First Director Of Hartwick College’s

Craft Food, Beverage Center Arrives

ONEONTA – Aaron MacLeod, the first director of Hartwick College’s Center for Craft Food & Beverage, is completing his first week on campus today.

MacLeod has most recently served as a chemist at the Canadian Grain Commission’s Grain Research Laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where he was responsible for providing quality assurance for malting barley grown in western Canada and conducting research on factors affecting malting and brewing quality.

The Center is intended to serve the testing needs of the growing Upstate food, beer and wine sectors, while preparing students for jobs in an expanding industry.

“There is tremendous benefit to both Hartwick and the region when we leverage our intellectual capacity in ways that encourage and enable economic development,” said Hartwick President Margaret L. Drugovich in announcing MacLeod’s arrival. The Center “is a perfect combination for bringing theory to practice, and more of the experiential learning for which Hartwick is so well regarded.”

At the Canadian Grain Commission since 2005, MacLeod previously held positions as a quality analyst with Cargill Nutrition, and as a water quality technologist at a Municipal water treatment facility.

MacLeod has also held executive positions in a number of professional organizations in the U.S. and Canada. These include the American Society of Brewing Chemists (ASBC), American Association of Cereal Chemists (AACC) International, and the Prairie Recommending Committee for Oat and Barley (PRCOB). MacLeod has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed industry journals, and presented at both domestic and international scientific meetings and conferences on topics related to malting and brewing science and quality testing methods.

The Center for Craft Food and Beverage was launched in 2014, the first such facility in New York State. It is funded in part by a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission, and an incentive from Empire State Development Corp. through New York’s Consolidated Funding Application process.

“I am excited to help make the Center a regional asset, and a thriving, contributing part of the community,” MacLeod said.

A native of Canada, MacLeod is an analytical chemist by training, receiving his bachelor of science in chemistry from the University of Western Ontario, located in London, Ont.

For more information on the Center for Craft Food and Beverage, visit http://www.hartwick.edu/craftfoodandbeverage.