Board of Directors

Evan Hafer is the founder of Black Rifle Coffee Company, and served as our CEO from inception through December 2023. He currently serves as our Executive Chairman. Prior to founding Black Rifle Coffee Company in 2014, Mr. Hafer served in the US Army for twenty years, fifteen in special forces, where he was a Green Beret with 19th Special Forces Group. Mr. Hafer also served as a contractor to the Central Intelligence Agency. Mr. Hafer attended the University of Idaho.

Ms. Dickson served as President of Manitoba Harvest, a global company that manufactures and markets plant-based-protein foods and beverages, from 2019 through 2020. Prior to Manitoba Harvest, Ms. Dickson served as Senior Vice President at Mattel, Inc., and President of its American Girl subsidiary from 2016 through 2018. Prior to American Girl, Ms. Dickson served as Chief Marketing Officer for News America Marketing Inc., a subsidiary of global media and information services company, News Corp, from 2015 to 2016. Ms. Dickson spent the majority of her career, more than 23 years, with General Mills, Inc. serving in marketing leadership and general management roles of increasing responsibility for some of the world’s best-known brands, concluding with her service as Vice President/Business Unit Director for Old El Paso and Betty Crocker Dinners. Ms. Dickson served on the board of directors of Cooper Tire & Rubber Company from October 2018 until July 2021, and is currently on the board of Flexsteel Industries, Inc. where she has been an independent director since July 2021, and serves on their compensation committee and their nominating and corporate governance committee. Ms. Dickson has served on the board of directors for Black Rifle Coffee Company since August 2020, and is currently Lead Independent Director, Chair of the compensation committee, and a member of the nominating and corporate governance committee. Ms. Dickson earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Air Force Academy, and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from the University of California, Los Angeles. She served as an officer in the U.S. Air Force, where she achieved the rank of Captain.

Major General (RET) Clay Hutmacher is the President and CEO of the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding the education – from preschool through college – of the children of special operations personnel who’ve lost their lives in the line of duty as well as the children of all Medal of Honor recipients. Clay served at every level in the U.S. Special Operations community ultimately becoming the Director of Operations of the United States Special Operations Command before retiring as a Major General (2 star). Clay holds a bachelor’s degree in aerospace management from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, a master’s degree in national security and strategic studies from the United States Naval Command and Staff College, and a master’s degree in strategic studies from the United States Army War College.

Lawrence “Chip” Molloy brings extensive financial, consumer, and retail experience to the Black Rifle Board as the former CFO of numerous public consumer companies. Most recently, Chip was Chief Financial Officer of Sprouts Farmers Market Inc. (“Sprouts”) from September 2021 to December 2023. He served as director and Chair of the Audit and Compensation Committees of Sprouts’ board from 2012 to 2021 and Interim Chief Financial Officer of Sprouts from June 2019 to February 2020. Prior to Sprouts, Chip served as Interim Chief Executive Officer at Torrid and as the Chief Financial Officer for both Under Armour and PetSmart. During his tenure at PetSmart, he was named Institutional Investor’s CFO of the Year for Specialty Retail in 2011. Chip also served as a senior advisor for private equity firm Roark Capital Group and as a board director for Torrid, Wingstop, Pet Supermarket, and Party City. Chip currently serves on the boards of Sally Beauty Holdings, Inc. and Pet Valu Holdings Ltd. and as Chair of the Audit Committee for each. Prior to his business career, Chip served as a U.S. Navy fighter pilot for 10 years, later retiring from the Naval Reserve with the rank of Commander. Chip holds an MBA from the University of Virginia and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the US Naval Academy. 

Chris Mondzelewski has served as Chief Executive Officer since Jan of 2024. Chris comes to Black Rifle with more than 28 years of consumer marketing, business and leadership experience. For the past 13 years, he was at Mars Inc and held multiple leadership positions of increasing responsibility across the company including Chief Growth Officer, Senior VP North America Customer Development, and VP of Marketing. Prior to that, Chris spent 12 years at Kraft Foods where he led businesses in North America and China. Before his business career, Chris was a Marine for five years, deploying in support of Operation Desert Freedom. Chris has a strong personal connection to the military and first-responder community. Chris has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Vanderbilt University and an MBA in economics and marketing from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Mr. Taslitz joined the Company as a Director in 2018. Mr. Taslitz is also currently on the board of directors of Datacubed Health, Stella, Fancy Sprinkles, We Are Giant, and Wengen Alberta. He co-founded Sterling Partners in 1983 and is Chairman of the firm. Mr. Taslitz and his family have supported and served on a number of educational, non-profit boards, including the Illinois Board of Higher Education, the Glencoe Educational Foundation, and the Investment Committee of the Jewish United Fund. He received a BS in Accountancy with Honors from the University of Illinois.

Mr. Welling has been the founder and Chief Investment Officer of Engaged Capital, LLC since its founding in 2012. Prior to founding Engaged Capital, Mr. Welling was a Principal and Managing Director at Relational Investors, LLC, an investment fund, which he joined in July 2008, where he was responsible for managing the fund’s consumer, healthcare and utility investments. From February 2002 to May 2008, Mr. Welling was a Managing Director of Credit Suisse Group AG, an investment bank, where he also served as the Head of the Investment Banking Department’s Advisory Business. Mr. Welling has been a member of the board of directors of The Hain Celestial Group since September 2017. From May 2015 to June 2020, Mr. Welling served as a member of the board of directors of TiVo Corporation, a provider of digital entertainment technology solutions, where he was chairperson of TiVo’s compensation committee and a member of the corporate governance and nominating committee and the strategy committee. Mr. Welling served as a member of the board of directors of Jamba, Inc., a leading restaurant retailer of better-for-you food and beverage offerings, from January 2015 to September 2018, where he also served as the chairperson of its compensation committee and as a member of its finance committee. From 2015 to 2018, Mr. Welling served on the board of directors of Medifast, Inc., a manufacturer of medically based, proprietary healthy living and meal replacement products, where he was a member of the audit, compensation and mergers & acquisitions committees. Mr. Welling serves as Chairman of the Board for the University of Pennsylvania’s tennis program and as a member of the Wharton Executive Education Board.