Vice President, Marketing – Indiana, RNDC
2014 – 2018
Recruited to architect and launch the first Marketing Division for the Indiana market and one of the first for RNDC across the nation. Successfully integrated the function into the broader company structure, scaling the department to a high-performing team of 35+ professionals.
Key Contributions:
Division Launch & Integration: Built the state’s first-ever marketing infrastructure, establishing cross-functional workflows that aligned marketing strategy with Sales and Supply Chain operations. Increased inventory turns and improved spend efficiency, consistently generating budget surpluses.
Market Leadership: Delivered five consecutive years of comparable market share gains through optimized supplier partnerships, sales collaboration, and data-driven programs.
Operational Excellence: Increased inventory turns and drove spend efficiency, consistently delivering results under budget and generating annual surpluses.
Change Management: Steered the organization through large-scale transitions, including major supplier shifts, complex RFPs, and enterprise system launches.
Nonprofit Board Leadership
Board of Trustees, Indianapolis Zoo
Trustee: 2020 – Present
Advisor: 2016 – 2019
I have been involved with the Indianapolis Zoo for over a decade, first as an advisor and later as a member of the Board of Trustees. My work has focused on supporting strategic initiatives, enhancing fundraising efforts, and helping strengthen community and corporate partnerships. This organization has played an important role in my life, and I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to its conservation mission and long-term impact.
Key Contributions:
Supported strategic planning and leadership initiatives.
Helped strengthen relationships with corporate sponsors and community partners.
Played an active role in expanding and elevating Zoobilation, the Zoo’s signature fundraising event.
Contributed to conservation-focused efforts locally and globally through ongoing board service.
Earlier Career Roles
Farm Marketer – Cargill
2013 – 2014
Advised grain producers on risk management strategies for the world’s largest private company.
Key Contributions:
Exceeded all fiscal-year goals through strong relationships and consultative selling.
Provided risk management solutions across multiple commodity asset types.
Developed competitive insights and market analytics.
Marketing Manager – Bacardi / Rémy Cointreau (RNDC)
2011 – 2013
Managed a $45M portfolio and drove financial performance with strategic discipline.
Key Contributions:
Eliminated an inherited significant budget deficit within 11 months.
Strengthened supplier relationships and marketing transparency.
Built strategic plans aligned with sales goals and financial targets.
FP&A, Business Planning, and Financial Manager Roles – RNDC / NWS
2007 – 2011
Key Contributions:
Built statewide financial plans, pricing models, and sales forecasts.
Led major division transitions and helped retain key team members during restructurings.
Contributed to securing major supplier portfolio’s through RFPs telling our story using data insights.
Buyer – Target Corporation
2004 – 2005
Managed a $250M Home Improvement business in a Fortune 50 retail environment.
Key Contributions:
Led product development, vendor partnerships, and pricing strategy.
Achieved lowest rain checks in division history as Advertising Captain.
Managed a large vendor portfolio, including Fortune 500 companies.
Senior Business Analyst & Business Analyst – Target Corporation
2001 – 2004
Key Contributions:
Developed a safety stock optimization model estimated to generate $50M in incremental sales annually.
Improved forecasting accuracy and import penetration.
Delivered record profits through data-driven inventory strategies.
Entrepreneurship & Early Leadership
Finstad Grant of Entrepreneurship – Roofing Company Founder
Founded and operated a roofing business through St. Olaf’s entrepreneurship program.
Key Contributions:
Built and ran a full-scale service business in a single summer.
Learned core leadership, operations, and customer service skills.
Co-Founder – St. Olaf Alumni Partnership
Connected students with alumni for internships, recruiting, and mentoring.
Key Contributions:
Organized mock interviews with executives for real-time coaching.
Hosted CEO-led events, including Greg Page of Cargill.
Strengthened the college’s professional network.
Education
Bachelor of Arts, Economics — St. Olaf College
A 20+ year career leading teams, developing people, and building long-term value.
