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Who We Are

The Beam Global Spirits & Wine executive team leads the charge in “Building brands people want to talk about."  This team includes:

Bruce Carbonari
Interim President & Chief Executive Officer, Beam Global Spirits & Wine
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Fortune Brands, Inc.
Bruce Carbonari is the interim president and CEO of Beam Global Spirits and Wine. He is also the chairman and CEO of Fortune Brands, the $8 billion consumer products company with premier brands including Jim beam, Sauza, Courvoisier, Titleist, Moen and Master Lock.
 
A veteran leader of major operations of Fortune Brands, Bruce was elected CEO effective January 2008 and chairman of the board as of October 2008.  He served as president and chief operating officer throughout 2007. From 2000 through 2006, he led the company’s largest business unit, most recently as president & chief executive officer of Fortune Brands Home and Hardware LLC.  During his leadership, the home and hardware unit’s annual sales doubled to more than $4.5 billion.
 
Bruce previously led the company’s largest single brand, Moen.  He served as president of Moen from 1990 until 1997, becoming the chief executive officer in 1995.  In 1998, he took an additional responsibility as the leader of the Kitchen & Bath group of Fortune Brands while continuing to serve as chairman and CEO of Moen.
 
Bruce earned his bachelor’s degree in finance and accounting from Boston College and his master’s degree in management sciences from Hartford Graduate Center, an affiliate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.  
 
He currently serves as chairman of the policy advisory board of the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, as well as on the board of RPM, Inc.

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A. Rory Finlay
SVP & Chief Marketing Officer
Rory Finlay was appointed senior vice president and chief marketing officer (CMO), Beam Global Spirits & Wine, Inc., in January 2007.  A consumer brands marketing veteran with more than two decades of global business experience, he leads the company's marketing function globally, bringing to life the company's vision for Building Brands People Want to Talk About.

Mr. Finlay drives global brand strategy and brand behavior and oversees marketing execution for Beam Global's world-class portfolio of brands.  In his role as CMO, Mr. Finlay also works collaboratively with Beam Global's commercial, sales and operational entities around the world.

Prior to joining Beam Global Spirits & Wine, Inc., Mr. Finlay spent almost twenty years with the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, one of the world's most prominent confectionary companies, where he played a key management role.

Starting in 1987 as an intern, Finlay held various global positions over the years including senior director, U.S. marketing; senior director, global branding; and most recently, vice president & general manager of new confectionary brands.

A graduate of the University of Leeds, Finlay also earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University in Chicago in 1988.

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Donard P. Gaynor
SVP & Managing Director, International
Donard Gaynor was appointed managing director, international, Beam Global Spirits & Wine, Inc. in September 2003.  An industry veteran with more than two decades of global business experience, Gaynor oversees all international business interests for the company, from commercial and marketing operations to strategic partnership development. Gaynor leads the organizations international senior leadership team. He also chairs the board of Maxxium Holdings, the global sales and distribution arm for Beam Global.

Prior to joining Beam Global Spirits & Wine, Inc., Gaynor was senior vice president and chief financial officer for The Seagram Spirits & Wine Group, where he managed international financial operations. In addition, Gaynor played a key management role in the sale of Seagram's global business to Diageo and Pernod-Ricard. Prior to his spirits and wine experience, Gaynor also served as a partner in the New York office of Price Waterhouse Coopers.

Gaynor attended the Sligo Institute of Technology.  He also attended advanced management programs at INSEAD and the University of Western Ontario and is also a Certified Public Accountant. 

Gaynor has been a member of the Scottish organization, Keepers of the Quaich since 1997 and was inducted as Master Keeper in October 2007.

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Ian Gourlay
SVP, Operations & Supply Chain
Ian Gourlay, senior vice president, operations & supply chain, joined Beam Global Spirits & Wine, Inc. in August 2005. Mr. Gourlay leads the company's spirits manufacturing, operations and supply chain function.  He is responsible for all production and plants, and for identifying effective and efficient ways to deliver the highest-quality products to customers and consumers worldwide.

Mr. Gourlay gained considerable experience in directing global supply chain and procurement functions while working at the former Allied Domecq PLC. There, he held several positions, most recently serving as senior vice president of global operations. Mr. Gourlay also spent time at Allied Distilleries Ltd. as managing director, and with Hiram Walker & Sons as president of North American Operations.  Prior to joining Allied Domecq, Mr. Gourlay spent 15 years in the brewing industry, most notably with Bass Brewers, in production, supply chain and commercial roles.

Gourlay holds a degree in Science and a post-graduate diploma in Brewing and Distilling from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. He is also a fellow of the Institute of Logistics.

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Robert Probst
SVP & Chief Financial Officer

Robert Probst, chief financial officer, joined Beam Global Spirits & Wine, Inc. in September 2008.  Mr. Probst leads the company’s financial, accounting and reporting function globally.  He is responsible for directing the company’s overall financial operations and accounting practices while overseeing all planning, reporting, measurement, compliance and strategy activities. 
 
