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Updated: April 27, 2023

Incoming Maine Brewers' Guild boss aims to craft a more diverse industry

By Renee Cordes

Shea Cusick, the incoming executive director of the Maine Brewers’ Guild, aims to bring greater diversity to an industry she said feels like “home.”

Shea Cusick
Courtesy / Maine Brewers' Guild
Shea Cusick is the incoming executive director of the Maine Brewers' Guild.

“Having a female executive director of the guild is a good start,” she told Mainebiz during her last week as sales manager at Nonesuch River Brewing in Scarborough.

“I’d like to bring other women and people of color into the industry as well,” she added. “It’s a thing that everyone is focusing on across the country, and Maine is no different.”

Cusick, who grew up in Dayton, Ohio, and moved to Maine from Massachusetts in 2010, will start her new role on Monday, May 1, succeeding Sean Sullivan as head of the Maine Brewers' Guild, a nonprofit trade group. Cusick will be the group's second-ever executive director and first woman at the helm. The industry is a key sector for Maine, with 166 licensed breweries and 100 brands as of early 2022, according to the most recent statistics available.

From Trader Joe's to Nonesuch

Before joining Nonesuch in September 2019, Cusick worked part time at Grippy Tannins in Portland and has also worked as a craft beer guide.

Cusick, a long-time beer fan with family members who worked in the industry when she was growing up, also spent 10 years helping develop the beer and wine section at the Trader Joe’s grocery store in Portland.

“I also dabbled a little bit in home brewing — very unsuccessfully,” before finding her niche, she said.

Asked what prompted her to make a move now, she said, “I love my team at Nonesuch, and I love the job that I’ve got, but as I became more involved with the board of directors of the guild and were trying to find a replacement for Sean Sullivan and weren’t necessarily finding the right fit, the more I thought, ‘Maybe I should do this.'”

Grateful for the vote of confidence from fellow board members she considers peers and mentors, Cusick added, “I look forward to the opportunity.”

'Smart, charismatic, approachable'

Heather Sanborn standing
File photo
Heather Sanborn of Rising Tide

Fellow Maine Brewers' Guild board member Heather Sanborn, owner and director of business operations at Portland-based Rising Tide Brewing Co., said when Cusick threw her hat into the ring to become the guild's next executive director, "I was thrilled at the prospect of having such a talented woman step into Sean's big shoes."

Sanborn also lauded Cusick as "smart, charismatic and approachable" while expressing optimism that the industry will become more inclusive.

“Maine's beer scene is, I think, particularly welcoming toward women in the industry — more so than in other states,” Sanborn said. “But when we hire for production jobs, there is often a dearth of female applicants. As our industry matures and transitions from a period of breakneck growth prior to COVID to a new normal of post-COVID operations, I think many breweries will be looking to make their jobs as appealing as possible to attract a diverse array of candidates. Having Shea at the helm of our trade organization is likely to help facilitate that."

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