Leadership & Governance

Frank Dennis

President & CEO | Director

Mr. Dennis leads Swiss Water with over 20 years of experience in the coffee industry. His background is in packaged goods marketing with Braun Canada and Kraft Foods Canada. Mr. Dennis led the $300 million Kraft coffee portfolio in the late 1990s and was responsible for the sale of the Swiss Water Division to private equity interests in 2000. As President and CEO of Swiss Water, he has led the growth of the business and the brand as well as the extended development of the chemical free decaffeination category. Mr. Dennis is highly involved in the specialty coffee industry and is also currently on the Board of Directors for Grounds For Health, a charity dedicated to reducing cancer in women living in coffee-producing regions, as well as the Coffee Association of Canada and World Coffee Research. Mr. Dennis earned a BA in Economics from the University of Western Ontario, and an MBA from the University of Toronto.

Barry Close

Vice President | Operations

Heavily focused on achieving operational excellence, Mr. Close is responsible for the quality/productivity of operations and the health/safety of employees at Swiss Water. Mr. Close brings more than 35 years’ experience with technical processes in the manufacturing industry to Swiss Water, where he has worked for the past nine years. He initially joined Swiss Water as the Plant Manager in 2007 and was promoted to VP Operations in 2010. Prior to that, Mr. Close worked in the premium specialty coated paper manufacturing industry where he managed various aspects of paper manufacturing operations. Mr. Close has completed technical training at Cariboo College (now Thompson Rivers University) in Kamloops, BC and the British Columbia Institute of Technology. Additionally, he has trained as an Electrical Technologist and on Six Sigma methodologies with Lean Kaizen process, which promotes everywhere improvement, everybody improvement and everyday improvement.

David Kastle

Sr. Vice President | Trading

Based in Seattle, WA, Mr. Kastle is responsible for Swiss Water’s coffee sourcing and sales. Specifically, he directs our Trading team on all aspects of coffee purchasing including forecasting, supplier relations, quality control and quality assurance, and manages sales to the matrix of importers, brokers and dealers who distribute to specialty coffee roasters worldwide. He also works directly with Swiss Water’s largest customers to assure their needs are met and sales potential is realized.

Prior to joining Swiss Water, Mr. Kastle spent 12 years as a specialty coffee importer, co-founding the specialty trading house Zephyr Green Coffee on behalf of Louis Dreyfus Commodities. He has more than 25 years’ experience in the beverage industry, working mostly in coffee but also with wines and spirits. Mr. Kastle is a lead instructor for the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) and a member of the Roasters Guild, an official trade guild of the SCA that promotes quality as the principle standard for success. He earned a BA at San Francisco State University, with additional studies at Wesleyan University, University of California at Los Angeles, University of Lund (Sweden), and Portland State University (Oregon).

Matthew Scruggs

Vice President | Foodservice

Matthew has nearly two decades of experience in the specialty coffee industry. Matthew started his coffee career as a barista while studying at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He has since held roles in business and franchise development, sales, and operations. Matthew has a penchant for the exhilarating: his hobbies include paragliding, hiking, and motorcycle riding. He is also an avid adventurer, having traveled international to nearly 30 countries. Outside of work, he spends his time with his wife and two dogs. His favorite coffee beverage is any tasty single origin coffee brewed on a French press.

Kurt Dyck

Principal Engineer

Mr. Dyck is responsible for the engineering aspects of the operation from process optimization through to capital project management. Until recently, Mr. Dyck has had management oversight of the implementation and operation of the Swiss Water quality management system. Strongly focused on continuous improvement, Mr. Dyck has influenced the improvement of Swiss Water decaf quality and driven increases in process capacity.

Mr. Dyck originally joined Swiss Water in 1987 as process engineer when it was part of Nabob Foods Ltd. He was involved in the pilot plant that resulted in the process as it is today. Over the next 7 years Mr. Dyck optimized quality and increased plant capacity. He then left to pursue a career in operations management for a manufacturer of hair care products. Returning to Swiss Water in 2002, Mr. Dyck has continued to help drive quality through process improvement and capacity to support and meet business growth. Mr. Dyck has a B.A.Sc. in Engineering Physics and an MBA from the University of British Columbia.

