The Tinley Beverage Co. has appointed beverage industry veteran Richard Gillis to the role of president and chief operating officer, Tinley USA. 

Gillis previously served as president, Tinley Western USA, where he oversaw the buildout of the company’s 20,000 square foot co-packing facility and the launch of several company-branded beverages.

Tinley’s founder and CEO, Jeff Maser, has stepped down from his role as CEO and director and will join the company’s advisory board. Gillis, together with Directors Ted Zittell and Douglas Fulton, have formed an Office of the CEO to manage all corporate activities with company management on an interim basis while a search for a CEO is underway.

Prior to joining Tinley, Gillis served as general manager, Coca-Cola Enterprises for the Southwest U.S. In this capacity, Gillis oversaw thousands of employees in multiple bottling, distribution and sales facilities for one of the company’s largest regional business units. He subsequently served as president of Young’s Market Company, which under his tenure was the second-largest beverage alcohol distributor in the Western U.S. 

With Tinley’s state-of-the-art cannabis beverage facility experiencing increases in capacity utilization, Gillis is now best positioned to leverage his extensive experience with scaled beverage operations to help lead Tinley’s to its next phase of growth.

Maser founded the company in 2015 with a vision to create premium, adult-style beverages that can be enjoyed as alternatives to alcoholic beverages. Working with formulators from the world’s leading beverage alcohol companies over the course of several years, Maser created low-calorie, non-alcoholic versions of popular adult beverages including ready-to-drink Gin & Tonic, Paloma, Moscow Mule and Lime Margarita, as well as multi-serve Coconut Rum, Cinnamon Whisky, Amaretto and Coffee Liqueurs. All of these formulations contain distilled botanicals and non-cannabis-derived botanical terpenes and are non-alcoholic. As non-cannabis-infused formulations, these products are sold in mainstream grocery, c-store and on premise accounts in the United States and Canada. 

The company also sells, or is in the process of manufacturing for sale, cannabis-infused formats through cannabis-licensed manufacturers and distributors.

“Bringing Tinley from my initial vision to its current phase of growth has been an extremely challenging and rewarding journey,” Maser said. “As founder, I built a team of exceptionally experienced beverage executives, knowing that in-depth expertise in manufacturing, logistics, branding and sales would be needed to truly make Tinley’s a market-leading beverage infrastructure and marketing company. Rick has been a key contributor to our growth for nearly three years, and I am confident with him taking on these additional responsibilities. As an advisory board member, I remain committed to helping drive the company’s growth into everything that I and our many followers and investors have continued to believe it could be from day one.”

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