Executive Team

Ms. Francis is MGP’s President and Chief Executive Officer and a member of MGP’s board of directors. As Chief Executive Officer, Ms. Francis oversees the company’s global business strategy and operations, leveraging more than three decades of experience across the branded food and beverage industries. Ms. Francis joined MGP in July 2025.

Prior to joining MGP, Ms. Francis served as Chief Operating Officer at Schwan’s Company, a leading frozen foods provider, where she held responsibilities across the consumer brands, food service, operations, supply chain, global R&D, and marketing functions. Before joining Schwan’s Company, she served as Senior Vice President of Commercial and Category Development for Constellation Brands’ Total Beverage Alcohol platform.

In addition to her roles at Schwan’s Company and Constellation Brands, Ms. Francis served at The Coca-Cola Company as Chief Commercial Officer, Coca-Cola Refreshments USA, and in multiple leadership positions at Coca-Cola Enterprises, including as Vice President for Sales and Marketing, North America. She also played a critical role in the integration of the U.S. segments of these two companies to create the Coca-Cola Refreshments (U.S.) subsidiary.

Ms. Francis currently serves as a director and member of the Compensation & Corporate Governance Committee for Ascend Wellness Holdings (AAWH). She has also served as a Board Advisory Director for Nottingham Spirk. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from Alfred University and completed the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program.

Matias Bentel is Chief Marketing Officer of MGP and oversees all of the company’s marketing initiatives, including brand strategy, innovation, consumer engagement, and digital marketing. He joined the company in October 2025.

Mr. Bentel has nearly three decades of marketing experience in the alcohol beverage industry, in addition to extensive leadership and general management experience. Prior to MGP, he served as the Executive Vice President, Chief Brands Officer at Brown-Forman Corporation. He joined Brown-Forman in 2008 and served in roles of increasing responsibility, including as Senior Vice President, Global Managing Director, Jack Daniel’s Brand and VP, General Manager, Mexico. Earlier in his career, he served in marketing roles at Diageo from 2005 to 2007 and Allied Domecq from 1997 to 2005.

Mr. Bentel holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and management from Argentine Catholic University (UCA) and has completed executive leadership programs at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Brandon Gall is Chief Financial Officer of MGP. Mr. Gall has served in this role since 2019 and as Treasurer of MGP since 2023. In these roles, Mr. Gall oversees the company’s accounting, business development, financial planning and analysis, treasury, investor relations, tax, and IT functions. Mr. Gall also served as the company’s Interim President and CEO during 2025.

Mr. Gall joined MGP in 2012 and has advanced through a steady progression of leadership roles, including Director of Financial Planning and Analysis, Director of Supply Chain Finance, Director of Business Development, and Corporate Controller.

Prior to joining MGP, Mr. Gall worked at Errand Solutions, Chicago, as Director of Finance and Human Resources. From 2005 to 2010, Mr. Gall served at Credit Suisse Securities in various analyst and associate roles.

Mr. Gall holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Miami University and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Chicago. He also earned certified public accountant accreditation.

Kathleen Molamphy is MGP’s Chief Legal and Human Resources Officer, Secretary and oversees legal, human resources, and governance matters across the business. She joined MGP in 2024 as Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary.

Before joining MGP, Ms. Molamphy served as Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary for ICL Americas LLC, a subsidiary of ICL Group Ltd., which is a publicly traded specialty minerals company. She was at ICL from 2019 to 2024 and oversaw legal, compliance, and corporate governance for the company’s Americas region.

Prior to ICL, she spent 13 years at Bunge North America, Inc., a subsidiary of Bunge Limited, where she was responsible for a wide range of legal oversight and support, including contract review and negotiations, litigation, due diligence for mergers and acquisitions, and maintaining property holdings.

Ms. Molamphy started her career with three years in private practice at Gallop, Johnson & Neuman, L.C.

Ms. Molamphy earned a Bachelor of Arts from Truman State University and a Juris Doctorate from Saint Louis University School of Law.

Michael Buttshaw is President, Ingredient Solutions Sales. In this role, Mr. Buttshaw oversees sales, customer service, and innovation for the Ingredient Solutions business. Mr. Buttshaw joined MGP in 2014 as Vice President of Ingredients Sales and Marketing.

He previously served as Vice President of Sales for the ingredient group at Southeastern Mills, Inc. from 2010 to 2014 and as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Penford Food Ingredients from 2009 to 2010. This followed two years as Vice President of Sales and Business Development—Specialty Enzymes for DSM Food Specialties.

From 1985 to 2008, Mr. Buttshaw served in various leadership roles with Hormel Foods Corporation. He began there as a process engineer in quality assurance and later served in a series of technical and management positions. In 1999, he was promoted to National Sales and Marketing Manager for Hormel's specialty products division.

Mr. Buttshaw is an active member of key industry and professional organizations, including the Institute of Food Technologists and Research Chef's Association. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in education with an emphasis in mathematics from Gustavas Adolphus College and his MMI in management and marketing from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. He also completed executive training at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

Boon Lee is Senior Vice President, Strategy and Insights of MGP and is responsible for all aspects of the company’s long-term strategy development and execution, including leading its integrated strategic planning process. Ms. Lee joined MGP in January 2026.

