Melissa Green Katrincic, is Durham Distillery’s co-founder, CEO, an all-around badass for being the first U.S. distiller inducted into The Gin Guild. She is a member of Les Dames d'Escoffier and Women of the Vine & Spirits and is a certified, with distinction, WSET II in Spirits.

With a Spirited passion like Melissa’s, we’re pretty sure she’s got gin running through her veins. She served on the American Craft Spirits Association COVID-19 national task force focused on hand sanitizer, served as Vice President of the Distilling Association of North Carolina, has lobbied for the industry to the U.S. Congress in Washington D.C. She is also a frequent keynote speaker, including her expert presentation on gin for the American Distilling Institute.

Melissa and co-founder/husband Lee Katrincic founded Durham Distillery in 2015.

And before all that ... Melissa spent 25 years as a marketing executive for big hitters like Burt’s Bees and pharmaceutical giant, POZEN. It is through her trailblazing experience as a digital strategist that she was ready, qualified, and knowledgeable to position Durham Distillery and the Conniption Brand to the public. It exploded onto the market winning a 1st Place, Gold, and Platinum Grand Prize awards from Tasting.com’s Beverage Institute. Conniption gins continue to skyrocket to new heights of recognition and appreciation by discerning Spirits connoisseurs worldwide.

A physics graduate of Bryn Mawr College, Melissa also studied physics and astrophysics at The University of Edinburgh and earned her MA in project management from Villanova University.