About

Craft beer drinker. Problem solver. Builder of things.

With a degree in mechanical engineering and a penchant for fostering and accelerating startups, John is equal parts cowboy visionary and pragmatic business director.

While John’s early career was spent in a suit as a technology consultant for Accenture, he’s devoted the last 15 years to working with other entrepreneurs, designing and pioneering new kick-ass products and solutions to market in the hi-tech, non-profit, and real estate industries.  His startup experience traverses the spectrum of bootstrapping innovations from his kitchen table while pounding coffee to working sales for the world’s largest venture capital firm.

John is a keen observer of human nature. His superpower is his ability to relate with humans genuinely, and build deep connections. He is passionate about mentoring those who have drive,  grit and a particular spark that ignites passion, innovation and a desire to change the world.

Growing up in Cincinnati, John’s love for invention and creation started early. He spent his childhood geeking out in competitive science fairs, mentored by his idol, his dad, a welding engineer who spent a career building aircraft engines for General Electric, from whom he learned woodworking, fixing cars, and the fine art of parade float construction. And roller-skating! Roller skating was not a small part of John’s childhood.

A self proclaimed nerd and startup junkie, if John won the lottery, he’d definitely reprise America’s fading passion for the science fair, investing in programs to introduce more minorities to the world of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math).  He’d lean deep into helping entrepreneurs develop early-stage innovations, donate to environmental and social justice causes he and his wife, Julie, are passionate about, and would continue to explore the world’s wonders with her. There would be lots of mountain biking in beautiful places.

When John isn’t flexing his business acumen, he can probably be found riding, tinkering, building bikes, trail running, exploring and soaking up the good stuff in life: connection, innovation, great craft beer, fine wine, and good food. And living that #adventurelife with his wife and three amazing step kids.

Beer of choice:  The Golden Coffee Lager from Zillicoah Brewing… Delicious!

Corey brings patience, integrity, and humanity to his role at Craftpeak, working directly with clients to conceptualize and execute their projects. He’s heavily involved in the planning and designing of sites, and is the dude most familiar to Craftpeak’s clients during and after website development. Though Yvonne is a recent addition to the team and has stepped into many of Corey’s client-centric responsibilities, he’s the OG facilitator of training & ongoing support for Craftpeak’s impressive roster of breweries.

A graduate of the Atlanta Institute of Music, Corey taught himself the foundations of web design and development on the road, rigging up websites and promo materials for his band and friends’ bands. Music not only led Corey to his life’s work, but also to his life partner! He met his wife, Leigh Glass, playing guitar in her band on an evening when she needed a fill-in for a solitary show. Corey hasn’t left the band (or Leigh’s life) since! Together, they make music, cook up delicious food, and enjoy the local brewery scene.

Having worked as a freelance web designer for many years, Corey’s only foray into the corporate world was as the Digital Media Director for local Clear Channel stations, in which he was granted creative freedom to produce multimedia, digital content. He left that position in 2008, just as the economy was crashing. “Surely,” Corey thought, “this is the best time to leave a full-time job with benefits and go out on my own.” His confidence wasn’t for naught, and Bullman Design was a raging success. Shortly after, Julien and Corey joined, then along came John, and the holy trilogy was formed. The rest is history!

Corey is devoted to growing Craftpeak and making it a place where great people want to work and where good people are served through their work. In 5 or 10 years, Corey envisions himself still heavily involved in Craftpeak, but with more emphasis on traveling with his wife.

Born and raised in Asheville, Corey lives with Leigh, their 130-pound Great Dane, and his stepson. A curious soul and perpetual learner, Corey dreams of going back to school simply for the joy of learning. Don’t be surprised if a future chapter in his life includes woodworking or a degree in history!

Beer style of choice: A light pilsner in the sunshine, and a gooey, thick stout in colder, cloudier times.

Does Julien sleep? Is he even human? Why is he *so* good at Monty Python’s Ministry of Silly Walks? Well, when it’s your job to make sure your clients’ technology is always up and running at 100%, in addition to innovating web solutions for the best craft breweries in the world, you might just be half robot or…you’re a little mad. And honestly, we haven’t ruled either out for the anomaly that is Julien.

