Amanda Oborne joined Finnriver Farm & Cidery as CEO in 2024 following 15 years of food system, regenerative agriculture, and investing roles, including as VP of Food, Farms & Fisheries at the non-profit Ecotrust, Executive Director of Oregon Entrepreneurs Network (OEN), and Managing Director of Ideaship, an innovation-focused investment fund. She helped develop a $25M food hub and historic redevelopment in Portland, Oregon, and launched an Ag of the Middle Accelerator supporting independent family farmers, ranchers and fishers in scaling up to serve regional markets. Amanda spent the first 15 years of her career in corporate direct marketing for major brands including Levi Strauss & Co. and Intuit.

Maria Pearman, CPA, CGMA, is GHJ’s Food and Beverage Practice Leader. She has more than 15 years of public accounting experience providing accounting and advisory services to clients. Maria is an expert in the beverage and alcohol industry specializing in internal accounting processes, financial reviews, budgeting, cash flow forecasting, financial strategy and succession planning. Prior to joining GHJ in 2021, Maria built a national practice focused on beverage alcohol clients. Maria sits on the Finance Committee for the Brewers Association, the nation’s largest industry organization for craft brewers. Published by the Brewers Association in 2019, Maria wrote a top-rated book, Small Brewery Finance, to help small businesses run more successful breweries. She has taught courses at the Business of Craft Beer program at the University of Vermont as well as the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States Academy. Maria has been a licensed CPA since 2010.

Kari Williams is the owner, creative director and head cidermaker at Snow Capped Cider. Along with her family she is also a generational high elevation Colorado fruit grower and one of the largest apple growers in Colorado. She has earned a BAcc in Business/Marketing.

Aneel de Albuquerque is the Beverage Manager for the Charleston Wine + Food Festival. Charleston Wine + Food currently produces 100+ events every year in early March and recently began creating year round programming. Aneel works continuously to create meaningful programming, bringing beverage professionals together from around the globe. He started his career working in bars + restaurants in between being on the road as a touring musician / tour manager. After years of touring the globe; he started creating bar programs + managing restaurants in Charleston, SC – ultimately leading to his current position.

Rémi Bauduin has been Scientific Director of the French cider R&D institute IFPC since 2020. Previously, he worked for over 15 years as head of IFPC’s fermentation and cidermaking process team. He also has a strong knowledge of cider apple growing and French cider apple varieties. He came to cider research after a degree in agricultural engineering at AgroParisTech and experience in the cheese industry.

Lily M. Fan was nominated to lead the New York State Liquor Authority by Governor Kathy Hochul and confirmed by the New York State Senate on June 10, 2023. Ms. Fan, the first Asian American woman appointed as a Commissioner of the SLA, has served with the agency since her original confirmation in June of 2018. She is the first woman to head the agency. Ms. Fan, a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School, was born in Hong Kong and speaks fluent Cantonese. Ms. Fan was previously a lawyer at the law firms of Shearman & Sterling LLP and Morrison & Foerster LLP, specializing in white-collar criminal litigation and securities class actions. Ms. Fan also founded Scandobean Productions, a theatrical and film production company, in 2011. In 2019, Ms. Fan won a Tony Award as co-producer of Hadestown for Best New Musical. Ms. Fan is a Member of the Board of Advisors at the Yale School of Drama and a Member of the Yale Law School Fund Board. She is a member of the New York City Bar Association and the National Committee on United States-China Relations.

Sigrid Gertsen-Schibbye started fostering a passion for fermentation early in life, while filling bottles for secondary fermentations in the basement of the family home in Montreal, Canada. After a degree in Microbiology from McGill University, life has taken flight working with Lallemand and living near Niagara Falls and onwards to supporting the UK and Scandinavian markets, always guided by the need to speak about the wonderful world of microbes.

Jen Curs worked in non-cider beverage production before joining the Bauman’s team in early 2020. She completed the CINA Foundation to Cidermaking course and within a couple years was in charge of the Specialty Cider program at Bauman’s. In addition to managing the barrel-aging program, Jen is responsible for all harvest blending as well as post-ferment blends on the farm in Gervais, Oregon. In her spare time, Jen loves foraging for wild mushrooms, cooking and adopting 3-legged dogs and cats.

Brian Wing is Co-Owner and Head Cidermaker of Green Bench Mead & Cider of Saint Petersburg, FL. Opened in 2015, Green Bench seeks to showcase amazing craft cider to drinkers in the Sunshine State. Brian is an ACA Certified Pommelier™ and holds a position as instructor for University of South Florida’s Brewing Arts program where he teaches courses on production to aspiring professional cider and mead makers. Previously, Brian served 6 years on the Board of Directors for the American Mead Makers Association; four years as Treasurer and two as President.

Andy Diacetis graduated from the Fermentation Science program at Oregon State University in 2001. He has spent time working in the brewing, wine, cider and distilled spirits industry. He was the founder of Cascade Wine Services, a mobile crossflow filtration company, and was also a co-founder of 503 Distilling, a canned cocktail company started in 2017. He is now the North American Sales Manager for Lallemand Brewing.