Josh Groff joined First Beverage in February of 2011 after leaving Starbucks Coffee, where he was a Product Manager responsible for launching Starbucks VIA into the food, drug, mass and club channels.  During his time at Starbucks, he created the go-to-market strategy at national key accounts that introduced the premium, single-serve coffee sub-category to the $3 billion US coffee market.  Josh contributed to the brand's distribution, messaging, pricing and shelf placement strategy that grew VIA to $100 million in sales in its first year.

Prior to Starbucks, Josh worked for the Jones Soda Company for four years as Brand Manager for the core Jones product line.  During his time there, he led the marketing efforts and sell-in for the company's innovative portfolio of Jones flavors and specialty packs as well as the brand refresh and launch of the zero-calorie line, Jones Zilch.  While at Jones, he also held positions as Trade Marketing Manager and Financial Analyst.  Before joining the Jones Soda team, Josh was a Marketing Finance Associate with the Miller Brewing Company and a Program Coordinator at Burton Snowboards.

Josh graduated from the University of Washington with a B.S. in Business Administration and Finance.

Based in Seattle, where he lives with his wife, Mai, Josh enjoys playing on several soccer teams, traveling whenever possible and searching out new investment opportunities in local businesses and real estate.  Josh loves the beverage industry for its innovation, creativity and entrepreneurial spirit.

Joth Ricci joined First Beverage in April 2010, immediately following his departure from Jones Soda Company, a publicly-traded beverage company known for its unique marketing, flavor and product portfolio. He was hired as Jones Soda's COO and promoted to President and CEO, and managed its business in the US, Canada and other international markets. While at Jones Soda, Joth launched several new beverage products and successfully restructured the company's marketing, sales and operations functions.  He led the company to significant financial and productivity improvement, and directed the company through a process of strategic options evaluation prior to his departure.

Previous to Jones Soda, Joth was the General Manager of Columbia Distributing Company in the Pacific Northwest, one of the nation's largest malt beverage, wine and non-alcoholic distributors. He earned this position after serving in several senior management positions across the beer, wine and non-alcoholic business platforms. He was involved in all aspects of the business including brand management, service policy, human resources, acquisitions, strategic ventures, chain development and new business. Joth also spent nearly a decade in various sales and marketing management positions outside of the beverage industry with McNeil Consumer Healthcare/Johnson & Johnson.

He is a Board member of the Oregon State University Alumni Association and of the Thomas Kemper Soda Company, and is a former Board member of The Rising Beverage Company  (the makers of Activate).  He also served in 2010 as Activate's interim COO.

Joth is a graduate of Oregon State University with a B.S. in business education.

Joth lives with his wife, Robin, kids Anna and Joe, their Black Labrador, Romey, and cat, Juliet, in Portland.  He enjoys golf, running, cycling, skiing, reading, listening to music, and attending his kids' school and sporting events.  He is a huge supporter of all of Oregon State University's teams and he tries to attend all of the major league baseball events that he can.  Joth's goal is to complete 50 "endurance" events by the time he is 50; at last count he has completed 32 of these, including the 2006 Ironman Triathlon in Couer D'Alene, Idaho, seven ultra-marathons, and several regular marathons, including Boston and New York City.

John Cornish is the Chief Financial Officer of First Beverage Group and President of First Beverage Realty Partners. His responsibilities include overseeing the company's operations and management.

John's previous experience was as COO of New Urban Builders, a real estate developer of in-fill mixed-use products in northern California.  Prior to that, he was Director of Capstone Advisors' Northern California office where he was responsible for making equity and mezzanine investments in land development and entitlement ventures as well as for the office's real estate financial advisory services, asset management and direct lending. Prior to Capstone Advisors, John was a Director with DB Real Estate, a division of the Deutsche Bank Group, where he was primarily responsible for business development in the Northern California region along with the oversight of asset management for the entire DB Real Estate development portfolio. John also served as COO of The Braemar Group, a real estate development company based in Los Angeles, where he oversaw the operations and management of the company and was directly responsible for all debt and equity relationships. He was also Western Regional Manager for Lomas Realty USA, where his responsibilities included acquisition, development and disposition of all property in the Western United States.

John received his bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Oklahoma.

He lives in Chico with his son and daughter, both of whom are heavily involved in horse-related activities.  His hobbies include water and snow skiing, mountain biking and reading.

Prior to joining First Beverage, Mai was a Director for Weintraub Financial Services, a real estate development company based in Malibu, California. In that capacity she analyzed and structured financing opportunities, acquisitions and real estate entitlements. She was actively involved in over 40 acquisition and disposition transactions with a total asset value of over $500 million, including a 48-story mixed-use and residential condominium tower in downtown Los Angeles, a 250-room five-star resort in Malibu, a one-million square foot mixed-use project in Woodland Hills and a 1.5 million square foot retail power center in Palm Springs.

Previously, Mai was an investment banker with SG Cowen in San Francisco as well as with Merrill Lynch & Co. and Sanford C. Bernstein in Chicago.

Mai is the Executive Director and Founder of Children's Art Village, a 501(c)3 organization founded in 2006 to work with abandoned third-world children, specifically those who have been rescued from slavery and prostitution, by utilizing art and music programs to encourage therapeutic expression.  She also sits on the Women's Council of the Los Angeles Food Bank, a group that focuses on providing food and continuous funding for the children's backpack program, which ensures that children in poverty are supplied each week with food for the weekend.  She is an Alumnae Advisor to the USC Marshall School of Business's Student Investment Fund and a member of the American Art Therapy Association.

