Meet the distillery team
In October 2017, Billy Walker, Trisha Savage and Graham Stevenson came together to purchase the GlenAllachie Distillery. With over 100 years’ experience between them, many would have expected our three veterans to retire. They’re just getting started…
Find out more about Billy and our wider Distillery team below.
Billy Walker
Master Distiller
Billy is one of the most recognisable characters and respected Master Blenders in the Scotch whisky industry. During his 50-year-long career, he has created award-winning whiskies and resurrected of numerous single malt distilleries. After selling The BenRiach Distillery Company in 2016, Billy wasn't quite ready to retire, so quickly assembled a team to start a new journey at The GlenAllachie. The aim was simple: make great whisky and have fun.
Trisha Savage
Commercial Director
Trisha has worked closely with Billy over the last 30 years and has played a key role in the acquisition and resurrection of a number of distilleries in her career. Trisha brings invaluable experience in all aspects of bulk stock management, administration, compliance and general management. When the opportunity to start a new journey with GlenAllachie came along Trisha was on-board straightaway.
Alan Gilchrist
Finance Director
Alan has worked with Billy & Trisha over the last 13 years, previously having served as Financial Director in both Paper and Plastic Injection Moulding Industries. Alan oversaw the financial growth of BenRiach Distillery Co, being involved in three acquisitions and the ultimate sale of BenRiach.
Richard Beattie
Operations Director
Richard has a wealth of experience across a number of areas of production in Scotch whisky, having worked at The Crisps Maltings Group and more recently developing distillery projects in Scotland, Ireland and the US. Having started his career at The Speyside Distillery, Richard is now returning to his geographical roots and has the dedication to bring GlenAllachie back to life.
Phillip Murray
Brewer
Having been in the industry since 1985, Phillip started out as a laboratory technician working with some of the finest people in the industry. Most of what he learnt in those early years still applies today. Next, he moved to oversee distillery production and by-product treatment, then to a technical, project and brand support role before joining our team in 2018. He is a man of few words but catch him in the right mood and he’ll bore you with distillery talk!
Lindsay Cormie
Warehouse Manager
Having worked with Billy for over 12 years, Lindsay jumped at the chance to join the GA team in 2017. He was involved in all aspects of warehousing and often dabbled in taking tasting tours prior to working with GlenAllachie, so it was vital that we brought him on board to manage our 16 on-site warehouses – not a job for the faint hearted!
Tracy Sellar
Visitor Centre Manager
Tracy comes with experience in sales, customer service and staff management and is delighted to be a part of the GA team. She is looking forward to welcoming visitors to The GlenAllachie Distillery and committed to ensuring that they have the best experience possible. Oh, and she enjoys a good dram!
Ronan Currie
Sales Director
Ronan’s whisky journey started in Campbeltown before leading him north to Speyside and GlenAllachie. He is responsible for looking after North America, Taiwan and Korea as our Sales Director.
Juliette Buchan
European Sales Manager
French from birth but Scottish from heart, Juliette joined the GA team in February 2018 as European Sales Manager after 12 years in the whisky industry. Besides her love for Whisky, it is the people she meets along the way and the passion so unique to the industry which make her job so enjoyable and rewarding.
Leigh McLellan
UK Sales Manager
With a fantastic 20-year spell in the drinks industry under her belt, Leigh has sold pretty much every type of beverage under the sun, but she admits her passion lies with whisky! Having worked within every channel in the UK (and made some amazing friends along the way), Leigh is well equipped to grow sales in our home market.
Andrew Mustard
International Sales Executive
Andrew, a Speyside local, joined the company in September 2020 after completing his Brewing & Distilling degree at Heriot-Watt University. He was based at the distillery before moving onto his current role of looking after markets in the Middle-East & Asia-Pacific.
