Veteran beverage executive joins Bai™ Founder Ben Weiss to accelerate national growth of hard soda
TRENTON, N.J., Aug. 31, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Crooked Pop™, the world’s first USDA-certified organic, zero-sugar, gluten-free hard soda, today announced the appointment of Lee Schill as Chief Commercial Officer. Schill, a seasoned CPG executive with 25 years of experience across the alcohol and better-for-you soda sectors, will lead sales, distributor partnerships, revenue growth, and channel strategy as Crooked Pop expands its hard soda business nationally.
Schill joins Crooked Pop from Zevia, the pioneering zero-sugar soda brand, where he served as Senior Director of Distribution. Previously, he spent 20 years at alcohol leader Diageo in leadership positions spanning retail, convenience, club, and on-premise channels. The appointment brings together CEO Ben Weiss’s experience building a nationally scaled better-for-you beverage brand as the founder of Bai™ with Schill’s expertise in beverage distribution and commercial execution.
“It’s our ambition to establish zero-sugar hard soda as a durable category in the growing Ready-to-Drink market. We’ve spent years in R&D developing a wholly new alcohol base, fermented from ancient grains, that delivers the flavor and fun modern drinkers expect—and the ingredient transparency they deserve. Now we’re ready to scale,” said Weiss. “Lee has spent his career building the distributor relationships and commercial infrastructure that determine whether a beverage succeeds, and his experience across both alcohol and zero-sugar soda makes him uniquely qualified to help us build Crooked Pop into a national brand.”
Crooked Pop™ launched across the East Coast in April at major retailers, including Total Wine and Harris Teeter, and is now strengthening its commercial strategy to expand into new markets and channels across retail, convenience, and on-premise. The brand recently inked a new distribution deal with Illinois-based mega wholesaler Reyes Beverage Group, and negotiated first-mover in-stadium partnerships as the Official Hard Soda of the Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Braves, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“As someone who has spent two decades understanding what makes beverages succeed in the distributor network, I immediately knew that Crooked Pop was on to something with its proprietary OSAVA™ formulation,” Schill said. “Crooked Pop is the rare case where the liquid itself is genuinely different. My job is to make sure the commercial infrastructure keeps pace, from the distributor network and channel strategy to execution at retail.”
For more information, visit drinkcrookedpop.com.
About Crooked:
Crooked was founded by Ben Weiss, the creator of Bai, which Dr Pepper Snapple Group acquired for $1.7 billion in 2016. Weiss founded Crooked to bring the same focus on taste, transparency, and category innovation to alcohol. Crooked is disrupting the alcohol category with a portfolio of USDA-certified organic, zero-sugar hard teas and hard sodas. The portfolio includes Crooked Tea and Crooked Pop, both built on OSAVA, a proprietary fermentation process that produces a clean, neutral alcohol base from ancient grains. Early equity investors include NFL legend Brandon Graham, musician Zac Brown, NBA star Trae Young, and Pro Football Hall of Famer Rondé Barber.
Media Contact:
Brooke Sundermeir
Trailblaze for Crooked Brands
crooked@trailblaze.co
View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/crooked-pop-names-lee-schill-chief-commercial-officer-302863283.html
SOURCE Crooked