Mai holds a B.A. from Wellesley College, an M.B.A. from the University of Southern California and an M.A. in Psychology from the University of Santa Monica.

Mai is an amateur painter and loves to read and travel, especially to do humanitarian work, and is a Boston Celtics and Dodgers fan.  She and her husband, Bob, live in Santa Monica.

Bill has a lifetime of experience in the beverage industry.  Having grown up working in his family's beer distributorships, he founded First Beverage Group in 2005 in response to the need he saw in the beverage industry for a dedicated, long-term capital partner.  Today, the company provides growth solutions to leading operators in all segments of the beverage industry through a comprehensive range of products, including private equity; M&A advisory; strategic consulting; and real estate capital through sale-leasebacks and buy/build-to-suit transactions.

Prior to founding First Beverage, Bill was Executive Vice President of Topa Equities, Ltd., a diversified holding company and Top 10 beer distributor group based in Los Angeles, and is the former President of Topa Properties, Ltd.  Prior to joining Topa, he was an attorney with O'Melveny & Myers in Los Angeles.

Bill sits on the Boards of Directors of Topa Equities, Ltd.; Acacia Research Corporation, a public company that develops, acquires, and licenses patented technologies; and Purity Organic, an organic fruit juice company.  He also sits on the Advisory Board of Lineage Capital Partners, a private equity firm focused on partnering with family-controlled and owner-managed businesses. He is a former Board member of New Belgium Brewing Company (the makers of Fat Tire Ale) and of The Rising Beverage Company (the makers of Activate). 

Bill writes a financial column for Beverage World, a leading beverage industry trade magazine, and blogs about the industry on www.billsbeverageblog.com.

He received a B.A. from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine and a J.D. from the UCLA School of Law.  Bill is a member of the California and Washington, DC bar associations.

Bill has two sons, Max and Spencer, and he lives in Los Angeles.  He is an avid traveler and his interests include golf, yoga, cycling and politics.

Ryan joined First Beverage in January 2010 after nearly a decade with GE Capital Franchise Finance, where he was most recently Associated Vice President, Beverage Finance & Structured Risk.  Ryan started with GE Capital as Senior Inside Sales Representative and held positions in Sales and Underwriting.  Ryan has over six years of direct experience in beverage lending and has funded over $150M of loans over his lending career.

Ryan graduated cum laude from the Arizona State University with a B.S. in Finance.

He lives in Phoenix with his wife and their dog and is a fan of the Arizona State Sun Devils, the Boston Red Sox and the Phoenix Suns.  His favorite pastimes are golfing, playing basketball, hiking, reading, and listening to music.

Townsend has over 25 years of experience in investment banking and private equity at The First Boston Corporation, Wasserstein Perella & Co., and Wasserstein & Co.  He has completed over $40 billion in mergers and acquisitions advisory assignments, and as a principal investor over 30 private equity investments ranging from leveraged buyouts and growth equity to venture capital.  In this capacity, he served on numerous private and public company boards of directors.  He is a former director and non-executive chairman of Imax Corporation, a leading large-screen film projection company, and a former director of two other public companies: Collins & Aikman Corporation, a $2 billion automotive components company, and Maybelline, Inc., a leading mass market cosmetics manufacturer.

Townsend formerly served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Nightingale-Bamford School in New York City. He was also formerly on the Board of Fellows of Trinity College and was the President of the Board of Trustees at West Side Montessori School in New York City.

He received his BA in Economics from Trinity College in 1984 and his MBA from the Stanford School of Business in 1988.

Townsend lives in New York City with his wife and four children.  His interests include golf, skiing, yoga and gardening.  Having grown up in West Virginia, he is also an ardent WVU Mountaineer fan.

JB Shireman is the founder of Craftcentric Consulting, which provides full-service consultation to the distributor and supplier tiers in areas of new market and product rollouts, sales and distribution strategy, contracts and appointment letters, sales training, wholesaler management, distribution network transfers, and company-wide team integration.  He is also the owner of the Bar Double S Tavern in Ft. Collins, Colorado.  His experience spans over 15 years in the beer industry. 

JB is the former Executive Vice-President of Sales and Marketing for New Belgium Brewing, the makers of Fat Tire Ale.  While at New Belgium, JB participated in the development of a long-range strategy for rapid new product and territory expansion and asset-intensive capacity expansion.  He achieved the company's 10-year goal ahead of schedule and under budget.

He is also a freelance writer for various outdoor magazines and has written and published adventure travel articles and profiles on areas as diverse as Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific,  the outer reef of Belize and the remote islands of the Bahamas, to name a few. 

JB attended Colorado State University where he majored in zoology and minored in geology. 

JC joined First Beverage in 2011 after working as a Private Equity Analyst at Wasserstein & Co. While at Wasserstein, he focused on deal execution and portfolio company management for a broad variety of investments in the consumer products, media, and water technology sectors.  JC previously held internships at Wasserstein, Smith Barney and the International Development Group (media consulting).

He received his B.A. in Economics from Trinity College, where he played on the Varsity Tennis team.

JC lives in Los Angeles but remains a loyal fan of the San Francisco Giants, 49ers, and Golden State Warriors. He enjoys playing basketball, soccer and tennis, reading and the outdoors.