M. Hillman Lentz
Chairman & CEO
Hillman Lentz has created an exemplary name for himself over the last thirty years. A results-driven leader, empathetic but demanding, Hillman has been the driving force behind multiple ventures. With single-minded clarity, Hillman is a visionary who knows how to inspire his teams to excellence, serving his employees, stakeholders, and customers.
He is a critical thinker, able to focus for long periods of time without distraction. Setting effective long-term strategies and empowering teams through specific project ownership “with authority” has allowed Hillman to lead with zero micro-management (he doesn’t like to manage). This process has enabled him to “compress time,” a phrase he is fond of.
According to Hillman, “We all have 24 hours a day. How we utilize that time defines us. Build a good team, delegate to the right people, and let the process happen.” This core belief has been refined through his many successes and failures in life. Provided there is a market niche and an outstanding product, Hillman puts Human Capital as the number one reason for success or failure of any business. “A loyal and committed team makes all the difference.”
With a mathematical mind, an eye for detail, and a love to entertain others, Hillman successfully created and launched multiple entertainment venues in a few short years. His Club, The ChindAsia Club, was voted the #1 private members’ club in Thailand by CNN Travel (July 2017). Whisgars, “Asia’s Premier whisky and cigar bar,” created in 2013, was and still is a “go-to” for any aficionado visiting SE Asia. Hillman opened the largest craft beer tap house in SE Asia in 2014, CRAFT, rotating 180 craft beers over 40 taps. It was at this venue in 2019 where Hillman met Willy Trappe (Chief Product Officer, UBB). After hours of discussion, they both knew they had a tremendous opportunity and an obligation to create UBB.
Hillman’s early life had a few ups and downs. He dropped out of college at 19, got married, had kids, and started a recruitment company, which he sold at 23. He founded Marshmallow Moon, a children’s apparel company, and invested in ZooPort Riot Gear, another apparel company. Both sold. Hillman also established one of Asia’s first technology incubators in 1998.
Hillman has been involved in Private Equity since an early age, taking on all sorts of roles, from new business development, sales and marketing, mergers and acquisitions, to finance.
While not formally educated, Hillman has been an adjunct professor at INSEAD University’s Global Executive MBA program, “Entrepreneurship in Action.” He also took a Masters in Asia Pacific Studies at LEEDS (Singapore). Albeit a college dropout, Hillman was voted the Freshman Class President at Purdue University.
Hillman has lived in Asia for the past 25 years and resides in Bangkok. He is 60 years old, a husband, father of three, and grandfather of five. He enjoys helping others achieve their goals. One of his personal life goals is to set a good example for others “in all aspects of life.”
Hillman is an avid reader and a fitness fanatic. Yet he still enjoys a good cigar, an old single malt, or a great craft beer. He is a terrible golfer but loves the game.
Hillman’s vision for UBB is to change the landscape of the global brewing and distillation industry. He foresees this industry disrupter creating hundreds of thousands of jobs, helping venues turn a profit, and helping his employees and stakeholders have fun, while making incredible returns. Hillman believes UBB will be a USD 1B+ venture, and he looks forward to waking up each day with a purpose.
Wood
Alberts
President & COO
Wood Alberts has made a successful career of growing, managing, and financing numerous companies in technology and service industries. He began by building a solid career in a Fortune 500 company, moving up the ranks from operations to mid-level management to Regional Manager to Sales Director at ServiceMaster. His next move was to the startup world, where he— as part of the executive team—built a company from the ground up to $250M in annual revenue, in just two and a half years.
After taking that company public, Wood moved from new opportunity to new opportunity leading companies within the technology and services industries both. Some of the companies he has held C-Level responsibilities in developing, growing include: Endeavor Capital Management, Monkey Bizness, Quadrant Capital Partners, American Energy Assets, and Baker Street Scientific.
Over the breadth of his career, Wood has proven himself as a leader in developing both growth organizations and strong scalable cultures inside the companies he has worked. Wood has been instrumental in the raising of interim and long-term financing, along with private equity raises as a partner in two private equity firms. Wood’s knowledge in the development and implementation of core competencies in sales and operational management is extensive. He will bring to UBB his knowledge in building strategic alliances, creating a strong company culture, and a strong market sense for North America. All will be integral in Unique Bavarian Brewery’s impending success.
Wilhelm “Willy” Trappe
Chief Product Officer
Wilhelm Trappe’s career has been defined by his internal drive to be the best at his profession. By the time he was 23, Willy had already trained to become a master chef working in various top luxury hotels throughout Austria. After building a career in the cooking industry, Willy became interested in and began to study special, vocational education in Basel Switzerland. Willy began his work in this industry at a private school in Sydney, Australia.
Willy soon became deputy principal and then Director. During this time Willy studied educational science with the focus of child’s biographical development and cognitive abilities. After 3 years of studying, Willy was awarded PhD from the University of New Castle.
