SPEAKERS & PANELISTS
Coffee Technicians Guild Summit | Los Angeles 2018
MARIA CLEAVELAND
Business Development, Western Region US & Canada, Urnex
A specialty coffee professional for 25 years, Maria holds a degree in Hospitality Administration from Cornell University. One of the founding members of Starbucks first licensing teams, Maria went on to develop the wholesale coffee retail programs at Peet’s Coffee & Tea and VP Sales at Equator Coffee helping to further develop their standing as a premier specialty coffee leader. As a consultant for equipment and software companies alike, Maria enjoys bringing cutting edge technologies to this dynamic industry. Maria has leads business development in the Western USA & Canada for Urnex Brands. An adventurer and entrepreneur at heart, Maria currently supports coffee roasters and retailers throughout the Western USA and Canada in her role with Urnex Brands. When not sampling the best coffees of the world, Maria enjoys snowboarding, great food and Jack Russell Terriers. IG: @zoomerpc
HYLAN JOSEPH
West Coast Service Manager, Espresso Partners
Bio coming soon!
TARRA SAMUELSON
LA Area Manager & Specialty Sales, Equator Coffee
Hello! I'm Tarra Samuelson! I live in Los Angeles, working for Equator Coffees & Teas as their LA Area Manager. I consider my job to have "4 T's": teach coffee, taste coffee, talk coffee, and travel for coffee. Tacos are not part of the "4 t's" , but are often involved. @alittletea
REBECCA MCNELLY
Owner/Operator, Heartland Tech
With over ten years of experience in coffee and coffee equipment service I am excited to share my passion with others. I started my career in coffee as many others have as a Barista. I pretty much immediately fell in love with coffee. I happily spent the next decade of my life committed to learning and growing in my aptitude and abilities in the industry. Right now I am the proud owner of a mobile coffee trailer called Kookaburra Coffee (kookaburra.coffee) that's parked outside of my other business Heartland Tech (heartlandrepair.com) in Wichita, Kansas. So I still on a daily basis get to dabble in making espresso and coffee for myself and even make beverages for customers if I have the time. Heartland Tech is exclusively a specialty coffee equipment sales, repair and maintenance shop. We have an ever growing staff of coffee technicians, dispatchers, coffee trainers, and simply put bad-ass people who have helped build and grow Heartland into an amazing company servicing over 500 customers in the Mid-West.
MARTY ROE
Owner/Operator, Service Call LLC.
Born with a crescent wrench in hand, Marty focused all of his technical experience, skills and interest towards coffee equipment in 2003. firm believer in that a coffee technician cannot never gain his or her potential without a well balanced blend of technical and coffee knowledge. As an owner of a coffee equipment service company and a premier SCA training lab Marty works hard to maintain that balance himself as well as providing opportunities and leadership for his team to do the same. To walk the walk, in July of this year Marty took and passed the Q-grader exam showing just how much Marty values the coffee skills" in a technician's list of abilities.
TONYA KUHL
Vice Chair, Dept. Chemical Engineering, UC Davis
Tonya Kuhl, is a Professor of Chemical Engineering and a faculty member of the Biophysics Materials Science, and Biomedical Engineering Graduate Groups at the University of California, Davis. She is the co-Director of the UC Davis Coffee Center. Her research interests are in the general area of colloidal science and self-assembling complex fluid systems. She and her research group directly measure the forces and friction between surfaces in liquids and vapors. This work spans diverse research fields such as measuring the friction (astringency) of different wines to measuring the effect of cement additives. She is passionate about coffee and teaching.