Raj Bhakta is the Founder and CEO of WhistlePig, the world’s premier rye whiskey. In 2007 he began his journey to create the world’s finest whiskey - purchasing a 1,300 acre historic dairy farm in Vermont - and by 2010 transformed it into the WhistlePig headquarters.

As an entrepreneur Raj led a number of successful businesses ventures, including founding and operating an automotive valuation dot com and spearheading a hotel redevelopment in the snow-capped Colorado Rockies. He also participated as a contestant on NBC’s “The Apprentice” with Donald Trump, showcasing his business savvy in front of an audience of 20,000,000 people.

In 2006 Raj won the Republican Party's endorsement for the United States House of Representatives in Pennsylvania's 13th District. During the campaign, Raj raised more money independently than any GOP candidate in the nation and led the Republican ticket for his district. Though he lost the election, Raj earned more than 74,000 votes.

Raj appears regularly as a business and politics commentator on a number of major cable news networks, including CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC. He lives on WhistlePig Farm in Shoreham, Vermont with his wife, two daughters, and pet Kune Kune pigs. He holds a B.S. in Economics and a B.A. in History from Boston College.