Sam Hameed

Director, Human Resources

As Director of Human Resources, Mr. Hameed brings leadership insights and experience from a range of Human Resources roles within the manufacturing, construction and transportation industry. His strong track record in the strategic and operational management of people and provision of value added solutions to achieve business objectives, ensures the Swiss Water teams are aligned, valued and driven toward the corporate goals.

Mr. Hameed has over a decade of experience incorporating the delivery of operational services, performance management, recruitment, employee relations, team and project management. His strategic approach to managing and guiding people drives performance improvements across the all facets of the growing organization.

Erin Reed

Director of Marketing

Erin joins Swiss Water with more than 15 years of marketing experience, honed at Titleist and Starbucks after completing both a B.A. in Business Administration and an M.A. in Sports Management. A native Californian now living in Seattle, if you can’t find her traveling, exercising, or at a live music venue, you’ll be certain to catch her keeping up with her husband and daughter’s crazy schedules while sipping on a dark roast, natural processed coffee.

David J. Rowntree

Chairman

Mr. Rowntree is the founder and Managing Director of Highland West Capital Ltd., a Vancouver based merchant bank. Prior to founding Highland West, Mr. Rowntree co-founded and co-managed for 18 years Tricor Pacific Capital, a private equity investment firm. Mr. Rowntree is legally trained and spent over 16 years as a practicing lawyer both in public practice and as in-house counsel. In addition to serving as Chairman of Ten Peaks, Mr. Rowntree is a board member of CPI Card Group, a publicly listed company, and is the Past Chair of the Board of the VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation. Mr. Rowntree obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of British Columbia and a Bachelor of Law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, Ontario.

Diane Fulton

Director

Ms. Fulton is Vice-President and Chief Investment Officer of the Vancouver Foundation. Previously, she was Executive Director of Investments for the University of British Columbia’s Faculty Pension Plan. In addition, she spent 11 years at Scotia McLeod Inc., most recently as Director and Vice President of Corporate Finance. Ms. Fulton is a director of the University of British Columbia’s Investment Management Trust, and serves on the Trust’s audit committee. Ms. Fulton is also an advisor to the investment committees of Insurance Corporation of British Columbia and Pacific Blue Cross, and is a member of the investment committees of the Public Guardian and Trustee of British Columbia and the Real Estate Foundation. Ms. Fulton is also a director and member of the audit committee for CP1 Card Group, a publicly listed company. She holds an honours B.Sc. from the University of Toronto and an MBA from York University. In 2008, she completed the Directors Education Program offered by the Institute of Corporate Directors and earned the ICD.D designation.

Richard T. Mahler

Director

Mr. Mahler was Executive Vice President and CFO of Finning International Inc., the world’s largest Caterpillar dealer, from 1990 to 2003. He is Chair of the Board of the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation which manages $130 billion of pension assets for over 550,000 public service workers in the province. Mr. Mahler is past Chair of Partnerships BC and the VGH/UBC Hospital Foundation and was Vice Chair of the Vancouver Board of Trade. He was awarded the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal for Distinguished Service in 2002. He holds a BSc from the University of Waterloo and a MBA from McMaster University.

Anne Saunders

Director

Ms. Saunders has held numerous general management positions, including as US President of NakedWines.com, US President of FTD, Inc. and President of Redbox, owned and operated by Coinstar, Inc. Previously, Ms. Saunders held executive and senior management positions with Knowledge Universe, Bank of America, Starbucks, eSociety, AT&T Wireless, and Young & Rubicam. Currently, she is a member of the board of directors of Nautilus, Inc., where she is the chair of the nominating and corporate governance committee, as well as a member of the audit committee and compensation committee. Additionally, Ms. Saunders is a past director of Blue Nile, Inc. She received a BA from Northwestern University and an MBA from Fordham University. Ms. Saunders is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors and of Women Corporate Directors.

Roland W. Veit

Director

A native of Switzerland, Mr. Veit is the principal owner and Chairman of Paragon Coffee Trading Company Ltd. (Paragon), a large US green coffee trading house. He has been involved in the coffee business since 1972, when he started his career at Nestle’s world headquarters in Switzerland. In 1978, Mr. Veit left Nestle to work as a coffee trader in Johannesburg and New York, before co-founding Paragon in 1986. He served as a board member of the Green Coffee Association of New York (GCA) from 1998 until 2007, including two terms as Chairman. Mr. Veit serves as a quality and technical arbitrator for the GCA, and the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA). Previously, he was the Chairman of the SCA’s International Relations Committee.