Willy could not shake his initial fascination with mechanical automotive and motorcycle devices and how they worked. What started as him opening his own repair workshop on the side, grew to where Willy’s engineering prowess was sought after and took him to countries around the world including New Zealand, Australia, Austria, and Germany.
After years of travel in his career, Willy met Albrecht Hör and they shared an instant connection. They had many mutual experiences, as well as a strong passion for drinking deliciously crafted beer. Willy and Albrecht worked together to create the UBB Master Brew Pro®, a feat of engineering technology. Willy continues to be driven by curiosity and a continued passion for innovation that will help UBB flourish into the future.
Derek T.
Smith
Chief Financial Officer
As a dynamic and energetic senior financial professional and business leader for over thirty years, Derek has a broad range of industry experience, including film production and distribution, product manufacturing, aviation, pharmaceuticals, LED lighting and professional services. These companies range from entrepreneurial start-ups to Fortune 50 companies and provide Derek with the cutting edge CFO skills to address the myriad of challenges of creating a small business from ground level.
He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Finance from the University of Southern California and began his career as a “Big Four” auditor with KPMG. He later transitioned to a variety of senior financial roles with companies as diverse as The Walt Disney Company, multinational conglomerate Novartis Pharmaceuticals, and Lucasfilm Ltd., where he was instrumental in the negotiation of a $2.5 billion contract with Fox Studios for the global distribution of the Star Wars film franchise.
Derek has proven analytical and creative problem solving abilities, and understands the complex financial and operational nuances and pitfalls that can lead to either success or failure for a small ompany on the rise. A personable and effective communicator, he establishes a financial structure focused on KPIs and value drivers that provides the company and its directors with the highest level of financial control and management information that lead to well informed business decisions. With expertise in financial, operational, and administrative business practices, he emphasizes proper strategic planning for the optimal success of the company.
Donald van der Stam
VP Asia Business Development
Donald van der Stam has developed an incredible career in the freight forwarding and beverage distribution industries, starting back when he was only 17 years old. Don ran the gamut of positions in his first company, from logistics clerk, to container controller, to import/export manager, to chartering, super cargo, and owner’s representation. At the age of 29, Don had gained enough knowledge and field experience to open his first freight forwarding company specializing in sea and air freight consolidation. As the leader of this company, Don pioneered freight consolidation services from China to Europe and back, when the China market was still relatively unknown.
He has spent the last twenty years based in Asia, opening offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, and now being based in the Philippines. Since 2009, Don has played an integral role as well in the importation and distribution of craft beer and spirits to various local breweries, distributors, tap houses, restaurants, and supermarkets around the region. In 2016, Don obtained his FDA License to Operate, allowing him to register, import, brand, and distribute alcoholic beverages under his own name. This license has given him the opportunity to, not only assist brands, but to also take part in a distribution system connecting retail, wholesale, hotels, resorts, online portals, and airline agents.
He is a valuable leader in the beverage distribution market with over thirty years of experience creating global dealer channels and moving products around the world. With UBB, Don will use all his industry connections and decades of experiences to introduce our game-changing products to the growing market of Southeast Asian countries.
Chris
Dittrich
OG / Brand Strategist
Chris has always had a desire to work internationally and seized opportunities to make it happen. From early in school, Chris studied Mandarin in order to give him a future opportunity to be valuable around the world. Along with Mandarin, he now speaks a number of different languages with confidence and uses his language skills to build relationships with people of various cultures.
After achieving his Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and Marketing, Chris began his career in the finance field as a VP of Business Development for a multimillion-dollar hedge fund. Chris wasquick to recognize his true passions were in a combination of both finance and hospitality, so he went back to school to achieve his Master of Science Degree in Hospitality Management. After receiving his Master’s, Chris took an opportunity to work in hotel management at various hotels in Asia, most recently in Bangkok, Thailand. In 2020, an amazing opportunity opened up for him to play an integral role in the beginnings of Unique Bavarian Brewery.
Alex Bowden
VP Marketing
Alex has a 20 year track record of successfully conceiving, executing and launching market-disrupting brands, and rejuvenating legacy brands throughout SE Asia. With extensive experience creating and building brands with a cumulative value of over $US1BN within financial services, retail, hospitality, real estate and FMCG industries, including CBD skincare, Alex is also a successful entrepreneur having built a branding and communications consultancy with operations across 3 countries in the SE Asian market.
Pats O'Day
Director, TQM
Patsy’s love of adventure has dictated her career path as a scientist. Her first job (post college) was working as a geologist on a 175-foot research vessel based in Pango Pango. She then left the south Pacific to work for Schlumberger on multiple oil platforms and land locations ranging from as far north as the Arctic Circle to as far south as Texas and Louisiana. After a few years of commuting to work on helicopters, boats, and 14-hour road trips, Patsy decided to try her hand in something closer to home in Colorado where she and her husband could settle and start a family.
In Colorado, she began working as a quality Engineer for Coors Brewing Company. While working full-time at Coors, she graduated from the Colorado School of Mines with a master’s degree in Applied Chemistry, using statistical methods and experimental design approaches to solve major brewing and packaging issues.
