It was an incredible 40 years in specialty coffee and tea...Started my coffee career after college as a roustabout in a small roaster’s warehouse. I worked my way up in the industry over many years, eventually becoming VP in one of America’s largest publicly traded coffee companies. Finally, on to some top-to-top consulting with stellar coffee companies around the world...What a journey! I’m thankful for every day I spent in the amazing world of coffee and tea!

Provided real-world advice, ideas, and solutions to roasters, retailers, and wholesalers of specialty coffee and tea.

At Farmer Brothers Coffee & Tea (NASDAQ: FARM), I worked closely with the national sales, marketing, implementation, and account management teams to provide invaluable coffee and tea credibility, knowledge, and passion to key sales prospects, dramatically helping drive the company's National Account Division's customer acquisition and sales growth.Of value during the sales process to significant national prospects, I offered credibility and mastery in all aspects of the wholesale and retail specialty coffee and tea businesses, including in-depth knowledge of origins and types, history, cupping, roasting, blending, flavoring, and brewing. I also successfully leveraged my in-depth knowledge of sustainability, including direct trade, fair trade, and organic agricultural principles to help win significant new business.Additionally, I was deeply involved with Farmer Brothers largest national customers to offer them expert perspectives and ideas, provide marketplace & competitor insights, and assist in managing and growing their coffee and tea sales.As a nationally recognized subject matter expert, I integrated closely with the Farmer Brothers marketing team to produce compelling content for sales materials, catalogs, labels, and websites, including writing, blogging, and photography, while also helping generate new product and promotional ideas based on my 35+ years in the coffee and tea industry. I significantly added to the company's product training capabilities, including development and delivery of industry-leading training materials and product mastery certifications to over 800 field representatives.Finally, I represented Farmer Brothers shareholders, employees, and management team as an advocate and board member for several global non-profit coffee organizations.

Prior to the complete integration of CBI into Farmer Brothers, my industry expert role was focused on rapidly growing our sales of specialty coffee and teas by partnering with our top sales people to build customer relationships before, during, and after the sale. This team approach to customer partnerships helped us win "Vendor of the Year" from several of America's leading retail merchants and foodservice operators.

I was responsible for managing all existing products while continually developing new coffees and teas for our own brands and for private label customers. Many of the coffees I led the development of have each sold millions of pounds in the intervening years.