Liquid Death appoints former White Claw executive Stephen Ballard as Chief Commercial Officer

Ballard will be the brand’s first Chief Commercial Officer and joins the business as it reaches more than 100,000 retail doors across the US and UK.

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Liquid Death, the beverage company making health and sustainability 50x more fun, has appointed Stephen Ballard as its first ever Chief Commercial Officer, effective as of October 2. In this role, he will lead field sales, distribution, national accounts and international expansion and will report into Mike Cessario, Founder & CEO.

Ballard brings more than 25 years of experience in sales, distribution and strategy. He was most recently Senior Vice President of Sales at the Mike’s Hard Lemonade Company, where he oversaw sales for White Claw and other key brands, quadrupling sales to $2B and solidifying the brand as the eminent leader in the hard seltzer category. His team transformed the Mike’s Hard Lemonade Company from the 7th largest company to the 4th largest company in its category.

“At Liquid Death, we’ve seen explosive growth since we first entered retail three years ago and are thrilled to be bringing in an unmatched leader like Stephen, who will continue to drive scale to our business,” said Mike Cessario, Founder & CEO of Liquid Death. “He was instrumental in successfully scaling White Claw into a massive brand at an unprecedented speed. We’re excited to have him on our team and look forward to murdering thirst not only in the U.S. but internationally as well.”

Liquid Death recently expanded into UK retailers, Amazon UK and Live Nation UK festivals and is expanding throughout Europe leveraging its two-year headline sponsorship of the Metallica M72 World Tour. The UK is Liquid Death’s no. 1 overseas market in terms of inbound traffic to the website and requests to launch.

Liquid Death is currently carried in more than 100,000 doors across the US and UK including 7-Eleven, Albertsons, Kroger, Publix, Safeway, Sprouts Farmers Market, Target, Walmart, Whole Foods, Co-Op and Nisa. Liquid Death is among the fastest-growing water and iced tea brands in retail and is the third most followed beverage brand on TikTok and Instagram worldwide.

“In my career I’ve never seen anything like Liquid Death, which has driven sales in retailers ranging from Walmart to Whole Foods and has reinvented the way we all think about branding in the beverage category,” said Stephen Ballard, CCO of Liquid Death. “I’m thrilled to be joining this unparalleled team and to continue bringing this premium healthy beverage brand into new retailers and markets.”

For more information about Liquid Death, visit liquiddeath.com.

About Liquid Death:

As one of the fastest growing non-alcoholic beverage brands of all time, Liquid Death is the first bold, hilarious beverage company using humor to make health and sustainability 50 times more fun. We take the healthiest thing you can drink and package it into infinitely recyclable tallboy cans that can actually compete with the fun marketing of unhealthy brands across energy drinks, beer, and junk food. A portion of Liquid Death’s proceeds goes to nonprofits who are helping to fight plastic pollution and bringing clean drinking water to those in need. For more information on Liquid Death please visit liquiddeath.com.