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Elayne Duff

Ab-Inbev
Global Event Manager- Craft Beer
New York City
Jet-set mixologist turned craft-beer Event Manager for AB-InBev, the world's largest beer company; Elayne Duff's love of the drinks business has taken a new turn, from shaking and stirring to hops and cask.

A native New Yorker, some of Elayne's first jobs after graduating college were in freight-forwarding, fashion sales and on-trade promotion. This diverse experience was unexpectedly valuable when Elayne became an event organizer & account supervisor working for Diageo. Her first project was launching Cîroc vodka all around the USA together with Sean “P Diddy” Combs, with final responsibility for a $1m+ annual budget. Wanting even stronger ties to luxury marketing and the on-trade. Elayne went on to reinvent herself as Diageo's first-ever luxury mixologist. Never one to do things by halves, Elayne threw herself into learning everything she could about spirits, cocktails, and the bar business, graduating in the first-ever class of the grueling B. A. R program, attending one of the first Cocktails in the Country courses with industry legend Gaz Regan, and interning at globally recognized and multi-award-winning bars in both New York (The Dead Rabbit, The NoMad Hotel and three-Michelin-starred restaurant Le Bernardin) and London (Artesian at the Langham Hotel).

“Elayne’s devotion for all things spirits and cocktails is truly infectious,” says gaz Regan. “Her dedication has sent her around the world, exploring and teaching about the true integrity of the craft.”

“Elayne is an absolute joy to watch working; her energy and enthusiasm is unrivalled,” says Sean Muldoon, Dead Rabbit. “She is well liked and highly respected by all who know her, and is one of my favorite people in the entire industry.”

Elayne is much in demand to speak at bar shows everywhere, having filled rooms at industry gatherings as far afield as Copenhagen Spirits & Cocktails, Bar Convent Berlin and Art of the Cocktail (Victoria, BC), as well as at massive US events like Tales of the Cocktail (New Orleans) and the Nightclub & Bar Show (Las Vegas).
On top of that, Elayne's infectious passion for teaching and polished presentation skills made her Diageo's go-to person for TV appearances, leading to her becoming a favoured mixology expert on Spike TV's hit “Bar Rescue” series, as well as being Andy Cohen's favorite bartender on-set for “Watch What Happens Live!”

A few examples of Elayne's other success stories include: creating and executing the wildly successful Delta Airlines Elite programs for onboard and in-lounge mixology; designing seasonal cocktails for many top Manhattan bars; consulting on new business channels for retailers such as Pottery Barn's mixology section; being part of NPD (new product development) teams; product- and skills-training bartenders & distributors throughout the US and indeed worldwide; and being regularly approached by media keen to learn about craft-beer and mixology trends all around the world.

Elayne is now in the enviable position of being able to combine her love of cocktails, her global on-trade perspective and unrivalled luxury-marketing expertise with the exciting world of craft beer, widely seen as the fastest-growing segment in the entire drinks industry.
Elayne lives in Manhattan with her husband and daughter, plus a crested gecko named Dave.


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