ACG in San Marcos: F&B Industry Panel Discussion on 7/11/18

Dennis Rylander is Co-Founder and GM Whiskey of Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling, San Antonio's award-winning brewstillery. Established in 2010, Ranger Creek handcrafts beer and whiskey with lots of love, attention, and Texas attitude. With more than 15 years of experience in Corporate Strategy and Marketing, Dennis most recently left USAA to pursue his dream of owning and managing a small business.

He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from UT Dallas, and an MBA from the McCombs School of Business at UT Austin.

Bill Wagner became CFO of Kiolbassa Smoked Meats in November of 2017 where he provides executive oversight of the sausage maker's finances as it continues to expand its footprint.  With more than 30 years of experience in manufacturing, distribution and consumer packaged goods, Wagner has held leadership positions at Pace Foods, Desert Glory and Frito Lay. He most recently served as CFO at San Antonio-based Walton Worldwide — the management company for Walton Signage, Integrity Manufacturing, Walton Realty, and Walton Leasing.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Georgia Tech, Wager went on to receive an MBA in finance from the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina.

Scott Jensen is Co-Founder and CEO of Rhythm Superfoods; manufacturer of organic plant-based superfoods snacks.  He is the former CEO & President of One World Foods (Stubb’s Bar-B-Q), which he co-founded 20+ years ago with C.B. Stubblefield and two close friends.   One World Foods was successfully sold to McCormick & Co. in 2015.  Scott led Stubb’s in its national and international expansion to be the largest SuperPremium Bar-B-Q and Marinade brand in the country.  He also co-founded and sits on the board of Stubb’s Austin Restaurant Company, the famous Bar-B-Q and Live Music Venue in Austin, Texas.  Scott is a member of the Austin Chapter of YPO Gold, a board member and mentor at SKU, the Austin CPG Accelerator and he is a co-founder of the Specialty Food Executive Forum.  Scott received his Bachelor’s in Psychology and Business Communication from SMU and received his MBA from NYU.  

Before co-founding Stubbs, Scott was a marketing manager at James River Corporation (Dixie Cups & Plates). Prior to NYU, he spent two years at the Bloom Advertising Agency (Publicis, USA) in Dallas working on several national consumer products advertising campaigns for Nestle Specialty Foods, Carnation, Ross Laboratories, Juicy Juice, Kern’s among others.  He lives in Austin, TX with his wife and two sons.

Colin’s specialization is investments in food, beverage, and consumer companies from restaurants and supermarkets to food processors and production agriculture. Currently, Colin is managing director of food, beverage, and agribusiness investments at Capital One focused on sponsor and leveraged finance. Prior to this, Colin was senior vice president of food, beverage, and agribusiness investments at Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo is the largest bank lender in the food, beverage, and agribusiness industry. Prior to this, Colin spent three years at GE Capital in investments, where he worked to source and make credit decisions on over 200 food, beverage, and agribusiness opportunities across the minority equity, sponsor finance, syndicated, cash flow, asset based, equipment, and real estate portfolios. Colin and his team also published a Food and Beverage Industry monthly received by ~9,000 customers and prospects. Before GE, Colin spent ten years issuing actionable equity investment recommendations on food, beverage, and agribusiness companies to hedge funds, mutual funds, and family offices.

Colin’s international experience includes evaluating food, beverage, and restaurant investments in Asia, Europe, and Latin America. In 2011, Colin was recognized as the top equity analyst in the food and drug retail sector by The Wall Street Journal's “Best on the Street Survey.” Various media outlets, including Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Food Business News, Inrafish, and Perishable News, have interviewed Colin about the food and beverage industry.

Colin is a CFA charterholder and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in International Political Economy from the University of Puget Sound. Colin lives in New York City with his wife and son and is a member of the Finance Board of New England Science and Sailing in Stonington, Connecticut.