Robert Klugman

Senior Advisor, First Beverage Group

Rob joined First Beverage in 2006 after holding senior roles at Coors and Molson Coors for well over two decades. He is widely recognized as one of the country's leading authorities on the beer business.

Following a stint in advertising in Chicago, Rob joined Coors as Director of Marketing in 1979. After heading up a number of functions at Coors, in 1993 Rob became responsible for the company's M&A strategic direction, both domestic and global. At the same time, he founded a distributor network function, which had the mandate of directing the evolution of the company's U.S. wholesaler landscape. In this position, he drove significant vertical and horizontal consolidation of the network. He oversaw this function until shortly before his retirement from Molson Coors, as Chief Global Strategy Officer, in 2005. He continued to consult to Molson Coors through the MillerCoors merger in mid-2007. (He led, on behalf of both prospective partners, transitional work on distributor matters for the proposed venture.) Rob continues to consult to various parties in the beer business.

During his tenure at Coors, Rob became very knowledgeable about wholesaler economics and practices and quite familiar with many individual wholesaler owners. He advises First Beverage Group on industry developments and investment opportunities.

Rob is a Trustee of the Rose Community Foundation, an organization that supports efforts to improve the quality of life throughout the Greater Denver community through its endowed grantmaking programs, and by advising and assisting donors who wish to make thoughtful charitable investments to better the community. He is also a Regional Board Chair with the Anti-Defamation League.

Rob graduated magna cum laude from Amherst College and was elected Phi Beta Kappa. He earned his M.B.A. from Harvard and was named a Woodrow Wilson fellow.

Rob and his wife, Kathy, live in Denver. His hobbies include reading, skiing, and golfing.

Bump Williams

Founder, Bump Williams Consulting

Bump Williams is a 30-year veteran of the consumer packaged goods industry. He opened his consulting firm in 2008 after serving for 16 years as the Executive Vice President and General Manager of Information Resources, Inc.'s global consulting division. Bump created IRI's Beverage-Alcohol Industry Vertical in 1999 and has worked with industry leaders including Anheuser-Busch, Constellation Wines US, EJ Gallo, Diageo, Pernod-Ricard, Pabst Brewing Company, The Boston Beer Company, FEMSA, Crown Imports and virtually every major craft brewer in the United States. His responsibilities also included the management of IRI's global beverage customers at the retailer, distributor and manufacturer levels. Bump has also worked with The Procter & Gamble Distributing Company, The A.C. Nielsen Company and The New Belgium Brewing Company in roles that spanned field sales, sales management, national accounts, sales analysis and retail strategies.

Bump is a frequent speaker at beverage industry conferences and has spoken to such groups as the National Association of Convenience Stores' State of the Industry Summit, the Craft Brewers Conference, Beer Business Daily's Beer Summit, various Beer Marketer's Insights conferences, the National Beer Wholesalers Association's annual convention, the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America's annual convention, several Wall Street summits, the European Beverage Council, multiple state wholesaler conferences and many national sales meetings with beer, wine and spirits companies. Bump is also a writer for American Brewer Magazine.

He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and obtained his master's in business from the Ohio State University, Columbus.

Bump married his college sweetheart, Barb. They have three grown children and live in Stratford, Connecticut, where Bump coaches varsity baseball at Bunnell High School. A former baseball player himself, Bump still enjoys playing the game and is a huge Boston Red Sox fan. He has managed to attend a Major League Baseball game in every stadium in America. He also loves to fly fish, hunt, collect antique beer artifacts, and he has plans to buy and restore a 1968 Pontiac GTO convertible.