Prior to joining Beam Global, Mr. Probst served as vice president, finance, strategy and business development at Baxter International, a global healthcare company.  Probst was also with Diageo for eight years in a series of significant leadership roles that included chief financial officer of global supply, assistant treasurer and director of mergers and acquisitions.  He was also with The Pillsbury Company for four years as a finance manager, plant controller and senior financial analyst.
 
A graduate of Duke University, Probst received his MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

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Keith McLeod
SVP & Chief Information Officer
Keith McLeod is chief information officer for Beam Global Spirits & Wine, Inc., responsible for the company's global information technology systems and operations.  A key function of his role is to lead the company's global business change program to augment and streamline business processes through the implementation of SAP resulting in enhanced efficiency, consistency and reporting of real time data. 

Prior to joining Beam Global in August 2006, McLeod held a number of senior positions in the beverage and technology industries, including chief information officer and senior vice president for Diageo North America.  While in this position, he played a leading role in a series of mergers and acquisitions, including the merger between Guinness and GrandMet that resulted in the formation of Diageo PLC.  More recently, Mr. McLeod headed Elise Consulting, an independent systems consultancy, focusing on business-led IT strategy.  Previous to that, he was global president & European CEO for eSkye Solutions Inc., a leading software company serving the global beverage industry.

McLeod is a graduate of High Wycombe University in Great Britain.

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William Newlands
SVP, U.S. Commercial Development
Bill Newlands was appointed Senior Vice President, U.S. Commercial Development in January 2008. In this capacity, Bill is responsible for growing Beam Global’s brands and realizing its Vision of Building Brands People Want to Talk About.

Included in his list of responsibilities is oversight for all U.S. regional marketing and commercial activation endeavors, sales training, liaison between Beam Global, Future Brands LLC and distributor relationship management.

Newlands joined Beam Global Spirits & Wine, Inc. from Beam Wine Estates where he was named president in July 2005. Newlands led the top-five super-premium U.S. wine company with sales approaching three million cases annually and premier brands such as Clos du Bois, the number two super-premium U.S. wine brand, Geyser Peak, Wild Horse, Buena Vista, William Hill and Gary Farrell. Having built up the business, Bill helped facilitate and close the sale of Beam Wine Estates to Constellation Brands in December 2007.

Prior to Beam Wine Estates, Newlands was President and CEO of Allied Domecq Wines NA where he led the company in a new strategic direction focused on becoming a leading global wine business.

Newlands has also served as President and CEO of Wine.com; President and CEO of the North American Still and Sparkling Wine Group of Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy's; and Vice President of Marketing at Ernest & Julio Gallo.

Newlands graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and received his MBA from Harvard Business School.

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Florence Pramberger
SVP, Human Resources
Florence Pramberger was appointed senior vice president of human resources for Beam Global Spirits & Wine, Inc. in December 2007.  Pramberger leads the company’s human resources function globally.

Prior to joining Beam Global, Pramberger was at Campbell Soup Company where she served as senior vice president of human resources, responsible for building the talent pipeline, maximizing organizational effectiveness and increasing employee engagement of the $7 billion consumer packaged goods company. 

Pramberger spent 24 years at Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, Inc. where she was head of human resources for the global spirits and wine business which had operations in more than 100 countries and 9,000 employees.  Pramberger led the charge in creating human resources strategies aligned with Seagram’s business priorities by instituting programs for leadership selection, assessment and development designed to build a high-performance culture.

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Kenton R. Rose
SVP, CAO & General Counsel
Kenton R. Rose has been Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Chief Administrative Officer and Secretary for Beam Global Spirits & Wine, Inc. since 2001.  Mr. Rose is responsible for oversight of the company's legal, regulatory, and external affairs strategies and initiatives, and also for company administration. 

His previous experience includes almost fifteen years at Fortune Brands, Inc. where a significant portion of his time was devoted to Beam Global's legal and business issues.  During that time, Mr. Rose held several positions including Vice President, Associate General Counsel & Assistant Secretary, and Associate General Counsel.  Rose also worked as an Associate Attorney for Chadbourne & Parke and Day, Berry & Howard, corporate law firms in the Metro New York area.

Rose is a graduate of Lawrence University and earned his Juris Doctor at Boston University and his Masters in Government at Harvard University.

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Chris Swonger
SVP, Corporate Affairs
Chris Swonger was appointed Senior Vice President of corporate affairs for Beam Global Spirits & Wine, Inc. in July 2005. Swonger oversees the company's global strategy for government affairs, industry affairs, trade relations and corporate communications.  He promotes and represents the company's global interests on all public policy and industry trade relations matters.

Prior to joining Beam Global, Swonger served as senior vice president of corporate affairs for Allied Domecq, North America, where he led the company's North American corporate affairs operations overseeing all government affairs, trade relations, internal and external communications while serving on its North American executive committee.

Swonger was a senior lobbyist for UST, Inc. and prior to that, worked at the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Swonger is a graduate of Texas Tech University.

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