CALGARY, AB – Big Rock Brewery has announced that CEO Robert Sartor will be stepping down from his position with the company effective December 30th of this year.
In a press release issued late last Friday, the company indicated that current CFO Barbara Feit has been appointed by the board to serve as interim CEO upon Sartor’s departure.
Sartor joined Big Rock in 2012 to take over the CEO role from the brewery’s founder, Ed McNally, at the time of his retirement. (McNally subsequently passed away in 2014, retaining the title of Chairman Emeritus until his death.)
During this time with Big Rock, Sartor oversaw a refocus on craft-oriented brewing and branding at the company, as well the opening of the Big Rock Urban brewpub in Vancouver and a new production brewery in Toronto, and development of a soon-to-open brewpub in Toronto’s Liberty Village.
“Much of the change agenda that I had set for Big Rock has been achieved and I am proud of that,” said Sartor in a statement. “The beer landscape has changed dramatically in the past five years. It is a far more crowded and competitive marketplace than any of us could have imagined. Our resilience in the face of this has been remarkable. Rest assured that my fridge will forevermore be stocked with Big Rock beer.”