Meet CBDistillery President Bill Stoufer

Whether you’re a longtime CBDistillery customer or you’re just starting your cannabinoid wellness journey, you should know that trust and transparency are incredibly important to us as a company.  

To that end, we sat down with our company President, Bill Stoufer, for a Q&A session to help you get to know him a little better! 

CBDistillery: How did you come to be a part of the CBDistillery leadership team and, ultimately, president? 

Bill Stoufer, President: I retired from my prior career in wheat milling in August 2019. I was not done working, just looking for a change from being COO of a multibillion-dollar company to get back into a smaller organization. I was also very keen to keep learning while leveraging my years of business experience. 

CBDistillery: Can you share a bit about your background prior to joining the company and what that experience helped you bring to the table here? 

Bill Stoufer: From 1991 through August of 2019, I spent my career in the wheat milling and food ingredients business. I spent my career learning and growing in various functions from Supply Chain, Sales, Margin Management, Operational Excellence and Senior Leadership. I have been able to leverage my prior career to bring a focus on the customer, streamlining process, leverage IT tools, safety of our people and products, GMP and financial discipline, to name just a few. 

CBDistillery: Can you tell us about a key moment in your career that had an influence on your leadership style? 

Bill Stoufer: September 20, 2017. That was the day Hurrican Maria hit Puerto Rico. Ardent Mills has a large facility that supplies wheat products, corn products and rice products to the island. The damage to the facility was mostly electrical and some structural issues but the damage to our employees and customers was extreme. This event lasted for months for the business and our team. As much as people and business build contingency plans, nothing would have prepared any of us how to react.  

This reinforced many lessons of my career like listening to your team, making timely decisions, changing decisions where needed, relying on relationships and what we did each day was to feed people. While the bottom line is always important, your leadership will be viewed by how you took care of your team, their relatives and customers.  

Getting the business back up and running, along with ensuring our team had a job, were of equal importance. Our team was looking for the leaders to be resilient and confident and our team could see there was hope. During an extremely taxing few months, it was one of the most satisfying and influential events in my career. 

CBDistllery: What are some of the challenges facing the hemp industry and how do we tackle them in a way that aligns with company values? 

Our industry continues to face many challenges – principally the lack of federal regulations that has led to the expansion of multiple intoxicating products. Thus the states are taking action, which has a negative impact on products containing THC. Full spectrum CBD products, which have minimal levels of THC, are often treated the same as fully intoxicating products. So the products that have the best health impacts for the consumer are under threat.  

CBDistllery: What are some of the most exciting things on the horizon for the company, and how do you see them improving our customers’ wellbeing?  

We have new products in the pipeline that we will be rolling out over the next several quarters. Every time we launch new products, our consumers love to try them and provide excellent feedback on efficacy.  

CBDistllery: Outside of work, what hobbies or interests do you pursue that help you maintain a balanced perspective as a leader?  

I love to spend time with my family. I also love to play golf and also love to do woodworking in my shop. 

CBDistllery: What’s your favorite part about working at CBDistillery? 

I love the passion, dedication and commitment of our team. Equally as much fun is the stories from our customers about how our products help them in their lives.