Mine Shaft Brewing

A Team with a legacy of excellence

  • Richard Burnes

    Manager
    Richard brings over eight years of experience with Stroh Brewery. Rich managed marketing functions for nationally distributed Stroh family of brands. Developed and implemented brand advertising creative and media plans, national consumer promotion plans, and regional refund programs. Determined market research needs and formulated research plan. Supervised the design and production of packaging graphics and merchandising materials to support brands.
    Administered process for the development and implementation of new product introductions from initial concept through market launch. Responsibilities included supervising consumer research activities, developing brand positioning strategies, managing packaging, and point-of-sale design and development, and implementing the advertising strategy.
    Rich was responsible for the financial analysis and approval of regional pricing proposals regarding profitability, sales, and consistency with marketing strategy.

  • Ray Klimovitz

    Brewing Advisor
    Ray is currently the President of Klimovitz Brewing Consultants, Inc., doing business in the Wisconsin area, where he acts as Alternating Proprietor (AP) Brewmaster for various beverage clients. His past clients include Sleeman Brewing & Malting (Guelph, Ontario, Canada), City Brewery (LaCrosse, WI), Harpoon Brewery (Boston, MA), Allagash Brewing (Portland, ME), New Century Brewing (Boston, MA), and Slammin’ Sam Beer Co. (Pinehurst, NC). Ray’s beverage experience extends into new product development, as he co-founded IZZE Beverage Co. in Boulder, where he was responsible for product development and production. Ray’s 40-plus years of experience in the beverage industry started at Four Roses Distilling Company in Baltimore, where he held the position of Whiskey Chemist. From there, Ray moved to Carling Brewing Co. in Baltimore where he was Brewing Chemist, QA Manager, Assistant Brewmaster and Brewmaster. Ray’s professional experience includes tenure at Joseph Schlitz Brewing Co (Milwaukee) and The Stroh Brewery Company (Detroit), where he was Corporate Master Brewer.

  • Scott Rozek

    Marketing
    Scott has over 30 years of experience in marketing, market research, new product development and advertising, including 12 years of experience with the Stroh Brewery Company. He was directly involved with coordinating the expansion of the Stroh Brand into 20 western states after the acquisition of Schlitz. Scott was also heavily involved in the brewery’s new product efforts. As brand director for the Stroh’s brand family for three years, he managed annual marketing budgets of $15 to 20MM, and he was responsible for all marketing functions such as brand planning, advertising, packaging, promotions, pricing and research. Since 1994, Scott has been the co-owner of Unisearch Partners, Inc., a custom market research company specializing in integrated quant-qual techniques and qualitative studies. The firm has been an industry leader in Super Bowl ad testing for over 15 years, testing Super Bowl ads for clients like Frito-Lay (Doritos), Anheuser-Busch, and PepsiCo.

  • James Weinberg

    Operations
    James brings 13 years of materials/purchasing management experience from time spent at the Stroh Brewery Co. He purchased over $600MM annually in packaging materials for eight domestic breweries. James brings procurement, inventory control, package development and service levels with 25 major suppliers. He was also responsible for the total logistics of all packaging materials including price negotiation, production quantities, inventory control, warehousing and graphics coordination.

  • Leslie Burnes

    Brand Management Advisor
    Leslie brings in vast experience with New Product and Branding, including 10 years with Stroh Brewery and 8 years with Walt Disney. Leslie started her career with Stroh in pricing and worked her way up as Corporate Pricing Analyst, Field Pricing Analyst, Associate New Products Manager and then Senior Associate Brand Manager, where she was responsible for marketing functions for all the new products. Leslie has supervised new product introductions from initial concept through to the market launch. She developed and implemented brand advertising, creative and media plans, national consumer promotion plans and regional refund programs. She has also managed design and production of package graphics and merchandising materials.

  • Dan Jankowski

    Distribution Advisor
    Dan brings over 30 years of industry management experience to Mine Shaft Brewing. He worked for over 17 years for Stroh, Schlitz and Miller Coors as a district, zone and unit sales manager. In addition, Dan worked on the Distributor side of the business for 18-plus years in positions ranging from Sales Manager, Director of Sales/Operations and General Manager.

  • John Logan

    CFO Manager
    John brings a wealth of career experience as a CPA, CEO and CFO. He started an outsourcing company in 1992 that grew to $12MM in five years and was named one of the Inc. Magazine’s “Fastest Growing Companies” in 1997. John merged the company and became CEO in 2001, then sold his share in 2004. John graduated with a degree in Accounting and spent six years with one of the “Big 8” CPA firms. Afterwards, he spent ten years with two large organizations as CFO and gained experience in operations, mergers and new business creation.

  • TIM A. NEMECKAY

    Manager
    Tim brings to Mine Shaft Brewery a vision and vast experience in the craft beer space in diverse domains like finance, sales and consulting. Tim has been an entrepreneur, advisor, consultant, investor and executive of companies in beverage, auto, banking, green energy, and consumer goods. Tim has extensive involvement in successful new businesses, including capitalization, business development, sales, marketing, branding and PR. He also brings a substantial network of business relationships and executive management.

    • Charlie Whittington

    Business Development
    Charlie brings multiple years of experience in the regional and territory sales and has been a top achiever in all his previous sales management roles. In addition to Charlie’s 7-plus years on professional golf tours that drives our retail, Distributor, and club channel strategies.

  • Ed Benfield

    Consumer Research
    Ed has over 30 years of experience as a professional market researcher on both the client and the supplier sides of the business. He is an expert in consumer research and an accomplished focus group moderator. Ed has been the co-owner and president of Unisearch Partners, a custom marketing research and consulting company since 1994. Ed brings 13 years of direct beer research experience as the manager and director of market research at the Olympia Brewing Company in Washington and the Stroh Brewery Company in Michigan. He has served major clients in the beer industry during his entire 20 years with Unisearch.

  • Bernie Pekor

    International Sales
    Bernie brings 16 years of experience from Stroh Brewery, including Project and Pricing Analyst, National Retail Sales Administration (Puerto Rico) and International Sales and Marketing. Bernie developed and executed sales strategies in Asia, Europe, Australia/New Zealand, Middle East Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. He’s managed international sales reps and planned, directed and coordinated marketing efforts. Bernie expanded private label products in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Brazil, and he has established a joint venture with Rajasthan Breweries, resulting in the first foreign beer to be sold in India.

  • Jay Stevens

    Ambassador Liaison
    Event Management Advisor- Jay brings on pro athletes as product ambassadors into retail, Distributor and club channels. He is also a firefighter and paramedic for Unified Fire Authority and goalie for the Utah Grizzlies.

  • Carson Jackson

    Brewmaster
    Carson has been professionally brewing as Brewmaster for one of the nation’s top craft breweries and has been awarded several medals at the Great American Beer Festival for his outstanding work in the field. Carson currently leads a team overseeing all aspects of craft products and acts as technical manager and project manager for a canning operation and an automated brew house, with multiple fermentation vessels. Carson is responsible for the integrity, quality and timely production of all MSB beers, ales and ciders.