James Forbes co-founded Little Pomona with his wife Susanna in 2015. After 20 years in the wine business, with senior roles in buying, marketing, PR and retail, he fell in love with apples and perry pears and the county of Herefordshire, moving there with Susanna from London in 2014 when they found a quirky house and a small, beautiful orchard. Since then they have been making ciders and perries using low intervention, natural techniques, broadening out in recent years to include quince, damsons, cherries and grapes, all grown within 40 miles of the cidery. Working with a small, talented team, their background in the wider drinks world very much informs and influences their philosophy and approach to production. James is a former chair of the Three Counties Cider & Perry Association. Inspired by CiderCon®, during his tenure, the TCCPA hosted the first CraftCon in 2019.

John Berardino is the Alfa Laval Brewery Systems Global Sales Regional Manager for the United States. Before joining Alfa Laval 16 years ago, John was a customer working in the US and Germany for over 20 years, holding positions in brewing from grain to glass in production and operations management, site design, construction and expansion, equipment evaluation and purchase along with product development and product sales planning. He currently resides in the Philadelphia PA area working with US Beverage customers to improve product quality, optimize production and reduce costs and environmental impacts with less water, energy and carbon footprint to help craft exceptional products such as Hard Cider, NAs, RTDs and Beer. He is a Siebel graduate, member of MBAA since 1988, and happy to join ACA in 2023 and CiderCon® 2024.

Lara Worm, co-founder, CEO, and self-described “Adventure Guide” of Bivouac Ciderworks, has taken an untraditional path to cider. The trial lawyer turned craft beverage entrepreneur who grew up in a multi-generational family restaurant business knows that there are two components to every great product: the ingredients and the story. 

Bivouac Ciderworks, established in 2017, was among the first commercial cideries in the craft-beer mecca of San Diego. Bivouac, telling their story through their active adventure lifestyle brand, set out to make approachable ciders that taste as great at the top of a mountain as they do with a fine meal. Bivouac’s brand, and North Park tasting room & restaurant has received great acclaim since its inception, earning recognition as one of U.S.A. Today’s “10 Best Cideries,” San Diego Magazine’s “best new brewery,” (before there was a cider category), and “Best ‘Alt-Drink’” (still, no cider category). Most recently, Lara was recognized as a “Food & Beverage Pioneer,” in San Diego, for her work introducing a wider audience to the possibilities in craft cider. 

In early 2024, Bivouac will open it’s newest concept, the “Adventure Lodge,” with a grand cider tasting bar and market featuring the finest cider from America and around the world. There, guests can enjoy a curated cider tasting program that leans in to the history, education, apple varietals and regions, and tasting notes found in cider. Lara says “cider is as approachable as beer, but as nuanced as wine,” and she intends to prove it.

Randy Kiyokawa is a third-generation orchardist from Parkdale, Oregon, whose grandfather emigrated from Japan in 1905, and through hard work started farming in Hood River in 1911. After college Randy returned to the family orchard of more than 200 acres. While weathering many challenges, in 1989 Randy removed three acres of 80-year-old pear trees and planted 28 varieties of apples. Over time, customers requested different varieties that could not be found in stores or farmers markets, which has led to his offering now of over 120 varieties of apples. Randy’s diversification efforts expanded to Farmers Markets and direct sales to stores, restaurants, bakeries, schools and CSAs. Randy also credits his 45+ employees – many of whom have been with him for over 25 years — with the high-quality fruit for which Kiyokawa Family Orchards is known.

Mike O’Gorman is an experienced alcoholic beverage attorney with a practice that focuses on alcohol manufacturers. He is an expert in alcohol regulation across all three commodities of alcohol: wine, beer, and spirits. Mike has extensive experience in launching new products, particularly those falling outside traditional commodity and tax definitions. He also has a wide breadth of experience advising clients on federal and state licensing, labeling and advertising of alcohol, alcohol promotions, and excise tax compliance. Mike began his career in private practice before serving as Regulatory Counsel for Craft Brew Alliance, where he served as primary legal counsel to the company’s New Products Development team and innovation business unit, the pH Experiment. He is now a partner at Barnes Beverage Group.

Andrew Beckham is co-owner and winemaker at Beckham Estate Vineyard in Sherwood Oregon. Andrew founded NOVUM Ceramics in 2013 and began producing terra cotta Amphora (NOVUM) for wine, cider, beer, and spirit. He has worked to develop the clay chemistry, forming methodology, and firing with his intimate knowledge of process and materials.

Eric Phillips is the Chief Commercial Officer at Schilling Hard Cider – overseeing both sales & retail teams. Eric has successfully applied the skills gained from his past life as a public school teacher to building a world-class sales organization that has outperformed the industry by a wide margin every year with him at the helm. Eric focuses on putting people first and finding smarter ways of working that often look very different than industry norms. He believes in changing the industry for the better and creating opportunities for people of every background. Over the past two years, Eric has also spearheaded Schilling’s marketing department, elevating it to new heights of excellence. He tirelessly strives for seamless integration and unparalleled communication between sales, marketing, and all other departments, setting the stage for a best-in-class collaboration.

After years working in the music industry, Shannon Edgar founded Stormalong Cider in 2014 from an orchard he relocated to in Massachusetts from Los Angeles. Taking inspiration from the hard cider history in his adopted home of Sherborn, MA, Shannon’s passion for crafting ciders with unique, cider-oriented apples has continued to grow and thrive over the last decade. Just down the street from Stormalong’s original cidery, the remnants of the Holbrook Cider Mill still stand which was advertised as the “World’s Largest Cider Mill” producing over 40,000 barrels annually in the 1890’s. Over the last 9 years, Stormalong has grown into a passionate team of “Cider Geeks” evangelizing cider with a deep appreciation for apples and their craft.

Kait Thornton is a 4th generation orchardist from North Central Washington. She shares her passion for the ins and outs of farm life & how apples/pears are grown to her over 450,000 followers on TikTok. She recently graduated from Washington State University and is on a mission to connect consumers to the food her family produces.

David Glaize is a fourth-generation apple grower in Winchester, VA, and a co-owner of Old Town Cidery. In 2010, Glaize and his brother Philip convinced their dad to plant cider varieties. In 2018, they constructed a processing facility. The juice company, Glaize & Brother Juice Co., provides custom juice blends to cideries, wineries and breweries along the East Coast. The brothers opened Old Town Cidery in 2021 in an effort to keep the family business vertically integrated. Glaize is a member of US Apple, a trade group for apple producers, and hopes to help deepen the relationship between that group and the ACA. He is passionate about consumer education and farmland protection. Glaize serves as the Southern Chair on the board of the ACA.