Board of Directors

Directors are elected to three-year terms on a staggered basis. This ensures a constant flow of new ideas into the Board room while maintaining a continuity of leadership. The Board employs the Policy Governance™ model — a leadership model designed specifically for Boards of Directors that allows them to focus on big issues while effectively delegating operational decisions to the Workers’ Assembly. In addition, we have slightly modified the Policy Governance™ model to include the Members’ Assembly in setting the Co-op’s Ends policies.

Mark has been a member of the co-op since 2006, has been on the board since 2008 and is currently the President of the Board of Directors. He originally supported the co-op due to what he considered to be a dearth of brewpubs in a young and vibrant city such as Austin. He works as a research scientist in acoustics at the University of Texas at Austin and works on theoretical, computational, and experimental aspects of sound propagation. Currently he is studying the response of the human body to intense underwater sound and the effect of large bubble clouds in underwater sound propagation. He received his BA in Physics from Vassar College in 2001 and his PhD in acoustics in 2006 from Penn State. He is an experienced home brewer and cook with an interest in producing all varieties of food and beer. He also performs in the city of Austin on the trumpet and bass guitar with the singer/songwriter Vanessa Lively, and is a director at another awesome local co-op: Wheatsville Food Co-op.

Term Expires: 2014

Therese’s enthusiasm for craft beer and a desire to make a positive impact in her hometown motivated her to join forces with Black Star Co-op in 2006. She served on the Board of Directors and in various volunteer roles from 2006-2009. Her favorite role was that of Volunteer Coordinator for the monthly Beer Socials. She loved meeting and interacting with members and was consistently impressed with the dedication of the growing Black Star Co-op community. Therese received her B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin and moved to Salem, Oregon in 2009 to attend law school. Eager to serve her Co-op once more, she was re-elected to the Board of Directors in 2010. Although she spends most of her time reading these days, she finds time to enjoy Oregon’s delightful craft beers and gorgeous landscapes.

Term Expires: 2012

Rose Marie has been a Black Star Co-op supporter from the time that it was a gleam in the eyes of a few inspired Austinites. She is passionate about the potential for both *beer* and *cooperatives* to create a better world. Her love of co-ops started when she first moved to Austin at 17, and lived at the New Guild housing co-op. At 18 she moved to Munich, Germany and developed her love of beer; and, since 2005, she has worked to develop some skills at governing consumer cooperatives as a member of the Wheatsville Co-op Board of Directors. Rose Marie is a water-resources engineer and civil engineering project manager (although she prefers the title “beer-swillin’ river-hugger”), at Jacobs Engineering Group. She has a B.S. in Architectural Engineering and an M.S. in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering from UT. She is an active member of the Austin Co-op Think Tank (ask her about this when you see her!), a recent appointee to the Austin Airport Advisory Commission, member of the 2011 Austin CityWorks Academy, and the 2011 Leadership Austin Essential Class. She is deeply in love with Austin and very proud that we can claim the title of world’s first cooperatively-owned and worker self-managed brewpub! Rose Marie is honored to be appointed to fill a vacant seat, and to contribute as much as she can to the continued growth and evolution of the Black Star Board of Directors and the co-op as a whole.

Term Expires: 2013

Dana joined the Workers’ Assembly in January of 2010, and ran the membership and investment campaign which brought the Co-op from a dream to reality. She attended the University of Texas at Dallas where she studied Literature and Philosophy and went to graduate school at Texas Women’s University. After teaching undergraduate Women’s Studies at Texas Woman’s University, Dana left academia to join the labor movement as a union organizer. She was elected to the Board of Directors in 2011 and chairs the Membership Linkage Committee. In addition to her Board work at the Co-op, she is also a Board Member at Cooperation Texas. Dana has committed her life to social justice and strongly believes in the transformative power of the co-operative model.

Term Expires: 2013

With his background in food co-ops and restaurants, Johnny brings to Black Star a dedication to the co-operative movement and a love of great food and excellent customer service. He has eight years of experience in co-ops, including five in management as well as five years of Board experience. As the former Produce Manager at the Wheatsville Food Co-op, he developed relationships with many local farmers from whom we source many of the ingredients for our Texas Pub Fare.

Term Expires: 2014

Andy was born in the north of England and grew up in Rochdale, the birthplace of the Cooperative movement. He is a great believer in the cooperative movement and the principles by which it stands. He has homebrewed since he was 16 as his parents thought it a great science project and he continues to brew at his house out in Dripping Springs. He has lived in the USA for almost 12 years now, having moved over from the UK via Switzerland where he lived 7 years. He has traveled extensively throughout the world looking for the perfect beer and expects it to appear at the brewpub in the next year or so – no pressure on Jeff.

Term Expires: 2012

Donald Jackson is currently a graduate student at the University of Texas-Austin, where he studies Community and Regional Planning in the School of Architecture. He has been involved with Black Star for over two years. He is a former Americorps member and union organizer. Donald is a die-hard believer in the power of cooperative ownership and democratic management to save the world.

Term Expires: 2012

George “Stuart” West was born in Venezuela and lived most of his formative years in Singapore, Lebanon, England and Venezuela before returning to Texas to attend high school and college. He received an undergraduate degree at Texas A&M University and a JD at South Texas College of Law. His past lives included owning a health club in Houston and working for Reed Elsevier before starting his own consulting company about ten years ago concentrating on international commodity chemical markets. Stuart lives in central Austin with his wife Sandy thinking of ways to make the world a safer place for beer. A fierce craft beer advocate, Stuart has been a BJCP beer judge for over six years, leader of the state’s largest homebrew club, organizer of the state’s oldest homebrew competition, a Certified Cicerone, and progenitor of a beer-centric religion known as Zymurology.

Term Expires: 2013