AB Arnett had only been retired for a month when an unexpected opportunity brought her to Heaven Hill. Having previously worked with Chief Information Officer Alan Kamei and Director of Technology Services Sonya Ash, AB was excited to work alongside familiar faces again and joined the team as Director of Analytics Products.

AB’s introduction to Heaven Hill was an immersive one. Spirit Week took place during her second week, giving her an early opportunity to learn about the business, our brands and the people behind them.

Before joining Heaven Hill, AB says she was not much of a spirits drinker. These days, dinner at her house often comes with a little experimentation. She and her family use cocktail recipes on ECHO to find something new to make based on what they have at home, and the favorites earn a spot in AB’s recipe book. She jokes that she now has a “no wine rule” and sticks to spirits.

That curiosity carries into her work, too. AB has spent her career in data and analytics, but the spirits industry has introduced plenty of new things to learn, from control states to machine learning and the many ways data moves across the business.

At the center of her team’s work is Gold Standard Data, an effort to create a trusted, one stop shop for data across Heaven Hill. With information coming from different sources, people can sometimes arrive at different answers to the same question. AB and her team are building a reliable data foundation so everyone can start from the same place, with plans to continue expanding it across the business.

For all the new things AB has learned, one part of Heaven Hill did not take long to understand: the people.

“I love the people,” she says. AB has been struck by how naturally people connect across the company, from members of the Executive Leadership Team chatting casually with employees to colleagues across roles and departments simply enjoying time together. To her, that accessibility reflects a culture where people genuinely care about one another.

Looking ahead, AB is excited to continue building her team and welcoming talent that may be new to the workforce, the spirits industry or Heaven Hill. She is especially eager for the team’s first major Gold Standard Data deliverable and the moment they can see employees putting what they have built to use.

For AB, there is still plenty to learn and plenty to build, but it is the people she gets to do it alongside who have made her experience at Heaven Hill especially meaningful.