It began with The Young Brothers
In 1888, John G. Young, the eldest of the Young brothers, opened his first retail store at 171 W. Jefferson Street in downtown Los Angeles. By the mid-1920s, Young’s Market Company, their chain of neighborhood retail markets incorporated in 1906, was rapidly expanding throughout Southern California. After Prohibition, Young’s saw a rare opportunity for enormous market growth, and shifted its focus to marketing, sales, and distribution of wines and spirits.
Young’s acquired a wide range of wine and spirits wholesale distributors over the next several decades under the leadership both past of Presidents Vernon O. Underwood Sr. and Jr. The Underwood family bought out the other shareholders, making them the sole owners of Young’s Market Company (and now Young’s Holdings) a century after its founding, and focused the company’s efforts on fine wines and spirits. Under the current leadership of CEO Chris Underwood, Young’s Holdings operates two of the fine wine and spirit industry’s most preeminent companies: Infinium Spirits and Wilson Daniels. Young’s Holdings continues its stewardship of Young’s Market Company, through its partnership with Republic National Distributing Company. In January of 2021, Young’s Market Company, managed by Republic National Distributing Company’s leadership team since August 2019, rebranded as RNDC.
Check out our portfolioFrom second left Bill, Peter and George. John is on the far right.
Our values are what set us apart; they’re the roots upon which our harvest grows.
Executive Team
Vice President of Human Resources
Vice President of Human Resources
Binali Mesri is the Vice President of Human Resources for Young’s Holdings. She is responsible for leading the Human Resources function managing all compensation, benefits, talent acquisition, diversity and inclusion, and employee relations functions for the organization.
Prior to this role, Binali was the Senior Director of Compensation and Performance Management and Young’s Market Company. Before joining Young’s in September 2016, Binali worked in a variety of roles with increasing responsibility at Pacific Dental Services. Prior to working at Pacific Dental, Binali also worked at Verizon Wireless for eight years in numerous roles in Analytics and Finance.
Binali hold an MBA in Finance from the University of California Irvine and lives in Orange County with her spouse and two children.
Executive Vice President and General Counsel
Executive Vice President and General Counsel
Brian has served as the General Counsel for Young’s Holdings, Inc., Infinium Spirits and Wilson Daniels since 2012. From 2012 to 2019, he also served as the General Counsel of Young’s Market Company. Prior to joining Young’s Holdings, Brian was a member of the legal team at Amazon.com and an associate in the corporate department at Gibson Dunn. While at Gibson Dunn, he advised on corporate and securities law and mergers and acquisitions transactions across a variety of industries.
Brian is a 2002 graduate of Princeton University, where he majored in History and received a certificate in Latin American Studies. He is a 2005 graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, where he graduated with honors and is a member of the Order of the Coif.
Brian is admitted to practice in California and in front of the United States Supreme Court.
Vice President of Real Estate
Vice President of Real Estate
Cassie Kelle has served as Vice President of Real Estate for Young’s Holdings since 2012, managing our real estate portfolio, including acquisition, development, disposition, and property management. Before the RNDC joint venture, Cassie was also responsible for the real estate supporting the Young’s Market Company operations, including construction, project management, and facilities management.
Before joining Young’s Holdings, Cassie held roles of increasing responsibility in notable commercial real estate organizations, including Arden Realty/GE Capital from 1998 to 2012 and Charles Dunn Company from 1995 from 1998.
Cassie graduated from The University of Western Ontario, Canada, with a Bachelor of Arts in Geography, concentrating in Urban Development. Cassie lives in Orange County with her spouse and daughter.
Vice President of Financial Planning and Analysis
Vice President of Financial Planning and Analysis
Claudia Rodriguez has been Vice President of FP&A and currently oversees Treasury and Insurance for Young’s Holdings, Inc., Infinium Spirits, and Wilson Daniels since July 2022. Previously, she served as the Director of FP&A at Young’s Market Company and has been in the company since 2015. Prior to joining Young’s Market Company, Claudia held FP&A positions at Mitsubishi Motors of North America and PC Mall, Inc. (Nasdaq; PCMI) acquired by Insight Enterprises, Inc. Claudia holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from the California State University, Long Beach.
President of Real Estate and Alternative Investments
President of Real Estate and Alternative Investments
David is the President of Young’s Holdings Real Estate and Alternative Investments. Since joining Young’s in 2015, David has led strategic planning and executing multiple acquisitions, investments, joint ventures, enterprise-wide technology implementations, credit refinancing, tax & estate planning and real estate development.
David has served as a group, or standalone company President, COO and CFO running multi-billion dollar businesses for over 20 years at industry leading organizations including ARAMARK, Pharmavite, and Edison Properties; providing professional services to both public and privately held domestic and international companies and family office in the distribution, food, beverage, and manufacturing sectors.
David has overseen Real Estate properties and operations covering: Industrial, Office, Multifamily, Parking, Storage, Retail, Vineyard Operations and 1031 transactions.
