“I was hired February 18, 2019, as Heaven Hill’s Regional Manager – Texas after 14+ years at Southern Glazer’s and 17 in the hospitality industry. Everyone always spoke of Heaven Hill as one of the best suppliers to work with and for but there was rarely an opening. Thankfully, the timing was right. The Texas RM position was challenging, but a great team of hungry new people and experienced veterans made it rewarding and we were able to take Texas to a higher level of success. I have the utmost respect for our Regional Managers and part of the impetus for pursuing my next role was to help make them more effective in theirs.

Due in large part to the expansion of our partnership with Southern Glazer’s in the west, the Commercial Development Manager – Strategic Partnerships role was created to help manage the communications, systems, processes, and opportunities for synergies between our two companies. I remember reading the job description and thinking, ‘Holy smokes, that job is me.’ I moved into the Commercial Development role in May 2021. Because it was a brand-new position, John Smart and I built the duties, projects, and responsibilities from scratch. Over the next 20 months, the scope of the position expanded beyond the original intent. Meanwhile, John Morrison’s new role was running a similar course. In January 2023, there was reorganization that created Sales Planning as its own team, and I was moved into the Director, Sales Planning role.

There are two cards in our Spirited Commitment deck from the ‘Make an Impact’ section that sum up my 4+ years at Heaven Hill. I tried to consistently ‘display initiative and take action’ and Heaven Hill leadership rewarded that initiative and action by, ‘Trust(ing) and empower(ing) others (Me) to make decisions.’ It is an exciting time to be a part of a growing and continuously improving Heaven Hill and fulfilling to work for a company that values ideas and people as highly as their brands. 88 years and it feels like we are just getting started.”

“I joined Heaven Hill in October of 2021 as a Sr. Human Resource Business Partner supporting Sales, Marketing and Finance. I had spent the last 15 years in the Talent Development focus of HR. I remember telling Emma when I was talking to her about the HRBP role that if she wanted someone to primarily conduct investigations or intimately know employment law, she shouldn’t consider me for the position; however, if she was looking for someone to focus on getting results through strategic partnerships while coaching and developing leaders, then I thought I could be a good fit! Lucky for me she said the latter and I was hired!

The HRBP model was new to Heaven Hill and as a way to relate this new model to the business I explained it like the three-tier system. The Centers of Excellence in HR (Total Rewards, Talent Acquisition, and Talent Development) were the suppliers, I (the HRBP) was the distributor, and Sales, Marketing and Finance were the retailers. As an HRBP, I gained invaluable insight into the business as well as opportunity to rapidly form relationships employees.

In November of 2022 I was presented with the opportunity to lead the Talent Development team as the Director of Talent Development. As the Talent Development team designs programs and processes for the organization, we are able to lean on the relationships I built as an HRBP to get guidance and feedback on how to be successful. As a Center of Excellence (a supplier) I have a much better understanding of what the organization (the retailers) need and want!  The HRBP position provided an invaluable perspective that I needed to be successful in the Talent Development role. As you consider your future at Heaven Hill, I encourage you to think through opportunities that could expand your perspective to help make you more successful!”​​​​​​​

“My first role at Heaven Hill was working on internal communications (IC), as a member of our corporate communications team. I helped establish an infrastructure for communications inside the walls of Heaven Hill, streamlining communications amongst departments, facilitating communications from leadership to employees, managing our intranet platform, among many other corporate projects. At the time, my role was new to the company, and I was the first person working in full-time capacity on IC. I loved my position, my teammates, my manager—and I loved building a foundation for something so integral to the culture of our organization.

After three years in my IC role, I transitioned to a marketing-driven role on the bourbon brand team, working specifically on packaging projects, content marketing, and overall brand management for Heaven Hill Distillery and Elijah Craig Bourbon. I will not lie, I was extremely hesitant to make the transition to a new role, because, simply, I loved what I was doing; but I knew it was time for me to take on a challenge, thus growing my career and experience at Heaven Hill (it’s a jungle gym – not a ladder, right 😊?). I knew I had co-workers who believed in me, and that I believed in myself!

Today, I am the Brand Manager for the Elijah Craig portfolio and I’m honored to be in my position. I have learned SO much and am passionate about my everyday work. My overall understanding of the business and our industry at large has grown immensely, and I have the best co-workers. I couldn’t be prouder of myself for taking the risk when I did!”

