When the calendar turns over to 2025 in a number of weeks, the Brewers Affiliation has introduced the appointment of Bart Watson to President and Chief Govt Officer (CEO) of the commerce affiliation. This comes on the information from July 2024 that Bob Pease, present President and CEO of the Brewers Affiliation, would retire in early 2025 as soon as his successor is employed and in place.
Watson has been with the Brewers Affiliation since 2013 and is the present Vice President of Technique and Membership after spending a few years because the group’s Chief Economist. He’s well-known within the brewing business and can try to make use of this leverage in sustaining and hopefully increasing the commerce group. Nevertheless it won’t be a simple activity at hand as gross sales of craft beer has remained flat at finest over the previous few years.
“Bart’s in-depth understanding of the craft beer business and panorama and his decade-plus of expertise throughout the Brewers Affiliation makes him uniquely poised to step into the president and CEO position on day one with a strategic imaginative and prescient and plan,” mentioned Leah Cheston, board chair. “The board of administrators is worked up for the following chapter and appears ahead to working with Bart to chart the trail ahead for our members and our business.”
The Brewers Affiliation Board of Administrators confirmed Watson’s choice at their December 12 board assembly in Atlanta after conducting a nationwide recruitment course of through government search company Kittleman & Associates. His begin date as president and CEO will probably be January 6, 2025. Watson will succeed Bob Pease, who will retire from the group on January 3.
In his new place main the Brewers Affiliation, Watson will deal with legislative and regulatory points impacting unbiased craft breweries and producers, champion their voice within the media and throughout industries, oversee the event of occasions and assets to learn member companies and help the board’s ongoing growth as a strategic governing physique.
Previous to becoming a member of the Brewers Affiliation in 2013, Watson was a visiting assistant professor on the College of Iowa Division of Political Science, a postdoctoral analysis fellow on the Berkeley Roundtable on the worldwide financial system, and a College of California Berkeley Faculty of Public Well being lecturer. He’s a graduate of Stanford College and holds grasp’s and PhD levels in political science from the College of California, Berkeley.
“I’m honored to be chosen to guide the Brewers Affiliation, and I stay up for constructing on the sturdy basis laid by the leaders earlier than me,” mentioned Watson. “Craft has been going by means of a tough interval and I’m dedicated to discovering methods to assist our members navigate these challenges. Our members are extremely revolutionary and adaptable entrepreneurs, and I’m able to work with them and for them to help their companies and convey pleasure again to the class.”
Time will inform how Watson’s management will deliver collectively craft brewers and see a market that can provide a bit extra hope than the business is at the moment experiencing.
About The Writer
DJ
D.J. is a Portland, Oregon based mostly author that spent his adolescence within the Midwest. With over 25 years below his belt of consuming beer at festivals throughout America and the world, he has developed a robust appreciation and understanding of craft beer and the business that surrounds it. He could be present in any of the nice breweries or beer bars that make Portland the most effective beer metropolis on the planet. His writing can be discovered within the archives of Northwest Brewing Information and could be adopted on Twitter and Instagram at @hopapalooza.
