The past week at Rhinegeist has been one of “a lot of disruption” but also “minimal anxiety and the sense of calm,” following the appointment of chief commercial officer Adam Bankovich to interim CEO, Rhinegeist co-founder Bryant Goulding told Brewbound.
Goulding and Bankovich spoke with Brewbound Friday, just days after Bankovich’s new tag was announced, to discuss the transition and the next chapter for Rhinegeist. The full interview will be available later this week on the Brewbound Podcast.
Bankovich takes over for Michael Parks, who served as CEO for two years. Parks was the Cincinnati, Ohio-based brewery’s first CEO after Goulding and co-founder Bob Bonder took a step back from the company’s day-to-day operations and began transitioning it to employee ownership.
“We hired a CEO recognizing that us founders weren’t the best managers,” Goulding said. “To step aside creates the space for someone to come in and manage the vision, the strategy to get there, develop leaders and deliver on all of the awesome potential that exists here at the brewery.
“For the next phase of Rhinegeist, we need to create a space for our leaders to build strategic direction, so that it is actually running itself and we’re not just dictating strategy, and then execution happens,” he continued. “That’s us still leading, but from afar, which is suboptimal.”
Bankovich joined Rhinegeist as CCO in October 2022, following a nine-year stint at Stone Brewing. While he carries the “interim” tag at the moment, the situation is more of a “living interview,” with Rhinegeist planning to explore outside options for CEO, but no intention to “definitely” find someone new, Goulding said.
“We’ll know when we know and then react accordingly,” he added.
Rhingheist is handling the CEO transition “a bit differently” than last time, “recognizing that what we want as a CEO is someone who is open and curious and empathetic and really human oriented,” Goulding said. Bankovich is someone who embodies “that spirit,” he added.
Employees were made aware of the transition on Monday, April 24, via email. Video interviews with different departments and leadership were held the following two days to share questions, department challenges and more, Goulding said.
The intent is to be completely transparent with the Rhinegeist team on the vision for the decade-old company and the changes being made to achieve that vision.
“We’re a much larger company than we were 10 years ago, stating the obvious, so some of the things really do need to have a little more rigor and discipline behind them,” Bankovich said. “That being said, it’s always been important to me to add a level of transparency and understanding so people understand the why behind what we’re doing, so that’s been my focus over the past six months.
“This complex, diverse company that we have here, everybody needs to take a pause and know that what we did for the past 10 years isn’t what’s going to take us to the next 10, and it’s worth re-evaluating things and asking questions and figuring out what else we can do together,” he continued.
Goulding and Bonder founded Rhinegeist with the intent to stay away from the “styrofoam-tasting speak” and culture of the corporate world. That goal led to the creation of “geistiness,” a word to describe the Rhinegeist spirit of embracing individuality, ambition and creativity. As craft beer tackles a particularly challenging time as a segment, Rhinegeist is looking into how it can evolve and grow its business, while still maintaining that culture.
“There is a geistiness that will always be a part of this place, and then there’s a mature stance on how do we really give our people a framework to excel so that we keep the culture of excellence,” Goulding said. “Because geistiness is cute, but excellence is what has brought us here, and what will get us there. And better defining there, and how we invest and resource in getting there, is what I’m excited about.”
Rhinegeist was the No. 23 largest Brewers Association-defined craft brewery by volume in 2022, jumping five spots after ranking No. 28 in 2021. The brewery produced 103,561 barrels of beer in 2021 – the most recent production year available from the BA – increasing production +6% year-over-year.
Listen to the full interview with Goulding and Bankovich on the Brewbound Podcast, available later this week. The episode will be available on Brewbound.com and on popular podcast platforms, including iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify.