Accomplished leader with a long track record of visioning, building and managing tech for growth is a veteran of Ticketmaster, Weedmaps and other leading enterprises
LOS ANGELES, July 18, 2023 – DRINKS, the pioneering and leading operating system for alcohol e-commerce, today announced the appointment of Justin Dean as Chief Technology Officer. Dean brings to DRINKS nearly three decades of e-commerce-, marketplace- and SaaS-centric development and leadership experience that drove consistently superior business outcomes.
Alcohol e-commerce is the fastest growing segment of the $285B U.S. alcohol industry, which DRINKS continues to transform by enabling any business to be in the alcohol business. As CTO, Dean will accelerate the optimization, development and adoption of DRINKS technology, including the DRINKS Shopify App, WaaS®, and its proprietary AI-suite, PAIR (Predictive Artificial Intelligence Retailing).
After serving in the US Marine Corps as a network systems engineer, Dean scaled the ranks of major technology companies. He served as SVP, Technology and Head of Platform Engineering for Ticketmaster during a period of exponential growth throughout the 2010s. Most recently, as CTO and CIO of pioneering cannabis tech company WM Technology (Weedmaps), Dean led the platform’s transition to a SaaS-enabled, multi-sided marketplace directly leading to a successful Nasdaq IPO.
“DRINKS has pioneered the technology that powers modern alcohol e-commerce and having the right leadership in place is mission critical for our business and for the growth of the industry as a whole,” said Zac Brandenberg, DRINKS Co-Founder & CEO. “Justin brings not only a superior engineering pedigree, with experience across SaaS, multi-sided marketplaces and highly regulated categories, but also a track record of building high-performing product development organizations, consistently meeting and exceeding business objectives. He’s uniquely – and invaluably – suited to this role and our continued creation of industry-leading, best-in-class solutions that disrupt the alcohol industry.”
“I love what DRINKS stands for at its core – using technology to revolutionize an entire industry,” said Dean. “Zac and his team have built an incredible foundation that is changing how alcohol is bought and sold online, and I look forward to shaping its continued evolution and expansion.”
Dean succeeds DRINKS’ retiring CTO, Peter Wolfert, who shepherded the company’s technology development since 2018.
To learn more about DRINKS, visit www.DRINKS.com.
About DRINKS
DRINKS (drinks.com) powers digital commerce for the $250 billion US alcohol market. The company enables alcohol e-commerce for leading retailers, online marketplaces, and alcohol companies, eliminating a century of red tape with simple-to-use enterprise-grade technology. Via the DRINKS App for Shopify, DRINKS exclusively provides Shopify merchants of all sizes with an embedded, real-time alcohol tax and regulatory solution. The patented DRINKS PAIR platform leverages AI, Machine Learning, and Computer Vision to provide personalized shopping experiences and data-driven insights. Electriq, DRINKS’ Shopify Plus Certified professional services team, extends the company’s unparalleled beverage alcohol and e-commerce experience to create best-in-class customer journeys. DRINKS was named a Top Place to Work by Built In LA for five years, one of America’s Best Startup Employers by Forbes for two consecutive years, and earned the 2023 Brand Experience Award for Marketplace Strategies & Technologies by Retail TouchPoints.