Career Overview
I’ve spent more than two decades leading teams across Sales, Marketing, Commercial Finance, FP&A, Strategy, and Organizational Transformation. My career spans Fortune 50 retail, global commodities, the wine and spirits industry, entrepreneurship, and nonprofit board leadership.
Much of my leadership experience was built during my years at RNDC in Indiana, where I played key roles in shaping commercial finance, sales strategy, and statewide marketing performance. These years helped define my approach to leadership, problem solving, and long-term business stewardship.
Across every role, I’ve helped organizations navigate change, improve performance, build strong cultures, and create lasting value. I love leading people, developing talent, solving complex problems, and building systems that help companies thrive.
A Uniquely Intense Operating Environment
Much of my professional growth occurred during an unusually volatile and transformative period in the Indiana wine and spirits market. Over the course of my 17 years with Republic National Distributing Company and National Wine & Spirits (merged with RNDC in 2009) in Indiana, the organization gained and lost more than $1 billion in supplier revenue, an amount exceeding two times our average annual revenue during that period. An exceptionally unique experience that provided an outstanding environment to learn leadership and change management.
This volatility was driven by a combination of regulatory change, the entry of Southern Wine & Spirits into Indiana (and its subsequent merger with Glazer), widespread national supplier consolidations, and repeated large scale realignments across the industry. In addition to national shifts, the market experienced numerous Indiana specific supplier decisions, particularly earlier in my career.
As a result, I was deeply involved leading dozens of major supplier RFPs, large-scale supplier transitions, and repeated sales organization redesigns. This work required constant recalibration of route to market strategies, hiring and workforce reductions, leadership restructuring, and end-to-end onboarding and off-boarding of suppliers in a highly regulated environment. The pace of change was relentless, often painful, and extraordinarily instructive.
Over this period, I worked with and sold products from more than 85% of all wine and spirits suppliers by dollar volume in the United States, an experience that provided rare exposure to nearly every commercial model, brand strategy, and route to market approach in the industry.
Living inside this level of sustained disruption shaped how I think about leadership, change management, organizational design, and long-term value creation. It reinforced the importance of clarity during uncertainty, disciplined decision making under pressure, and deep respect for the people carrying organizations through change. Those lessons continue to inform how I operate today as an owner, advisor, and long term steward of businesses.
Below is an overview of my professional journey…
Recent Leadership Roles
Vice President, Wine Sales – Indiana, RNDC
2020 – 2025
I stepped into this role at the onset of COVID-19, leading a statewide wine business during one of the most disruptive periods in industry history. With thousands of customers closed overnight and teams working in difficult conditions, my focus was safety, clarity, stability, and helping people succeed. My work in Indiana has shaped much of my leadership philosophy and reinforced my belief that strong teams, shared ownership, and long-term thinking create lasting value.
Key Contributions:
Led statewide Wine Sales organization through pandemic-driven volatility.
Implemented a unified performance dashboard integrating inventory, budgets, KPIs, and monthly goals.
Strengthened planning disciplines across Sales, Finance, and Marketing.
Improved team culture through coaching, clarity, and role alignment.
Achieved five consecutive years of comparable market share gains in partnership with suppliers and sales teams.
Director, Commercial Finance – Indiana, RNDC
2018 – 2020
I was one of the first Commercial Finance leaders hired at RNDC, charged with building the function for Indiana. This included creating new processes, developing new analytics, and aligning multiple teams around strong financial and operational performance.
Key Contributions:
Built and led a high-performing Commercial Finance team; all team members later promoted into expanded roles.
Developed a bottom-up/top-down FP&A process used across Sales, Marketing, and Finance.
Implemented disciplined T&E budgeting and visibility across departments.
Led statewide transition to the Vistaar pricing platform, validating millions of transactions across 10,000+ SKUs.
Created item-level Net Income analytics that transformed pricing and strategy decisions.
Achieved three consecutive years of comparable market share gains in partnership with Sales and suppliers.
Delievered 96% net income growth within two years while improving supplier and customer profitability.