Dee Ford Email & Phone Number

Louisville, Kentucky, United States

Led $8.2M Brand Home 2.0 expansion from start to completion delivering an additional 13k square feet of experiential consumer space including a large event room featuring a premium bar and a breathtaking view of Downtown Louisville, 5 new tasting rooms, expanded retail space and a Bottle Your Own hand’s on Angel's Envy Single Barrel experience. Visitor numbers have grown from 50k to 180k annually under my leadership.

Louisville, Kentucky Area

Led the building and opening of the Angel's Envy Brand Home to position the Angel's Envy distillery experience as the leader in the experiential bourbon tourism market. Within 6 months from hire, built a highly functioning team to create a successful opening resulting in well thought out business best practices for daily operations. Work closely with team, design consultants and production partners to create brand aligned experiences for each and every visitor. Led Project Management for brand home completion with local contractor. Deliver a brand aligned immersive and educational premium experience at each touch point for the guest. 2018- current: #1 Louisville Distillery Experience TripAdvisor and #3 of Things to do in Louisville TripAdvisor.

Versailles, Kentucky

Effectively lead and execute the long term vision and strategy for the Woodford Reserve Homeplace including tourism marketing, consumer experience, ticketing, CRM, retail merchandise/operations, staffing and culinary services. Drive best in class operations within budget while supporting the Woodford Reserve brand objectives to reflect an image of quality and deliver a premium experience. In 2011, began the process of turning the brand home from a bourbon homeplace to a very successful Woodford Reserve branded bourbon tourism operation. I led the team from the "way we were" to the "way we need to be." This included updating retail merchandise, brand home experiential area and culinary program to fully integrate the look and feel of the Woodford Reserve brand. Prior to my leadership, the retail area was a Kentucky craft store with very little Woodford Reserve branded merchandise and the visitor center was not clearly communicating the Woodford Reserve brand messaging. Led the Homeplace during $1.5M renovation in 2014. Guest count doubled from 60K to 120K during my leadership.

Louisville, Kentucky Area

Activate and launch culinary programs, vending and coffee contract operations to deliver unique programs that enhance the experience of over 1,100 employees at Brown-Forman Corporate HQ.Favorably led all sales, marketing and operations of the Bourbon Street Café, B-F Cafeteria, vending and coffee services. Managed food operation budget.Successfully lead all executive catering both on and off site Corporate HQ. Led the management for all events at C-suite Senior leader’s homes.