Patsy also obtained the certifications as a Manager of Quality and Organizational Design, (American Society of Quality), Greenbelt, (Six Sigma) and Master Trainer of World Class Manufacturing (Competitive Capabilities International) principles.
While working at the Colorado brewery, she also honed and developed her passion for teaching and partnered with corporate experts within MillerCoors to build prep programs for employee certifications and college-level diplomas through the world-renowned Institute of Brewing and Distilling.
Using her knowledge around Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma, she modeled a Structured Problem-Solving Course after the Six Sigma approach, implemented it at a corporate level to the entire organization, and lead many improvement projects collectively totaling $1,250,000 in savings. As a result of her work with these courses, as well as her well known knowledge of brewing and packaging science, she was given the opportunity to work within the MillerCoors University, ranked in the top three corporate universities in the world.
During her time in Milwaukee, Patsy was responsible for leading the creation of an organizational design and change management educational program for new leaders, building corporate technical programs and curricula in brewing, quality, structured problem solving, and onboarding. Now Patsy is applying her vast experience in the building of training programs to UBB and she is now creating a signature brewing and quality education program exclusively for our valued UBB customers.
Sandy Shoemaker
Strategic Advisors
Sandy Shoemaker retired from public accounting in June 2021 to focus on working with emerging and growing companies that want to develop a corporate culture focused on employee engagement. She spent over 30 years in public accounting mostly with EKS&H/Plante & Moran as an audit partner working with publicly traded and privately held companies and led EKS&H’s ESOP services group. Sandy has a depth of experience working with both small and medium sized companies as a trusted business advisor. Her focus has been on employee-owned companies and advising on the proper use of various employee ownership structures, espe- cially ESOPs. She has extensive knowledge of financial reporting and financial statement audits within various industries, such as biotech, franchising, distribution, and manufacturing – including the craft brew industries, medical-device, restaurants, and real estate industries.
Today, her passion lies with working with companies that want to grow and seek the proper resources to help ensure a successful execution of their strategic plan.
Pats O'Day
Director, TQM
Patsy’s love of adventure has dictated her career path as a scientist. Her first job (post college) was working as a geologist on a 175-foot research vessel based in Pango Pango. She then left the south Pacific to work for Schlumberger on multiple oil platforms and land locations ranging from as far north as the Arctic Circle to as far south as Texas and Louisiana. After a few years of commuting to work on helicopters, boats, and 14-hour road trips, Patsy decided to try her hand in something closer to home in Colorado where she and her husband could settle and start a family.
In Colorado, she began working as a quality Engineer for Coors Brewing Company. While working full-time at Coors, she graduated from the Colorado School of Mines with a master’s degree in Applied Chemistry, using statistical methods and experimental design approaches to solve major brewing and packaging issues.
Patsy also obtained the certifications as a Manager of Quality and Organizational Design, (American Society of Quality), Greenbelt, (Six Sigma) and Master Trainer of World Class Manufacturing (Competitive Capabilities International) principles.
While working at the Colorado brewery, she also honed and developed her passion for teaching and partnered with corporate experts within MillerCoors to build prep programs for employee certifications and college-level diplomas through the world-renowned Institute of Brewing and Distilling.
Using her knowledge around Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma, she modeled a Structured Problem-Solving Course after the Six Sigma approach, implemented it at a corporate level to the entire organization, and lead many improvement projects collectively totaling $1,250,000 in savings. As a result of her work with these courses, as well as her well known knowledge of brewing and packaging science, she was given the opportunity to work within the MillerCoors University, ranked in the top three corporate universities in the world.
During her time in Milwaukee, Patsy was responsible for leading the creation of an organizational design and change management educational program for new leaders, building corporate technical programs and curricula in brewing, quality, structured problem solving, and onboarding. Now Patsy is applying her vast experience in the building of training programs to UBB and she is now creating a signature brewing and quality education program exclusively for our valued UBB customers.
Steve Soto
Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
Steve Soto has built a successful career in the technology world thanks to his wit and his experience dating all the way back to his childhood in Silicon Valley. He launched his first company while he was still in high school, using the money he made to pay for his entry to San Jose State University. After graduating with a degree in Electrical Engineering, Steve began working for Electronic Data Systems. Here, he quickly moved up the company ranks from operations, to system programming, to systems security. Simultaneously, Steve had started another company where he purchased off the shelf systems, configured each for specific use in financial markets, then would sell them.
Developing custom software for systems led Steve to holding several lucrative opportunities in the tech space. Thanks to his entrepreneurial mind, Steve has held numerous positions with Fortune 500 companies and other startups. Some of the companies he has helped to lead as an expert in his field include: EDS, Meridian Data (Adaptec), US Government, Hitachi, Ltd, Procom Technology (Oracle via Sun), ApplianceWare, Inc., and Fourth Quadrant Solutions.
Now with UBB, Steve will bring his expertise in developing custom systems, mobile applications, and be ready to keep the company at the forefront of technology and data driven company.
