You've been a lifer over at there at Beam, haven't you?

I sure have been.

Isn't that bananas?

I'm like the only person left who's worked 30 years at a company.

This is Bourbon Pursuit, the official podcast of Bourbon, bringing to you the best in news, reviews, and interviews with people making the bourbon whiskey industry happen.

And I'm one of your hosts, Kenny Coleman.

Now, I'll come right out and say it.

This episode was never intended to be a two-parter.

But once I sat down with our guest, I couldn't bring myself to hit the

stop button because I wanted to keep hearing the stories that she had to tell. Kathleen D. Benedetto

is the senior director of Premium Seed Brands now at Beam Suntory, and she has nearly a 30-year

career span there. And one of her first jobs was working alongside Booker Know. And this is really where a lot of

those stories that we want to capture as a part of this podcast really come to light. She traveled

the country Booker and learned what it took to market and find audiences for their premium,

uncut, unfiltered small batch whiskey. That at one point, it was really hard to sell. And she had to

help people find

that really that core essence of the brand and she helped not only just bookers but also knob

creek and bakers grow from its infant stages and this is even before bookers even had a box to what

we see today and Kathleen shares her fondest memories of working alongside Booker

and the No Family and how that set her down a path to be inducted into the Bourbon Hall of Fame

and also have her own Booker's batch named after her. But make sure you stick around next week

for part two as well. But with that, cheers everybody. Enjoyed this week's episode. And now here's Fred Minnick

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