David serves on the Los Angeles based Homeboy Industries Board of Directors, the Homeboy Industries Venture Philanthropy Fund, and the Los Angeles Central City East Association Business Improvement District.
David has a BSBA in Accounting and Finance from Boston University, and his Masters of Science in Taxation from Bentley University. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and the Massachusetts Society of Certified Public Accountants, and has the designation as a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA), and started his career at Deloitte in Boston.
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Drew Bauer is the Chief Financial Officer of Young’s Holdings, Inc. He previously served as the SVP Finance and Treasurer for Young’s Holdings, Inc., Infinium Spirits and Wilson Daniels starting in 2015. From 2015 to 2019, he also served as the SVP Finance and Treasurer of Young’s Market Company. Prior to joining Young’s Holdings, Drew was an officer for ILFC during its restructuring and sale to Aercap. Before joining Aercap, Drew held positions as the VP Finance & Treasurer for Guess, Inc, VP of Strategic Finance for Experian and various positions in investment banking at both Merrill Lynch and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Drew is a graduate of the University of Southern California, where he majored in Corporate Finance. He received an MBA in Finance and Accounting from New York University.
Drew is a licensed C.P.A. in the State of California.
Director
Director
Jeff is a strategic, senior executive with over 39 years of experience working with senior management, audit committees and Boards in addressing complex, global business issues. As a former Big 4 partner, Jeff has extensive experience managing and coordinating global engagements for complex, multinational Fortune 1000 public and global private companies, in addition to assisting with crossborder acquisitions, supply chain alignment, regulatory issues and sophisticated tax planning and structuring. Jeff has served as the coordinating partner and tax account leader serving a number of Fortune 500 and Russell 3000 companies across retail, apparel, technology, life sciences, entertainment and service companies. Jeff has held significant leadership positions including Managing Partner, Regional Market Leader and Regional Strategy Leader within EY.
Underwood Family
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Vern received his B. A. Degree in Business from the University of Southern California in 1962, joined Young’s later that year and has been there ever since! In 1975 he was elected President of Young’s. In 1985 he devised and implemented a plan that resulted in Young’s becoming the first statewide distributor of wine and spirits in California. In 1989, at Vern’s urging, the Underwood family purchased Young’s from the Company’s remaining shareholders. In 1990, with the passing of Vernon Underwood, Sr., Vern was elected CEO and Chairman of the Board. In 1997, Vern led the Company’s expansion into Washington, Oregon and Alaska. In 1997 under Vern’s leadership the Company purchased Wilson Daniels Ltd. and in the early 2000’s, he directed the Company’s expansion into Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Arizona. The Company also invested in a number of spirits brands, including Seagram’s Vodka, Zaya Rum and Templeton Rye Whiskey. During Vern’s tenure, Vern oversaw Young’s expansion from a relatively small regional Southern California and Hawaiian distributor into one of the largest distributors of beverage alcohol in the U.S.
Director and Chief Executive Officer
Director and Chief Executive Officer
Like his father, Chris Underwood has dedicated his career working for Young’s Market Company (a subsidiary of Young’s Holdings), one of the largest wine and spirits distributors in the U.S. Starting in the Los Angeles warehouse in 1996, he went on to become the Chief Executive Officer starting in 2011. As the fifth generation to lead Young’s Market Company, Chris oversaw all Young’s Market’s business operations. With the joint venture with RNDC in 2019, the Young’s Market operations were transferred to the RNDC Management team. Chris now serves on Board of Directors of RNDC West, formerly Young’s Market Company. Chris currently serves as the CEO of Young’s Holdings and is a member of the Board of Directors of Young’s Holdings.
Chris is a graduate of the University of Southern California, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and won the 1990 NCAA Men’s Volleyball National Championship. Chris is an active member in the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA), Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) of San Diego, and serves on Board of Directors for the STEPUP foundation and the OM Foundation.
Director
Director
Jeff spent the initial 20 years of his career at Young’s Market Company, where he last served as President and COO. He later served as Chief Executive Officer of both Wilson Daniels and Infinium Spirits, being an integral part of both company’s early successes. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of Young’s Holdings since 2000. Jeff has a passion for developing brands and early stage companies. He currently partners with various businesses in and outside of the alcoholic beverage industry.
Jeff is a graduate of the University of Southern California, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts from the Marshall School of Business program for Entrepreneurship.
About Us: Commitment to Philanthropy
As a multi-generational successful family business, the Underwood’s have always felt a responsibility to give back to the community. Operating as Young’s Holdings today, the company spans across 5 generations, dating back to 1888. The company was originally established and founded as Young’s Market Company in downtown Los Angeles. The establishment of Underwood Family Foundation is the vehicle to continue their charitable legacy.
Mission Statement
The Underwood Family Foundation believes in making a positive societal impact amongst our employees, our industries and where we work and live.
