Blog
Meet the founders
BAXUS is the brain child of a seasoned whiskey collector and trader, and a Columbia-trained software engineer; but you can just call then Todd and Carrie. Read more about them below.
Todd Wiesel
Todd Wiesel is a seasoned whisky trader, investor, and consultant. After serving in the Israeli military, Todd returned to the United States where he served as Managing Director for the Negotiation Institute. Todd earned a Bachelors from Columbia University and an MBA from London Metropolitan University. Todd has consulted for numerous spirits and RTD brands with a primary focus on Independent Bottlers. He successfully oversaw the global launch of DS Tayman, an independent bottler of Scottish single-malt whisky. Prior to launching BAXUS, Todd worked as an international cask broker and trader for Dalkeith Brokerage, where he launched their fine and rare bottle division, sourcing the rarest wines and spirits for ultra-high net worth individuals, investors, and funds. After leaving Dalkeith, Todd opened GW Barrel Co. a private placement fund focused on investing in bottles and casks. In 2021, Todd founded BAXUS to revolutionize the way in which the world trades tangible assets across the blockchain.
Carrie Kellar
Carrie Kellar is the co-founder and CTO of BAXUS. She has a BA and MSc in computer science with a specialization in machine learning from Columbia University. She comes to BAXUS with experience both in finance and tech. Carrie previously worked for the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce on the Interest Rate Derivatives desk before transitioning to the tech industry. While at Columbia, Carrie did research for the History Lab’s Freedom of Information Archive using advanced natural language processing and machine learning tools. She has also previously worked as a software engineer for the New York Times Machine Learning Platform before starting BAXUS with Todd. Carrie is passionate about data security and excited to help realize practical uses for blockchain technology.
Meet the Team!
Curious about who is working behind the scenes at BAXUS? Meet our team below.
Dale Brewer
Creative experience leader, product designer, creative director, manager and mentor, Dale Brewer has been the original design lead on some of the most influential and respected projects in recent memory—the apple.com redesign, iOS 1, Palm Web OS and many, many more. Whether it’s providing creative, innovative solutions in mobile, web and desktop applications, helping refine and improve cyber security, or using his skills to manage, mentor and encourage designers to push the envelope, Dale is actively immersed in the designs on every product he’s responsible for.
Dale also has a rich agency background, having worked both staff and freelance at a long list of agencies including TBWA\Chiat\Day and The Designory in Senior Interactive Art Director roles on innovative brands like Master Foods, Boost Mobile, Infiniti, Nissan, Scion, Nokia and Coke Cola.
Enhancing user experience is the name of the game, and it is Dale’s passion for design that helps make the finished product—user interface, visual, interaction and prototype design—as intuitive, enjoyable and effortless as possible for the end user.
When he’s not coming up with cutting-edge designs, interfaces and innovative enhancements to user experience, you can find Dale drawing, painting, snowboarding and spending quality time with his beautiful wife, dog and two amazing children.
Whiskey News: Whisky’s Royal Warrant Holders and the Passing of Queen Elizabeth II
The death of a monarch always brings about big changes, and that is no less true for the world of whisky. One thing that is set to change are the Royal Warrants held by some distillers.
A Royal warrant is a document that grants the holder trading capacity with the Royal Household and allows the company to include the Royal coat of arms on its packaging. Royal Warrants can be granted by the reigning Monarch and anyone else the Monarch designates. However, when the grantor dies, the warrant is void. At that point, the company has two years to remove the Royal Warrant from its packaging.
Mary Dowling and Waterfill and Frazier
When prohibition hit America, many distillers went underground, hoping to continue distilling whiskey illegally. However, some distillers rose to the challenge and kept one step ahead of the government, ensuring they could continue to produce whiskey legally. One such distiller was Mary Dowling, head of Waterfill & Frazier distillery.
Born Mary Murphy in 1859, Mary got her start in whiskey through her husband, John Dowling. John was partner of a distillery in Anderson County, Kentucky that was owned by J.M Waterfill and G. G. Frazier. John joined the two men in ownership before eventually increasing his share to take over the full business by the early 1900’s. The distillery still operated under the name ‘Waterfill and Frazier’ and continued to do so after Mary inherited the company after John’s death.
Gertrude “Cleo” Lythgoe: The Bootlegger Queen
While prohibition-era whiskey smuggling is populated by male figures, women also had a hand in ensuring America never went dry. The most infamous of women rumrunners was Gertrude “Cleo” Lythgoe known as the “Queen of the Bootleggers”. Between 1920 and 1926 Lythgoe ran a very successful liquor wholesale and rumrunning business out of Nassau, Bahamas, providing American markets with premium Scotch and American Whiskey. She was known equally for her business skills as for her looks; she earned the nickname “Cleo” after Cleopatra and gained quite a popular following in the press, receiving countless fan letters and marriage proposals.
