OUR CO-FOUNDERS

John Stires and Brian Leventhal met years ago while both working at a tech start-up. Through a few extracurricular winemaking outings with co-workers, the two uncovered a shared interest in entrepreneurship which led to their first urban winery concept, Brooklyn Winery. In the end it was their complementary skill sets, shared values, and mutual affinity for new ideas that led them to think bigger with the creation of First Batch Hospitality.

Brian Leventhal - Co-Founder

As co-founder of First Batch Hospitality, Brian strives for continued financial achievement throughout the company with intense focus on both the top and bottom lines. Brian is numbers and data-driven, and focuses on moving the business forward by building out equations for success. He uses that same determination to push his employees to grow in their roles and exceed their own expectations.

Brian’s entrepreneurial spirit was born early, during his time at Washington University in St. Louis. While working toward his Bachelor’s Degree of Science and Business Administration, he founded a successful water delivery business, Wydown Water, which he later sold. Following his graduation, Brian moved to New York City and pursued a career in consulting, first with McKinsey and Company, a leading management consultant company in New Jersey. There he focused on Fortune 500 clients in the pharmaceutical, consumer packaged goods, consumer electronics and government contracting industries.

Post-McKinsey, Brian fatefully joined ExpoTV and led projects to help optimize the company’s internal business processes, managed the finance and human resources departments and helped develop a new research product offering.

Brian currently resides in the suburbs of Washington DC with his wonderful wife Julia, and their two dogs, Brooklyn and Simone. He spends as much time as possible outdoors running, hiking, playing golf, tennis and skiing. When indoors, he enjoys cooking, drinking wine and watching his beloved NY sports teams. Brian is also an active member of his local YPO chapter.

John Stires - Co-Founder

As co-founder of First Batch Hospitality, John guides the First Batch portfolio toward continued success and growth. Creative and results driven, John looks for each location to have its own unique feel and energy, and challenges employees to ensure that the company’s wine, service, and ambiance are fresh, inventive, and constantly evolving. Mindful that a business is only as good as its team, he believes in unlocking the best in employees while encouraging professional growth and autonomy.

John was previously employed by comic/media publisher Marvel Entertainment. How he found his way into the company is shrouded in mystery, but after seven years he worked his way to a director of creative services role, part of a team that helped the global company’s branding and licensing initiatives.

John then joined ExpoTV as a product manager, where he acted as the hub of the company’s product development, managing a multitude of business, marketing, and sales projects.

The native Californian graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara and relocated to New York the following year, where he lived for 17 years. He currently resides in the beautiful Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, DC.

Conor McCormack - Executive Director of Winemaking

As Executive Director of Winemaking, Conor oversees the conception and development of all wine production operations. His creativity and imagination are invaluable not only for the creation of superior quality wines, but also for navigation of the unique challenge of maximizing output of product in much more confined spaces than are typical of this industry. He is focused on implementing strategic growth initiatives, via nationwide grape-sourcing through vineyard relationships and additional production partners, achieving an enormous increase in annual production to over 18,000 cases, up from 2,500 in 2010.

Conor experienced his first harvest in 2003, and was given the prophetic feedback that he was gifted with a natural ability to organize a seemingly chaotic multitude of moving parts into a controlled and elegant production system. Eager to capitalize on that gift, he went on to extract knowledge from well regarded wineries and vineyards in Napa, Sonoma, and Washington State, before turning his focus to urban winemaking. Intrigued by the idea of disrupting the deep roots of traditional winemaking, Conor, who spent most of his youth in the Bay Area, embarked on stints at wineries in Berkeley and San Francisco. These experiences led him to the founders of Brooklyn Winery in New York in 2010, as they began their venture into an east coast urban winemaking facility.

Conor is deeply dedicated to producing world class wines that showcase unique growing regions and styles, supporting and evolving his winemaking teams, and developing business structures set up for efficient, independent, profitable and scalable operation. 

Rachel Sackheim - Chief Revenue Officer

Rachel’s primary goal as CRO is to ensure the success of her teams at each location, driving the overall financial health of the company, specifically from the perspective of sales and marketing. Her role capitalizes on her innate ability to problem-solve through leveraging data and analytics. Rachel’s philosophy is based, very simply, on listening.  The business of hospitality, much like being a manager, hinges entirely on hearing the client, understanding what they need, and strategically meeting those needs.

Rachel’s passion for food, service and hospitality developed at an early age when she began traveling the world with her family. Following trips to Colombia, England, Israel and Australia, she chose to spend a semester studying in Seville, Spain. That experience during her formative years at the George Washington University led her to focus her studies on both International Business and Hospitality Management.

Rachel developed her foundational sales and marketing skills through advertising positions at Hearst and Condé Nast before turning to the world of hospitality and events. She joined the FBH family via Brooklyn Winery in 2012 to build an events business, and her success in doing so led to the growth of the sales team and to her position as a leader within the company. Following several years in sales-specific roles and eventually leading the Brooklyn team as Director of Operations, Rachel stepped into the CRO role, excited and prepared to focus on company-wide growth.

Rachel takes an enormous amount of pride in being a full-time working mom. Her daughters, Remy and Shaia, and her husband, Jeffrey, are the driving forces behind her success and her desire to “do it all.” Rachel still enjoys traveling the world as much as possible, using those experiences to think up new recipes to prepare at home, and dancing those meals off.

