holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at El Paso and an MBA from Georgetown University.

Jeff Pappas has more than 16 years of experience in the beverage industry. As the National Sales Director of Spirits with The Boelter Companies, Jeff has collected a wealth of product expertise and knowledge specific to promotional initiatives that directly benefit global distilling brands, such as Tito’s, Jim Beam, Pernod Ricard, and Bacardi, among others. Jeff’s dedication to the industry ensures that he is intimately familiar with the newest, up-and-coming trendsthroughout the distilled spirits world. Leveraging Boelter’s more than 90 years of industry experience, along with their global network of suppliers, Jeff’s focus is on providing strategic guidance and a dedicated partnership to distillery brands – both large and small – across an ever-growing breadth of product categories, including barware, glassware, and marketing-specific promotional items.

Kevin Dunbar has over 20 years of experience in the packaging industry. He has worked with bottle and closure manufacturers world wide. In 2007 he became the sales manager for Tapi USA when the company entered the US / Canadian Markets. Tapi manufactures bottle closures in North America, Europe and South America. Tapi’s North American group has produced closures for over 60 years.

Les Ferguson is the National Sales Manager of BSG Distilling. He provides a broad range of practical, technical, and product knowledge to distilleries and BSG support staff. Les has worked in the beverage industry for more than thirty years and has a broad understanding with a variety of products used in the production of many different types of spirits. He believes that experience and commitment to supplying quality ingredients is key for crafting world class spirits. BSG is a full line ingredient supplier for the distilling industry with products for all spirit types.

R. Scott Winters is Co-Founder of The American Spirits Exchange, which provides business-to-business functions for the alcohol industry. Scott is a serial entrepreneur of 15 years following a career as an academic scientist. His ventures have ranged from entertainment, through consumer goods to healthcare. Highlights of his career include the development of the world’s most technologically advanced pediatric cancer center. He has served on the board of directors for multiple entrepreneurial ventures as well as international non-profits. Throughout his career he has published 2 books, over 50 technical articles and popular papers, and amassed over 750 hours of public speaking. Scott received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in two simultaneous programs (Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity and BioInformatics and Computational Biology), received his M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business, and is Phi Beta Kappa.