Board of Directors

Born in Northern California, Julian Shrago was an aerospace engineer for over a decade before becoming a craft brewer. Along with his business partners, Gabe Gordon & Lena Perleman, they opened Beachwood BBQ & Brewing in Long Beach in 2011. The pub was recognized in 2013 as Mid- Sized Brewpub of the Year at the Great American Beer Festival, 2014 Large Brewpub of the Year at the Great American Beer Festival, & 2016 World Champion Large Brewpub at the World Beer Cup. Beachwood has expanded its brewing operations with Beachwood Blendery, along with a production facility in Huntington Beach, CA.

Laurie Porter started Smog City Brewing Co. with her husband Jonathan 8 years ago and has quickly become an industry leader in the Los Angeles craft beer scene while building a strong following for her brewery with a great community of customers. She helps run every aspect of the business, from brand building to taproom operations to bookkeeping, with a focus on providing customers with a great experience and making Smog City Brewing Co. the best brewery in Los Angeles. Laurie’s ability to foster relationships with community, political, and non-profit organizations has been key to telling the Smog City story and help give back to the local community at the same time. Laurie is also deeply invested in the L.A. County Brewers Guild and serves on the Board of Directors for the California Craft Brewers Association, helping to define how the beer industry will grow and develop in California. With a strong belief that collaboration and industry support will lead us towards a healthy and sustainable future, Laurie’s commitment to craft beer has always extended beyond the boundaries of the brewery.

Natalie Cilurzo is the Co-Owner and President of Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa and Windsor, California. Natalie has been in the wine or craft beer industries since the age of 16. Her husband, Vinnie, opened Blind Pig Brewing Company in 1994 in Temecula, CA, while Natalie was working at a local winery and putting herself through college. In 1997, Vinnie and Natalie moved to Sonoma County where Vinnie began brewing for Russian River Brewing Company originally located at Korbel Champagne Cellars. Korbel closed the brewery in 2003 and gave Vinnie and Natalie the opportunity to acquire the Russian River brand. After 19 years in the wine industry, Natalie made the decision to join Vinnie full time when they opened their Santa Rosa brewpub in 2004. Over the years, she has developed a passion for giving back to the beer community, whom she considers family, as well as the community in which they live. Natalie previously served nine years on the Board of Directors for the California Craft Brewers Association, two of those years as Board Chair. She is now back on the CCBA Board and loving every minute!
In 2017, Vinnie and Natalie were awarded the “Brewers Association Recognition Award.” And, in 2019, Natalie was honored to be recognized as a “Distinguished Alumni” from her alma mater, Sonoma State University (SSU). She currently serves on the Dean’s Advisory Board for SSU’s School of Business and Economics. Some of her favorite things to do, when time permits, are hiking, working on her 1968 Chevy pickup, and spending time with Vinnie and their three cats!

At the ripe age of 18, I knew I wanted to own a brewery one day so I set my sights on getting a formal business education, double majoring in finance and entrepreneurship. My college education allowed me the opportunity to work in investment banking where I was able to begin honing my financial and business skills. After a couple of years of working in finance, I made the move to San Diego to begin learning the professional brewing trade and business. I worked at Pizza Port Carlsbad, Green Flash, Oggi’s, and The Bruery learning everything I could from the owners, managers, and brewers. While at The Bruery I became very close friends with Travis Smith and we decided to open a brewery together. We opened Societe in May 2012 and have strategically grown our business to what it is today; a San Diego only (99.9%), draft-only, self-distributed brewery with a large focus on wholesale business rather than tasting room/retail. Currently, I serve as the CEO of Societe and am tasked with upholding our brewery’s philosophy, leading management, and executing our strategy. My background from Wall St. combined with professional brewing has given me a tremendous foundation to operate this business from both practical and philosophical levels.

Ultimately, though, craft beer is my passion. It’s what fuels me (figuratively) and I want to do all that I can to help strengthen not only Societe but also California craft breweries. I am able and willing to humbly serve the CCBA and its members to continue the efforts that Tom and all of those involved past and present have worked so hard to create.

Chris Cramer is a past Chair of the CCBA and has been making beer in paradise for a living since 1989 when he and his business partner, Matt Rattner, co-founded Karl Strauss Brewing Company, the first new brewery to open in the city of San Diego in more than 50 years. Since then Chris has enjoyed continuously pioneering in San Diego’s craft brewing industry, opening the city’s first distributing brewery in 1991 and over the years adding seven more brewpubs. While the brewery’s distributed beer operations have remained focused on its home market of “Karlifornia”, Karl Strauss has grown to become one of the top craft brewers in the United States and in 2016 became the only Southern California brewery to win the prestigious “Best Mid-Size Brewery” award at the Great American Beer Festival for breweries with production of 15,000 to 6 million barrels. Chris takes particular pride in having introduced many Southern Californians to their first craft beer and in the knowledge that the DNA of Karl Strauss Brewing Company runs throughout the San Diego brewing industry; he has helped numerous friends and former teammates branch-off to follow their own brewing dreams, making San Diego’s thriving craft beer scene a much more fun and interesting place to work and play.

Arthur Moye, CPA, CEO, Entrepreneur, has 15 years of experience consulting and shaping small businesses throughout the world. He has been recognized as 40u40 by Business Street, successfully completed the SBA Emerging Leaders Class, and most enjoys serving in a turnaround capacity. He has run two successful businesses himself. His background is in accounting spending time in audit departments of both PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte.
He brings a healthy mix of passion and business acumen. His previous company was recognized by the Business Journal for being the fastest growing three years in a row until it was recently sold. He is responsible for overall strategic vision and execution. Spearheaded the acquisition and organized the initial round of financing.

Over the past 7 years Full Circle has grown from a local California brewery to being distributed across 7 states. Their Fruit forward flavorful beers can be found in almost every major retailer. This has led to 26,000% growth over the last 7 years. Full Circle has become a Brand Family after the acquisition of both Sonoma Cider and Speakeasy Ales and Lagers. This move has made Full Circle the largest majority owned brewery in the nation.

Additionally, as a black entrepreneur and brewer, Arthur is proud to have Full Circle Brewing, Co. contribute to the 1% of black majority owned craft breweries in the United States.

Arthur is originally from the Bay Area and is an alumnus of San Jose State University. He has chosen the Central Valley as his home to raise his family and grow his businesses.

Jim Woods is the founder and CEO of Woods Beer & Wine Co, a family of bars, brewpubs, and wineries around the San Francisco Bay Area.  They make creative, small-batch beer and wine inspired by nature, place, and tradition.

Woods showed an early appreciation for beer, running a clandestine homebrewing operation in his parent’s garage. He went pro in 2006, releasing the world’s first yerba mate beer he dubbed MateVeza. In 2012, Woods opened his first brick and mortar brewpub in his hometown of San Francisco on the corner of Dolores Park.

Today the Woods empire spans San Francisco and Oakland, beer and wine, retail and wholesale. Woods distributes beer and wine made at its production headquarters on Treasure Island to its retail partners as well as its own neighborhood-focused taprooms across the San Francisco Bay Area.