Ms. Lee has more than two decades of experience in management consulting, strategy and planning, project management, and consumer goods markets.  Most recently, Ms. Lee served in various consultancy and advisor roles, including roles at MGP and several food & beverage industry start-ups.   Prior to these roles, Ms. Lee served as the Vice President of Strategy and Insights at Schwan’s Company, where she held roles of increasing responsibilities in long-term strategic planning, consumer insights and innovation, and new business development.

In addition, she led cross-disciplinary innovation at Samsung’s C&T fashion division, and she previously worked at Boston Consulting Group where she helped drive strategic agenda for global companies, including their go-to-market, merger and acquisition, and performance management strategies.

Ms. Lee received an MBA from New York University. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Yonsei University and an MBA from KDI School of Public Policy and Management in Seoul, South Korea.

Chris Wiseman is Senior Vice President, Operations of MGP and is responsible for all aspects of operations across the organization. Mr. Wiseman joined MGP in October 2025.

Mr. Wiseman has nearly two decades of deep manufacturing experience and supply chain expertise, cross-functional leadership skills, and a track record of operational excellence. Most recently, Mr. Wiseman served as the Vice President of Manufacturing at Schwan’s Company, where he held increasing roles of responsibility from 2017 to 2025. Before Schwan’s, he led multiple facilities for Bimbo Bakeries USA from 2012 to 2017.

Mr. Wiseman received a bachelor’s degree in bakery science and production management from Kansas State University.

Craig Bowles is Vice President of IT & Security. He joined the company in October 2022 as Director of Infrastructure and now oversees all aspects of our information technology and IT security. He helped standardize MGP and Luxco technology processes after the merger and will continue to create secure and employee -centered solutions to advance the Company.

Mr. Bowles has over 25 years of experience in IT across multiple industries, managing complex enterprise-level hybrid IT solutions and software applications. Prior to joining MGP he served as Director of Application Development at Drury Hotels in St. Louis, Missouri from 2018 to 2022. From 2005 to 2018, he was Manager of Application Development and GIS at Lambert International Airport in St. Louis. Prior to that he served as Manager of Information Technology at Electro Savings Credit Union in St. Louis from 1999 to 2005.

Mr. Bowles earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Management and a Masters degree in Information Management, both from Washington University in St. Louis, MO. He also holds the following certifications: CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) – (ISC)2 International Information Systems Security, Project Management Professional (PMI.org), and Project Management Certificate from Washington University in St. Louis, MO.

Ryan Earey is Vice President of Branded Spirits Sales at MGP Ingredients. He joined the company with the April 2021 acquisition of Luxco, Inc., where he served as Vice President of National Sales, beginning in 2017.

In more than 15 years with Luxco, Mr. Earey held sales positions of increasing responsibility. He was National Sales Manager, including responsibility for sales to Control States, from 2014 to 2017. This followed more than eight years as Division Manager covering the Mid-Atlantic and Eastern Control States.

Before joining Luxco, Mr. Earey was a District Manager at Blue Ridge Wholesale, spending three years as part of the E. & J. Gallo Sales Training/Leadership Development Program.

He received a communications degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a 3-year letterman in baseball and was eventually selected by the San Diego Padres in the 6th round of the 2000 Major League Baseball Draft.

Dr. Viswas Ghorpade is the Vice President of Research & Development at MGP Ingredients, where he oversees the R&D efforts for the Ingredient Solutions business. Joining MGP in July 2024, Dr. Ghorpade brings extensive expertise in ingredient functionality, product development, extrusion processing, and co-manufacturing management.

Before MGP, he served as Vice President of Commercialization at Black Sheep Foods, leading the operation and commercialization functions from 2021 to 2024. He also held a key role at Beyond Meat as Senior Director, managing a team of scientists and engineers in developing textured vegetable proteins through extrusion process engineering.

Dr. Ghorpade's career includes a 14-year tenure at Kellogg Company, where he held various Senior/Principal Product Development Scientist positions across multiple divisions. In addition, earlier in his career, he contributed significantly as a Senior Food Scientist and Senior Development Scientist at Hill’s Pet Nutrition, developing science and prescription diets.

Dr. Ghorpade earned his Ph.D. in Nutrition and Food Sciences from Utah State University and served as an Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska. He also holds a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture and a Master of Science in Cereal Science and Technology from Mahatma Phule Agricultural University in India.

Paul Lux is Vice President of Distilling Solutions Sales at MGP. He joined the company in May 2024 and handles the leadership, sales management and strategic planning for the segment.

He previously served as President of Meier’s Beverage Group since 2013. Prior to that, he was Director of Strategic Development at Luxco, Inc., after working as a State Sales Manager and then Supply Chain Manager. Additionally, Mr. Lux served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Meier’s Wine Cellars, Inc.

He began his beverage alcohol career with Glazer’s Wholesale Distributors in 2007, hired by E.J. Gallo Winery as part of their Sales Leadership Development Program.

Mr. Lux earned a Bachelor of Science in Marketing and General Management from Tulane University; a Master of Science in Finance from Tulane University; and an MBA in Management and Operations from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.