Julien has a unique perspective on the world of beer, seeing that his dad, Carl, started home brewing when Julien was about 7 or 8, blocking the family from the kitchen for an entire day to create the optimally clean brewing environment. After years of winning home brew medals, Carl flew to Belgium to do a bike tour of his favorite breweries including Orval and La Chouffe and returned insistent on brewing tributes to old beers on a larger scale. In 2008, after a few different positions at breweries on the east coast, Carl helped to open Wedge Brewing Co., one of Asheville’s early breweries, and a favorite of many locals.

Though his favorite job to date is dishwashing (after trying out every other imaginable restaurant position), Julien became a mad scientist in the digital world as a teenager. He interned with a web dev company in high school, and has spent the vast majority of his career successfully freelancing. A self-taught developer, Julien realized early in the game that most people need (and have trouble finding) that magical blend of competence, creativity, and bomb communication skills in a programmer.

With a knack for innovating the digital space and creating website features specific to the needs of craft breweries, Julien started working with Corey Bullman in 2015, who functioned as his main collaborator and go-to web designer for years. When he’s not pushing digital limits, he’s often advocating for the open source community and creating space for other developers, more innovation, and the free exchange of [digital] ideas. He speaks at conferences around the world and makes himself accessible as a mentor to like-minded developers.

Is Julien a true Asheville native? Well, he landed in Asheville at age 11, after spending his first decade in California and Georgia, so you be the judge. He lives with his girlfriend, Sarah, their DJ bestie (DJ Little Meow Meow for the locals), Wilbur the big mutt, and 2 cats, Theo and Charlie. Though the gang resides in a normal house, Julien is converting a 28-foot long school bus into a traveling home, so who knows where the road may take him.

And for the record, Julien identifies as neither hunter nor gatherer, but simply as manifester. Cue 90’s jam, “Groove is in the Heart” by Deee-lite and watch this man take award-winning breweries to the next level online!

Beer style(s) of choice: Funky Farmhouses || Clean Lagers

Yvonne is stoked to bring her professional photography skills and experience as a self-employed creative to the table. Her objective: launching sites and taking names. She works with the Creative Director to steward projects and coordinate website content for the incredible craft breweries in her care. Though Yvonne considers herself more of a gatherer, she isn’t afraid to hunt down clients in pursuit of curating the dopest content for their websites.

Yvonne studied commercial photography with a minor in marketing and entrepreneurship at Appalachian State University. She ran her professional photography business for nine years and served as the marketing manager of a local nonprofit before joining the Craftpeak team in 2019.

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Yvonne is an avid explorer of new places. She currently resides in Tahoe City, Califonia where you can find her mountain biking, paddle boarding, or skiing in between work calls.

Beer style of choice: a refreshing IPA

Konrad combines his passion for the craft beer industry, his drive for working alongside independent businesses, and his sharp liaison skills in his role as E-Commerce Project Lead. With over five years of experience working with renowned craft breweries, Konrad has worn a great number of hats in the craft beer world. From Digital Content Manager to Director of Sales and Logistics, his experiences have put him behind the wheel of many small and large-scale projects.

A true nerd at heart, Konrad naturally started his professional career working for various IT companies until finally settling at Apple, Inc. There, he spent three years providing technical support and facilitating one-on-one creative training sessions until his very particular thirst for ‘shift’ beers and pulling nails called on him to take that common leap of faith into craft beer.

Konrad began his journey along the scenic shores of the Gowanus Canal at Other Half Brewing in Brooklyn, NY. He learned the ins and outs of high traffic business operations, forklift culture, and lost & found camper chairs. Eventually, Konrad moved out of the big city westward to the vast desert-scapes of Phoenix, AZ where he joined the Wilderness humans at Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co and truly began to hone his skills in logistics, distribution, sales, and marketing.

Besides his dedication to the success of Craftpeak clients, Konrad is an avid enjoyer of:  the dog you see when you hover over Julien’s bio, exploring introspection and idealism in the great outdoors, playing and recording music with friends, collecting expensively obscure records, rock climbing, shootin’ hoops, tabletop’n, and supporting local businesses.