Benjamin Meyer - Corporate Culinary Director

Chef Benjamin Meyer brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the role of Corporate Culinary Director for First Batch Hospitality. Chef Meyer has worked for many highly regarded restaurants and groups in various capacities, including Executive Chef of the Fairmont El San Juan in Puerto Rico, Chef & Beverage Director supporting the transition of the Atton in Miami to the (second only in the US) Novotel, Corporate Chef for Southern Proper Hospitality, Executive Chef at large for Barcelona in Boston and Washington D.C., and Corporate Chef at Dali Group. Benjamin has also assisted in the openings of Michael Mina restaurants, Bourbon Steak and Saltwater, as Executive Sous Chef and purchaser for both properties, and has worked as Executive Sous Chef at Tribute as well as trained with Chef Scott Mickelson of Paragon on the 24th floor of the Grand Pequot Tower at Foxwoods Resort Casino.

Chef Meyer holds a Bachelors of Applied Science in Culinary Arts from Johnson and Wales University where he graduated Summa Cum Laude and holds an Associates of Applied Science in Business Management from Washtenaw Community College. Benjamin combined his love for food and writing as a bi-monthly columnist for the Detroit Free Press, which teaches readers intermediate cooking techniques.

Meyer is a strong supporter of giving back to the community through food-related programs, and is involved in various charitable initiatives throughout metro Detroit, Atlanta, and Miami including Growing Hope, Share Our Strength, Gleaners, Helping Hands, Rising Star Academy, Mariners Inn, Forgotten Harvest, Atlanta Community Food Bank, Miami Public Schools and Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health.

Michael Gordon - Director of Finance & Analytics

Michael Gordon began his career with First Batch Hospitality as the company’s Corporate Executive Chef. He served as the leader of culinary teams throughout all FBH locations, lending his expertise to menu development across both catering and public-facing concepts. His keen sense for implementing efficient systems allowed us to maintain a high standard of hospitality, and led him to become a prominent part of the financial operations of the company.

Kyla Nave-Wells - Senior Vice President of People

As the Senior Vice President of People, Kyla is dedicated to collaborating with leaders across the organization to cultivate an environment where individuals can truly thrive. With an unwavering passion for people and a steadfast commitment to fostering a positive workplace culture, Kyla plays a pivotal role in steering First Batch towards overall business success by strategically shaping the human resources landscape.

With over two decades of experience in HR, Kyla's journey began in healthcare at Quintiles Laboratories, with subsequent roles in the construction and tech industries. Prior to joining First Batch in 2022, she spent almost six years in hospitality at Nando’s. Kyla has honed her skills in small to medium-sized founder-led businesses, gaining a profound understanding of the challenges inherent in building both business infrastructure and company culture.

Known for her approachable and empathetic leadership style, Kyla places the utmost importance on forging strong relationships, fostering collaborative teams, and creating workplace environments infused with warmth and a sense of belonging. She firmly believes that our teams are the heart of every success and, accordingly, strives to ensure their time spent at First Batch is meaningful and rewarding.

Hailing from the Show-Me State, Kyla was born in Kansas City and raised in Columbia, Missouri. A University of Missouri alumna and member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., she later graduated from GA State University with a degree in Psychology. Currently residing in Maryland with her husband Troy, Kyla finds joy in her blended family, which includes adult children Deacon, Kenayah, and Armoni.

Beyond the professional realm, Kyla's interests encompass travel, live music (especially when she gets the chance to take the mic), moments spent by the water, and the simple pleasure of curling up with a good book. In all aspects of her life, Kyla remains dedicated to creating positive experiences and fostering a sense of community, both within the workplace and beyond.

Zoë Gainey - Director of Marketing Operations

With an extensive background both in hospitality and marketing, Zoë heads up the marketing department at First Batch Hospitality. Her mission is to bring people together through First Batch’s beautiful wines, food, and environment. 

Zoë attended college at the University of Iowa majoring in Communication Studies. Her time in college included some time off when she was offered a full time position on Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign, where she first gained experience in field and social media marketing. The joy she discovered working extensively with the public eventually led her to hospitality management where she worked and trained at some of the most notable nightlife venues and restaurants in downtown Chicago.

Her extensive on-premise experience led her to a full-time creative and strategy role at a marketing agency called Mosaic leading projects for clients like Bud Light, EFFEN Vodka, Occulto, and Olive Garden but she quickly gained the skill set to take on a wider variety of clients like Alienware, Oracle, and more. This time period grew her skills enormously, and she knew she someday wanted to bring big brand marketing to the hospitality industry she had fallen in love with when doing operations.

She got the opportunity to do just that when she was recruited to a U.K. based hospitality company looking to expand to the United States, where she built the marketing team and operation from the ground up, and helped expand the business from one unit in Chicago to seven across six different states, becoming a Vice President of the company in the process. This allowed her to gain experience with the higher level challenges of running a start-up hospitality business and is also where she developed her effective management style rooted in emotional intelligence and putting people first. She was able to test and hone her marketing approach across six very disparate markets which was a vital step in her career growth.

After establishing a successful and growing U.S. estate for that company, she decided it was time to seek out a new challenge that would position her to be able to build a team again. The uniqueness of the First Batch wineries coupled with the quality of their products won her over, and she began her exciting adventure into the world of wine. In her free time she enjoys reading and pushing herself out of her comfort zone by traveling and taking on hobbies like learning circus arts.