“I started at Heaven Hill in March 2013 as the Finance/Accounting Manager Visitor Centers. For the first five years, I was involved in the opening of the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience, implementing new point of sale and inventory management systems, creating and implementing new controls, developing budgets and creating monthly reporting packs. I worked closely with Visitor Center leadership in developing and implementing the operation strategies for both the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience and the former Bourbon Heritage Center (now the Heaven Hill Bourbon Experience). Before I transitioned to a new role, I was involved in the exploratory work of what is now the newly opened Heaven Hill Bourbon Experience. That was an exciting time to see something come to life that started in a brain storming session I participated in.

In 2019, I was promoted to Corporate Accounting Manager. This exposed me to all the moving parts of the entire company instead of focusing on just the Visitor Centers. In this role, I was responsible for the accounting functions leading to the consolidation for the financial reporting of Heaven Hill’s US and International entities. In addition, I led the annual audit, maintained the IFS accounting module and was the accounting lead on the acquisition team for Black Velvet. As the Corporate Accounting Manager, I worked with my team to reduce the monthly close cycle from an average of 16 workdays to 9-10. Having results available to the business in a timely manner was very impactful to many areas and we were excited to be able to deliver this consistently.

This past year I was promoted to Senior Manager Finance Transformation.  In this role I will focus on continuous improvement of the finance team. In my prior roles I learned that I really enjoy and have had much success in taking chaos and creating structure and process.  This role will provide plenty of opportunities for that as I’m currently focused on integrating Samson & Surrey to IFS and will be busy with the IFS reimplementation for the next couple of years.  The thing I have loved most about my time at Heaven Hill in the various roles is that I’ve always felt challenged but supported and trusted by leaders to who have always given me the tools I need to succeed.”

“I kicked off my career at Heaven Hill in the marketing department in 2011, as a Brand Specialist. I had the pleasure of working on varies Brand Teams which helped gain tremendous knowledge on the portfolio that Heaven Hill offers.

During the seven years I worked in marketing, I was promoted to Senior Brand Specialist. I purchased many items related to special pack programs and point of sales materials. These years called for many hours of commuting to and from Bardstown, which is homebase for me. This was not just any commute, we had a ‘commute group’ from Bardstown to the Hanover Office, where we sang carpool karaoke, ate many snacks, and shared endless laughs. This is where Heaven Hill stands out, it is a place where people become more than co-workers, they become family.

The opportunity of working on special packs and production daily in my marketing role soon made for a smooth internal transition where I joined the supply chain team in my current role of Buyer/Planner. These last 12 years have been amazing, and I am so thankful to continue to ‘Work Together to Win” with awesome co-workers.”

“I began my employment at Heaven Hill Brands in April of 2005, back when we had an order entry department. I worked with two other employees, where our day consisted of entering purchase orders into the system, ALL day long! I stayed in this position for six years. Our export team needed help in their area, and I took a lateral move to that department where I typed various documents including bills of ladings, TTB forms, and other government documents. This was back in the day when we typed those documents on an actual typewriter! I stayed in that position a few years.

At some point, a bourbon Brand Specialist position opened in our marketing department. This would have been a promotion for me, so I applied, and I got the job! I believe I was one of the first people to ever be promoted from within. That’s when I really learned the ins and outs of the business. I stayed on the bourbon team for about five years until I was made aware of an opening back in Bardstown as a Customer Service/Traffic Coordinator. This position was a promotion and closer to home. I really missed the customer service part of the job so luckily, I was able to come back to Bardstown and fulfill that role. I stayed in this position for three years or so. At the end of 2018, I was promoted to Customer Service Supervisor where I oversaw the daily operations of the domestic customer service team. Right after the crazy pandemic year, I was then promoted to Customer Service Manager where I now manage the daily operations of both the domestic and export department.

I have been at Heaven Hill 18 years as of this week! Learning the Bardstown side of the business, then seeing the marketing perspective, I was able to fully understand why we do programs like special packs, new labels, etc. and the importance of those types of programs. I also see how those programs affect our production teams. It has been great to learn both worlds! What I love the most is working with so many good people along the way. I have developed many friendships from my Heaven Hill journey and that means a lot to me. Time flies when you’re having fun!”