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Building Tomorrow's Iconic Brands
Meet the Team with Over 70 Years of Experince
The Collina Brands team brings decades of combined experience across hospitality, spirits, and creative production. With backgrounds spanning leadership, sales, brand development, design, and visual storytelling, the team blends industry expertise with a strong creative vision. Together, they focus on building and elevating modern spirits brands through both strategic growth and thoughtful execution.
Neil Grosscup
Co-Founder &
Chief Executive Officer
Neil Grosscup has a 20-year career in hospitality, starting as a stock clerk at Washington, DC retailer Schneiders of Capitol Hill. He joined Tanteo Spirits as an intern in January 2010 and quickly rose in the ranks. Most recently, he was the Chief Executive Officer at Tanteo Spirits from 2014 to 2023. After a merger with Ole Smoky Distillery, he remained on as the President of Tanteo to oversee the transition.
Jacob Gordon
Co-Founder &
Chief Commercial Officer
Jacob Gordon has a 25-year career in hospitality, starting at the acclaimed Monkey Bar in New York City. He sold the first bottle of Tanteo tequila in 2008 and grew with the company, serving as Chief Sales Officer at Tanteo Spirits from 2014 to 2023. After a merger with Ole Smoky Distillery, he remained on as VP of Brand Development.
Scott Gold
Sales Director &
Trade Marketing Lead
Scott Gold has a 10-year career in the spirits industry, beginning with Tanteo Spirits after transitioning from fashion and apparel in 2014. He started as a part-time operations manager and grew with the company, most recently serving as Vice President of Sales, East. After a merger with Ole Smoky Distillery, he remained on as Director of Brand Development.
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Eric Davidson
Art
Director
Eric Davidson has a 10-year career in design, beginning in real estate before transitioning to the spirits industry with Tanteo Spirits. As Graphic Designer for Tanteo, he played a key role in growing the brand through packaging, advertising, and social media. Following the merger with Ole Smoky Distillery, he continued on as the lead graphic designer for the brand.
Maegan Sundlie
Content
Creator
Maegan Sundlie has a 10-year career in photography and visual production, beginning with her BFA from Parsons School of Design. She has specialized in editorial fashion, e-commerce, and product imagery, managing the full creative pipeline from concept through final post-production. As a photographer, videographer, and retoucher, she brings a comprehensive, end-to-end approach to visual storytelling.
Our Mission
We strive to create exceptional social tonics that bring people together. Being a catalyst to creating extraordinary experiences, we can empower humanity to live life to the fullest and be the best version of themselves. We believe that these shared experiences are central to living a meaningful life and we will work diligently to create these experiences time and time again.
We achieve this mission through three central tenets : thoughtful design, delicious beverages, and exceptional service. We believe thoughtful design carefully balances form and function, authentically represent the past and future of the brand categories, and is sustainable in all forms. Delicious beverages showcase the quality of every component of the final product, are balanced, and are expertly crafted time and time again. Exceptional service is welcoming, attentive without being overbearing, and always strives to delight.
Our business edge comes from three central tenets as well: Owning the guest experience through our core competencies, embracing technology, and long term thinking. We strive to build internal structures that improve our ability to create great design, delicious beverages, and exceptional service. Internalizing our core competencies help us develop operational leverage in what we do best. We embrace technology as a tool to enhance efficiency and are diligent to improve systems though technology without ever sacrificing the customer experience. We execute with long term thinking in all we do, never chase fads, and set the course for where we want to be in future generations.
Our mission is lived everyday and celebrated with daily, weekly, monthly, yearly and decadal milestones. Though consistent and diligent measured progress, we will achieve our goal and be a leader in the world of social tonics.