Megan Rayfield is the Quality Manager at Highland Brewing, where she oversees all aspects of product quality and consistency. With a background in molecular biology and environmental management, Megan has 8 years of experience in brewing quality. She leads the quality assurance team, manages laboratory operations, and ensures every batch meets the brewery’s high standards. Passionate about craft beer and continuous improvement, Megan plays a key role in driving innovation and maintaining excellence from grain to glass.

 Josh Yoder is the Production Maintenance Manager at Highland Brewing, where he works across all production departments to ensure the best beer is produced efficiently, profitably, and safely. Josh has 15 years of experience in the brewing industry starting out as a packaging operator then working his way to packaging supervisor before transitioning to working in maintenance.

Andrew worked as a molecular biologist in Pharma Biotech R&D in the UK and US for 22 years before moving in to the craft brewing industry where he worked for the last 13 years in several Triangle breweries before getting too old and decrepit to do the hard, physical labour that working in a craft brewery entails. He now offers a consulting service offering hands on microbiological troubleshooting for craft breweries.

Spencer Tielkemeier is the Vice President of Sales- North America for Yakima Chief Hops. He spent 9 years as a production brewer in Austin, TX, specializing in hop-forward and continental lager styles. Since joining Yakima Chief Hops, Spencer has been a key part of their R&D team, developing new products like Hyperboost and Dynaboost, honing best-practices for product usage with Survivables solubility research, and providing tailored customer support in challenging product application scenarios. Spencer believes the best beer pairing is made where hops meet disc golf. He lives in Chattanooga, TN with his wife and three children.

Dr. Folarin Oguntoyinbo is an Associate Professor of Fermentation Microbiology at the A.R. Smith Department of Chemistry and Fermentation Sciences, Appalachian State University, Boone NC. Previously, he was a Georg Forster Experienced Researcher of the Alexander von Humboldt, Germany and a Newton International Fellowship of the Royal Society, UK. His research focuses on the genome diversity, in situ growth kinetics and dynamic and metabolic characterization of fermentation microbes. Aimed at controlling spoilage, off-flavor, improving safety, quality and development of novel starter cultures for food and beverage industries. He teaches different topics in Fermentation sciences, including Fermentation microbiology, Fermentation of the World and Principles of Fermentation Science.