Meet the team behind our brands

Alexis Arons

Alexis Arons, West Region Vice President of Sales, joined the TBS team in 2022 with over 10 years’ beverage sales experience at the wholesaler and supplier levels. Her career started with Breakthru Beverage, formerly Charmer Sunbelt Group, in Philadelphia and then Colorado, and then she moved to the supplier side working with Brown-Forman in Florida and then California. She recently worked with Red Bull North America to build their national distribution strategy within the beverage network.

Alexis says her time at Breakthru helped build the foundation to set her up for success in the alcohol beverage industry. She strives to build a positive culture for her team that values humility, ownership, and collaboration. While in college Alexis played two Division I sports, lacrosse and tennis, which has informed her belief that coaches and teammates, both in athletics and in the beverage business, can inspire one another to perform beyond expectations. Her goal is to empower her team at TBS as well as our distribution partners and suppliers to grow both personally and professionally.

Alexis holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a major in Food Marketing and a minor in Fine Arts from St. Joseph’s University. She lives in Santa Monica with her partner Francisco and their two Swiss Shepherds, Dash and Aspen. They enjoy visiting California’s numerous wine growing regions and exploring delicious food, wine, and spirits internationally. When Alexis is not working, you can usually find her in her garage pottery studio creating functional ceramic art.

Marina Burns

Marina Burns leads the Finance and Accounting department and has worked with TBS for over 10 years. In that time Marina has grown in her career and helped develop her department to where it is today. She takes an honest and conservative approach to financial reporting, developing and managing budgets, and overseeing all aspects of TBS’s finances. Marina has established many of the systems TBS uses to track brand marketing expenses and performance accurately across its markets.

In 2016, Marina was voted by her peers to receive the inaugural First Class Award. This award is given to TBS supporting office team members for their willingness to help others. Marina enjoys being a part of and contributing to the positive, supportive, and dedicated culture of the TBS team.

Marina holds an MBA from The Citadel Graduate College and a double major Bachelor’s degree in Accounting as well as Advertising and Marketing Communication from Wesleyan College. Now living in Tampa with her fiancé, she loves attending live music, yoga, spending time with friends and family, and traveling to her home country of Bulgaria.

Brad Cooksey

Brad Cooksey, Director of Off-Premise National Accounts, joined TBS in 2016. He began his career working with Nestlé Foods and Nestlé Waters business units for over ten years. He then moved to the beverage alcohol industry working with Miller Brewing Company and has spent the past 20 years working in the beverage alcohol category. Brad enjoys working with buyers of grocery and liquor chains to identify focused opportunities and develop fact-based solutions that deliver sales results.

Brad holds an MBA and a Bachelor’s of Science in Geology from Stephen F. Austin University. He and his wife, Lisa, live in Celina, a small town on the northern edge of Dallas, TX metroplex. Outside of work, you can usually find Brad fishing from his boat at one of the many North Texas lakes, or on the occasional trip in the Gulf of Mexico to chase tuna and red snapper. On weekends, Brad enjoys spending time with his extended family smoking BBQ and enjoying a cold Weihenstephan. Prost!

Brian Fox

Brian Fox leads sales and marketing for TBS nationally. Brian believes that the supplier, wholesale, and retail fragmentation in the U.S. beverage alcohol industry offers a unique environment for small and mid-size brands to grow rapidly.  He is passionate about assembling the best talent in the industry to achieve this growth.  Brian takes tremendous pride in cultivating the TBS team’s rare blend of brand passion, data-based decisions making, and commitment to out-working our competitors on a daily basis – all while having a lot of fun.

Prior to joining TBS in 2016, Brian was a management consultant with PwC, leading transformational projects in the retail and consumer goods industries across pricing strategy, salesforce effectiveness, loyalty program design, and commercial and SG&A synergies. He partnered with over 50 companies large and small, including Coca-Cola, Acosta, RJ Reynolds, Tire & Battery Corp., and Delta Airlines. Prior to PwC, Brian held positions in equity valuation at New York-based Endurance Capital and Chicago-based Crystal Rock Capital Management.

Brian holds an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and a B.S. in Economics and Organization Development from Vanderbilt University. A Chicago native, he now lives in Charleston with his wife and two daughters where he enjoys spending time with his family, kitesurfing, and being outside as much as possible!

Sam Grizzle

As Chief Financial Officer of Total Beverage Solution, Sam Grizzle brings over 10 years of industry experience and a strong prior background in business, technology and finance. His experience includes a history of helping establish and develop several companies by creating systems and controls to manage the businesses. He has also been deeply involved in developing and leading teams to enable rapid growth.

