Executive Team

Bratcher is our Chief Executive Officer and President, a role he assumed on January 1, 2024. Mr. Bratcher served as our Chief Operating Officer from July 2021 to December 2023, and as President of Branded Spirits since our merger with Luxco, Inc. in April 2021 to December 2023. Prior to the Luxco merger, Mr. Bratcher served in several leadership roles at Luxco since his hire in 1998 as Director of Operations. He most recently served as President of Luxco, from 2013 until the April 2021 merger with Luxco. Before joining Luxco, Mr. Bratcher served in financial and operational roles for a number of consumer product companies, including serving five years as Controller and then Director of Operations for the international spirits company Allied Domecq, the second-largest spirits company in the world at the time.

Brandon Gall is Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer of MGP and has served in this role since April 2019. In this role, Mr. Gall oversees the Company’s accounting, business development, financial planning and analysis, treasury, investor relations, tax, and IT functions. Mr. Gall joined the Company 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 and earned numerous securities licenses including the Series 7, Series 63 and Series 66 licenses.

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

Amel Pasagic is Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer of MGP, a role he has held since January 2024.  In this role, Mr. Pasagic leads all commercial, strategic, and innovation activities for the Company’s Branded Spirits, Distilling Solutions, and Ingredient Solutions businesses and has responsibility for the Company’s business intelligence strategy. Mr. Pasagic served as the Company’s Chief Information Officer from July 2021 to January 2024. He joined the Company as Vice President, Information Technology in April 2021, at the time of MGP’s merger with Luxco, Inc.

Prior to the Luxco merger, Mr. Pasagic served in a variety of IT leadership roles with increasing responsibility during his 10 years with Luxco. Before joining Luxco, Mr. Pasagic held a variety of consulting roles across multiple business lines within healthcare, manufacturing, and financial services while working for Alliance Systems and Programming.

Mr. Pasagic received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science from Webster University.

Kathleen Molamphy is Vice President, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary at MGP Ingredients, where she oversees all legal, compliance, and governance matters across the business. Joining MGP in August 2024, she brings more than 20 years’ expertise as a strategic business partner and leadership capabilities in corporate legal work.

Before MGP, Ms. Molamphy served as Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary for ICL Americas LLC since 2018, where she oversaw all legal, compliance, and corporate governance for the Americas region of the publicly traded specialty minerals company.

Prior to that, she spent 13 years at Bunge North America, Inc., responsible for a wide range of legal oversight and support, such as contract review and negotiations for all facets of the operation, litigation, due diligence activities 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. as an associate in the Governmental Law and Relations department.

Ms. Molamphy earned a Bachelor of Arts in French from Truman State University and Juris Doctorate, graduating magna cum laude, from Saint Louis University School of Law.

Erika Lapish is Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer of MGP, with responsibility for human resources strategy and implementation Company-wide, and has served in this role since February 2023. She joined MGP as Vice President, Human Resources, in May 2021.

Ms. Lapish has more than 20 years of experience in global HR management at manufacturing and healthcare organizations. Most recently, she was Vice President of Human Resources for R1 RCM – Central Operations from February 2018 to May 2021. She held a similar role with Benteler Automotive from January 2015 to February 2018, after serving as Director of Employee Relations and Talent Management at Masco Corporation. Prior to this, she spent ten years with United Technologies Corporation in roles of increasing responsibility across their Military and Commercial segments, with both domestic and international leadership assignments.

Ms. Lapish is an Emerging Leader Graduate of the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. She attended Michigan State University, where she received a master of science degree in Labor and Industrial Relations, Human Resources and a bachelor of science in Business and Environmental Studies.

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.

Michael Buttshaw has served as Vice President of Ingredients Sales and Marketing at MGP since December 2014. He previously spent four years as Vice President of Sales for the ingredient group at Southeastern Mills, Inc., Rome, Georgia. Just prior to that, Mr. Buttshaw was Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Penford Food Ingredients, Centennial, Colorado. This followed two years as Vice President of Sales and Business Development—specialty enzymes for DSM Food Specialties, Parsippany, New Jersey. From 1985 to 2008, Mr. Buttshaw was employed with Hormel Foods Corporation, Austin, Minnesota. He began there as a process engineer in quality assurance and later served in a series of technical and management positions at various locations in the U.S. 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, St. Peter, Minnesota, in 1985, and a MMI in management and marketing from the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management, Minneapolis, in 2002. He also completed executive training at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management in Chicago.

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.

Fletcher Buchman is Vice President of Marketing at MGP Ingredients. He joined the company with the April 2021 acquisition of Luxco, Inc., where he served as Marketing Director beginning in 2018. Mr. Buchman assumed his new role leading marketing for MGP’s Branded Spirits, Sourced Alcohol and Ingredient Solutions segments in October 2021.

As Marketing Director, Mr. Buchman oversaw the entire Luxco portfolio of brands including Ezra Brooks, Rebel, Yellowstone, El Mayor, Everclear Grain Alcohol, Saint Brendan’s and The Quiet Man Irish Whiskey. He was recruited in 2014 as Brand Manager to lead strategic development and execution of brand positioning and communication for Luxco’s whiskey brands. In that role, he launched 13 brands.

Prior, he spent more than a decade with Anheuser-Busch InBev, beginning in the Field Media Group as an account executive managing local media buying for Anheuser-Busch wholesalers in Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia. He later was promoted to manager of media planning, working directly with brand marketing teams, and then promoted to manager of national print and digital media for the Anheuser-Busch portfolio in North America. Ultimately, he was promoted to associate brand manager for the Shock Top brand.

Before his work in the beverage alcohol industry, Mr. Buchman was a media planner and buyer for corporate and political clients. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of Maryland in College Park.

Amit Sharma is Vice President of Investor Relations at MGP. He joined the company in May 2024 and manages all aspects of our investor relations program, including developing and executing strategies to effectively communicate our company’s vision, performance, and growth prospects to the investor community and other external stakeholders.

Mr. Sharma is experienced in all facets of investor relations in the food and beverage category, having served as Vice President of Investor Relations for Hostess Brands from 2021 to 2024, and most recently in that same role for Nomad Foods. Prior to that, he was Executive Director of Research, Consumer Foods at Rabobank NA for one year. From 2006 to 2020, at BMO Capital Markets, Sharma spent ten years serving as Director, Research, Food & Beverage, after four years as Equity Research Associate, Protein, Ag and Food.

Mr. Sharma earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Dehli University in New Dehli, India, an MBA from Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College in New York City, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

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.

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.