Scott Katsma is an award-winning cidermaker, passionate innovator, and renowned educator with over a decade of industry experience. As a leader in the craft cider industry, Scott has devoted more than 11 years to helping build Seattle Cider Company into one of the largest regional cider companies in the U.S., where he currently serves as the Brand Development Manager. Scott became Head Cidermaker for Seattle Cider Co. in 2016 and quickly advanced to become the Director of Fermentation and Innovation for Seattle Cider Co., Two Beers Brewing Co., and Sound Craft Seltzer. In these roles, he developed a diverse skill set spanning beverage production and the broader alcohol industry. Under Scott’s guidance, Seattle Cider was awarded the Best Large Cidermaker title at the Great Lakes International Cider and Perry Awards for three consecutive years (2022-2024). Scott has also been a dedicated advocate for the cider community through his work with the Northwest Cider Association. A member of the board of directors since 2017, he served as President from 2020 to 2024.

A former professor of Communication Studies, Dr. J Jackson-Beckham dedicated her academic career to the study of American beer. She is an author, speaker, vocal advocate for the craft beverage community, homebrewer, and Certified Cicerone. In 2018, Dr. J was named the Brewers Association’s first-ever Diversity Ambassador. In 2020, she was named Imbibe Magazine’s Beer Person of the Year. Today, she helps craft beverage organizations develop practices that drive success, build communities, and empower individuals as the Brewers Association Director of Member Resources.

Aaron Sarnoff-Wood is the VP of sales and co-founder of 2 Towns Ciderhouse. Aaron learned to love cider in his travels across Europe. Upon returning to the US he was unable to find craft ciders similar to those he enjoyed found in France, Spain and England and so he began making his own. Together with friend Lee Larsen, the two decided to found 2 Towns Ciderhouse in 2010 with a goal of crafting ciders influenced by European tradition but styled after the Northwest craft beer movement. Today, 2 Towns has grown from humble beginnings to become the largest independently owned cidery in the United States while still producing cider from exclusively fresh-pressed fruit.

Yann Gilles is a French Oenologue and Cidrologue, founder of cider and apple-spirit making consultancy Malus & Vitis, and has 25 years’ experience working in the cider sector. Born in Normandy where he discovered Cider made by his grand-parents, Yann holds an engineering degree in agriculture and food industry from Ecole Supérieure d’Agriculture in Angers and a diploma of Oenologist from Institut Universitaire de la Vigne et du Vin Jules Guyot in Burgundy. Yann launched his own consultancy in 2020 where he partners with cider producers to create apple juice, ciders, perries and spirits using a range of methods. Prior to this, Yann was scientific director at the French R&D cider institute www.ifpc.eu for 10 years, and before that he worked for more than a decade in a professional organization for agriculture, consulting to 50 cideries and leading a team of oenologists working on cider.

Scott Ramsey is the Executive Director of the New York Cider Association, a role he started in March of 2020. He brings over 30 years of corporate and non-profit marketing, communications, event production, and strategic leadership experience to his work in promoting, advocating, and building markets for New York Cider. Previous leadership roles include work with Fortune 500 premium brands such as MetLife, MasterCard, Bayer Pharmaceuticals, Phillips Van Heusen, Samsung and S&P Global. His creative marketing work has been published in such publications as the New York Times, GQ Magazine, and Vanity Fair and he has won numerous Telly, AVA Digital and Hermes awards. Scott also has a musical theatre background and was awarded Best Director in the West Village Musical Theatre Festival and was nominated as “Producer of the Year” by Special Events Magazine. Scott is also the Executive Producer and Owner of Fort Beacon Studios and has recently launched his new social media talk show video series, “That Perfect Day.” He is also recently certified as a Certified Cider Professional and a Dutchess County Certified Tourism Ambassador.

Jana has been a champion of craft beverage for over fifteen years. She is a cider judge, Certified Pommelier, founding member of Pomme Boots Society and published category writer. Deeply passionate about cider and community, Jana was the inaugural recipient of PICC’s NW Cider Leadership Award in 2019. She currently serves as Program Manager for Northwest Cider Association.

Nichola Hall has a Ph.D. in Yeast Physiology and a BSc(Hons) in Microbial Biotechnology. Dr. Hall has held various positions in the wine industry: Director of Microbiology at Bronco Wine Company, Ceres, CA (2002-2007), Technical Consultant at Vinquiry, Inc., Windsor, CA (2007-2009) and is currently at Scott Laboratories, Petaluma, CA employed as General Manager for the Fermentation and Enology Department (2009-present). From 2009-present, Dr. Hall is a co-winemaker at Mathew Bruno Wines and is very involved in the American Society of Enology and Viticulture serving as president in 2016-2017. She is a past chair of the Unified Wine and Grape Symposium and a long-standing member of the AVF grant management Enology committee. Since 2019 she has taught the Quality Control and Analysis in winemaking course as part of the UC Davis’s winemaking certificate program.

Brighid O’Keane is the Executive Director of the Cider Institute of North America (CINA), a global provider of cider production education. She came to cider from the wine industry, where she worked in support of sustainable winegrowing education and certification in the Pacific Northwest. Brighid has nearly two decades of experience in nonprofit organizational development, primarily in the fields of sustainable food systems and active transportation. She is an advisor to the Specialty Tea Alliance and returns as often as possible to her family’s rice farm in Northeastern Thailand.

Tom Oliver of Oliver’s Cider and Perry is a cider & perry maker and farmer in Ocle Pychard, Herefordshire in the UK. He grows many varieties of cider apple and perry pear and produces a wide range of ciders and perries from his own fruit, as well as cider apples and perry pears from a select group of partner farmers and orchardists in the county. The ciders and perries are made from 100% fresh pressed fruit, fermented spontaneously by wild yeasts, emphasising a very traditional approach of seasonality and vintage but utilising an imaginative approach to blending and a cautious use of technology and science where appropriate. The co-ferments with Jonny Mills of Mills Brewing have become some of the most widely anticipated releases in the UK. Tom is also a partner in The London Cider House at Borough Market. A cider showcase in the thriving market in central London. He is also the co-founder of the annual tasting of fine cider in the UK “The Cider Salon” in Bristol. Tom rediscovered the long lost “Coppy” perry pear some 25 years ago and is a founder member of the Slow Food Presidium “Three Counties Perry”.

Seven years into her career as a professional cidermaker, Christine’s company Bauman’s Cider has four consecutive titles of Mid-sized Cidery of the Year at both of the most prestigious cider competitions in the US. She is a fifth generation farmer, growing apples and making them into cider in the beautiful Willamette Valley, Oregon. Christine is on the Board of Directors for both the American Cider Association and the Cider Institute of North America. She is driven by an intense passion to move the bar upwards in both supply of and demand for cider, increasing access for makers and consumers to great fruit, fair markets and ever increasing quality of ciders. She is always dragging around her family and friends, in search of new favorite ciders and producers, tirelessly scouring the globe for the next perfect glass of apple-fermented magic.