Beer style of choice: A good schwarzbier or smoked lager
Other languages: Polish

With a proven track record of energizing startups’ operations,  Brenton joins Craftpeak as a Product Manager. Capable of wearing many hats, he excels at workflow and pipeline optimization. Brenton loves picking things apart in order to rebuild them even stronger – a problem solver at heart, he’s eager to take on the beer industry.

Born and raised in Michigan, Brenton is a Midwesterner through and through – if it’s warmer than 40 degrees it’s warm enough to wear shorts on runs; carbohydrates are his primary source of nutrients; the desire to live in a lake house is an inescapable spectre that haunts his every action.

After graduating from Indiana University, Brenton packed up his tiny Volkswagen convertible and drove to Los Angeles in pursuit of his dream of working on movies. In the eight years that followed he worked in nearly every aspect of the entertainment industry: new media, advertising, music videos, film production, post-production, visual effects, and improv comedy. At this point the only thing he hasn’t accomplished is creating a podcast – but who knows, maybe that will be next?

The City of Angels is also where Brenton met his wife, Colleen. Together they traded the browns and greys of LA’s palette for the blues and greens of Asheville, NC, and haven’t looked back since. They’re now the happy parents of a baby girl, Hatten, and their dog, Rey.

Outside of constantly tearing apart every product that crosses his path, Brenton can be found running the greenways and trails of Western North Carolina, working on a multitude of home improvement projects, or trying to sleep (hint: this is very hard with a newborn baby). He does not yet live in a lake house.

Beer style of choice: a smooth lil’ stout in the fall and winter seasons, and a golden lager in the warmer months.

Gary is excited to bring his experience solving enterprise problems to Craftpeak. Reporting to the Technical Director, Gary dances through code bases sprinkling refactor dust, a healthy amount of tests, and introducing new code. Gary’s goal is to provide the team with the necessary tools they need to help craft breweries brewers succeed.

Gary first found his space in the tech world leading e-commerce initiatives for MotoProducts. After a decade in the industry, he shifted career paths to become a developer as an agency engineer, solving problems for enterprise clients. He found the process of figuring out how to structure a team as fulfilling as actually writing the code. In addition to continuously optimizing team dynamics, Gary built many internal agency tools that became de facto standards on projects.

Born and raised in the sunshine state, Gary spent most of his life watching space shuttle launches. He frequently found himself gazing up at the sky wondering when the next launch would be. As a problem solver, Gary turned to programming and built a rocket launch notifier to alert him on launches so he’d always know when to gaze at the sky.  Interested in getting notifications? Check it out here https://groundcontrolbot.space/.

Recently, Gary migrated to North Carolina, with his wife Rhonda, and their three young children. When Gary is not solving problems, he can be found exploring the foothills with his family, personifying cardinals.

Beer of choice: A Hazy IPA

Fermentation, Live Music, Good People: these three things define Jordan Boinest, whom is based in Asheville, NC.  Working in the craft beer industry for 8+ years in many different roles, Jordan has developed a keen sense of business development for breweries of all sizes.  Throughout these years, she has held the roles of Operations Director, Sales & Distribution Director, Co-Founder/Owner, Brand Development Director, Social Media & Website Manager, and Territory Account Manager.  Jordan’s goal is to help breweries develop, growing these brands by working with the Craftpeak team.

Jordan began her studies at Appalachian State University, studying tourism and naturally transitioning into the Craft Beer Industry.  Jordan is an active member of the Pink Boots Society, helping to open both the Asheville and Charlotte Chapters.  In 2015, Jordan was the first recipient of a Pink Boots scholarship in NC, where she traveled to San Diego State University to study Craft Beer Distribution. Jordan would go on to become a Co-Founder of the Biere de Femme Festival in 2017.  The Biere de Femme Festival is held annually in North Carolina and has raised over $30K in profits where 100% of donations went directly to the Pink Boots Society for Scholarships, empowering women craft beer professionals.

Currently, Jordan is also the Northeast Territory Account Manager for White Labs and covers 14 states! Perhaps you have seen her traveling around?!  With a love of fermentation, she enjoys working with brewers to create the best beer possible.  She continues to work closely with both companies to better assist brewery needs.