News

Joy Tan Joins Nine Rivers Distillery’s Board of Directors

Mar 11 2022

[Longyan, China, March 11, 2022] Nine Rivers Distillery today announced that Joy Tan, former President of Global Media and Communications at Huawei Technologies, has been appointed to its board of directors. Tan brings more than 20 years of leadership experience in marketing and communications for Fortune 100 brands and will be responsible for helping the distillery set and execute its branding strategy.

“It’s rare that you get the opportunity to help lay the groundwork for something big,” said Tan. “And not only is Nine Rivers going to be huge – it’s going to be different.” Nine Rivers Distillery officially broke ground in February 2022. It’s a fully crowdfunded, grassroots project with a 17,000 square-meter site in the mountains of Longyan, scheduled to begin producing spirits in the second quarter of 2023.  

“Nine Rivers represents the perfect combination of age-old western traditions with modern advances in technology in the distilling industry.” continued Tan. “We’ve got a group of over 100 whisky lovers from all over the world, each bringing passion for the industry and a unique set of skills to this project.  It’s a great honor to be a part of this team.”

Jay Robertson, CEO of Nine Rivers Distillery, said: “Joy’s immense depth of experience in marketing and cross-cultural communications will be critical for putting Nine Rivers – and China – on the international whisky map. She has a brilliant mind for navigating complex business environments and will help us tell our story in a way that truly resonates with whisky lovers around the world in this digital age. We’re lucky to have her.”

Before starting her own consulting firm in 2021, Joy Tan spent 14 years in various senior marketing and communications roles at Huawei Technologies. Prior to serving as the VP of Public Affairs for Huawei USA, she was the President of Global Media and Communications at Huawei’s headquarters in Shenzhen, where she led the company’s communications efforts in over 100 countries and regions. She was instrumental in building the company’s internal communications capabilities and elevating Huawei to one of the top 100 brands in the world. Prior to Huawei, she worked with a number of large US companies in marketing and branding functions.

Joy Tan is passionate about the environment and women in tech, and regularly speaks on these topics with groups like the World Economic Forum, Women in Tech International, and the UN Science, Technology and Innovation Forum.

Tan studied Biology at Tsinghua University in Beijing and holds a Master’s Degree in Neuroscience from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where she was a PhD candidate before shifting gears to pursue an MBA in Marketing from the University of Texas at Dallas.

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About Nine Rivers Distillery

We are a group of whisky enthusiasts who came together in 2017 to craft better whiskies by marrying tradition with technology to improve on the largely generic and industrial approach that has taken over the world’s whisky industry.

On February 18, 2022, we broke ground on our 17,238 square-meter site in the mountains of Longyan, Fujian Province, and will begin production in Q2 2023.

Nine Rivers Distillery is entirely crowdfunded by whisky enthusiasts, with nearly 200 founders from 19 different countries, and we are currently in the process of broader Series A funding.

For more information, check out: http://www.nineriversdistillery.com