At TBS, Sam has worked diligently to help transform a startup environment into a truly flexible and efficient supplier and leader in the market. Sam has continuously welcomed and driven change within the business to integrate new tools, new acquisitions and new brands, contributing to a culture of growth and opportunity.

Prior to TBS, Sam worked through the company’s investor group, Jackson Healthcare Solutions, on fund-raising and business planning for clients and portfolio companies. Sam holds a B.S. from the Georgia Institute of Technology College of Management and a MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. Originally from Georgia, Sam is an avid runner and tennis player currently residing with his wife and 3 young children in Charleston, South Carolina.

Neal Horgan

Neal Horgan, General Manager of Wine and Spirits, works with our wine and spirit suppliers to help establish goals and build strategic plans to achieve business objectives in U.S. beverage market. With over 30 years of experience in the industry and in-depth brand knowledge, Neal helps existing suppliers’ goals become reality. These capabilities also assist him with pursuing key brand acquisitions to expand the TBS portfolio.

Neal believes that the secret to developing brands is people. He has learned that good interpersonal relationships create highly motivated people as well as good business opportunities and takes great pride in the diverse relationships he has developed over the course of his career. Neal holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Suffolk University in Boston. An avid boater, Neal tries to spend as much time in the water as he can, boating with friends and family in the waters near his home in the summer, and escaping the harsh New England winters by traveling to warm, tropical locations. Neal also enjoys traveling to Europe and on a recent visit was inducted as a “Keeper of the Quaich”, an award given to those professionals who have made significant contributions to the Scotch Industry.

Jessica Keller

Jessica Keller, Director of National Chains West, holds over 14 years of experience in the business. Her previous experience includes working for Gallo and our distributor partners, including Odom, Southern Glazers Wine and Spirits, and Breakthru Beverage. Jessica is responsible for partnering with national chain accounts in the West to consultatively sell the TBS portfolio. She focuses on growing existing partnerships and exploring new customers, brick-and-mortar, and eCommerce. To help bolster these relationships, Jessica has earned certifications in CSW, CSS, and WSET II.

Originally from Idaho, Jessica was raised on a farm, so grit and persistence are part of her DNA. She believes continuous learning, candor, and creativity are vital in building relationships and growing our business. Jessica attended the University of Idaho, where she studied Marketing.

Outside work, Jessica is a mother to Harper, Hudson, and her two fur babies, Walter and Norman. Her husband inspires her daily in his career with Boise State Athletics. As a family, they love to ski in the winter, boat/paddle boarding/wake surfing in the summer, and spend time with their family and friends surrounded by great food and wine! We also love to travel!

Dave Pardus

Dave Pardus is the Founder and CEO of Total Beverage Solution, which he launched in 2001. Dave’s mission was to provide access to the challenging US Beverage Alcohol market for smaller, international brands. Traveling the world, he discovers numerous unique, historic, and distinctive brands that he works to partner with and build the distinctive portfolio of TBS today.

Along with building the TBS portfolio, Dave is also focused on building a team of talent to enable the best care possible for these brands. If that wasn’t enough, Dave spends most of his free time with his two collegiate student-athlete daughters or his world-ranked senior amateur golfer wife, Jayne.

Dave’s leadership style is consistent and steady. He believes in doing the right thing, and from running over 12 marathons that span four decades of his life, he likes to “finish strong” (and hopes to run at least one more marathon, marking five decades of successful completion of a full marathon.) The leadership culture is one of a growth orientation, mirroring the 18 years of growth in the business over its 20-year lifespan from the start.

Dave has always ensured that TBS is a place where people can perform and grow personally and professionally – not having to choose one or the other. This drives Dave daily, building a business others want to work with and a company people are excited to work for.

Joe Randazzo

Joe Randazzo joined Total Beverage Solution in 2016 and leads the East Division sales team. He has over 17 years of work experience in the alcohol beverage industry, starting his career as a sales representative for Century Wines & Spirits in Delaware. Prior to working at TBS, Joe was a regional manager for specialty beer importer, Merchant du Vin. His passion within the industry is educating consumers, distributor partners, and retailers on the prestigious history of the TBS brands, and how they’ve helped shape the market as it is today.

Joe holds a Bachelor of Science from Wilmington University in New Castle, DE, as well as a diploma from the New York Film Academy in Manhattan. He is a Certified Specialist of Spirits (CSS) and Certified Specialist of Wine (CSW), both awarded by the Society of Wine Educators. He is also a Certified Beer Server.

In his spare time, he enjoys fishing, hiking, his wife’s cooking, and supporting his son’s ice hockey team. Joe lives with his family in southeastern Pennsylvania.