As the head of the 60-year-old family-owned business Kentucky Eagle Beer, a recognized community leader, and now chair of Commerce Lexington, Ann McBrayer has learned her leadership skills through the examples set by her family and her willingness to take on new challenges. Business Lexington columnist Janet Holloway recently sat down with McBrayer to discuss her life, her business, and her plans for Commerce Lexington.
JH: In addition to serving as the 2008 chair of Commerce Lexington and being president of Kentucky Eagle Beer, Ann McBrayer and her husband, Terry, own Keene Ridge Farm, where she does what she loves best: horse breeding. Tell us about your farm, Ann.
AM: Well, it's a small farm, 169 acres. My passion is breeding. Being a mother, I miss my children and I love having little babies around, so now I have baby horses. And it's so much fun. We have about 12 foundation mares that we breed every year.
JH: I understand you have some prize horses.
AM: We do. One of the mares I have, Belva, is the mother of English Channel, and he is the Eclipse Award Winning Male Turf Horse of the Year. So, my family went out to Los Angeles for the Eclipse Awards and it was really special.
JH: One of your daughters works with you in Kentucky Eagle Beer?
AM: Right. Margaret (Tate) works with me. And it is so much fun having another generation working with me in the business that I took over from my father. As Alzheimer's took over his life, about 10 years ago, I began to get involved with the beer business. I had been a stay-at-home mom with three kids, and I just knew that, if I wanted to keep the business going, I had to get involved in it.
JH: Had you learned about the business through your father's work over the years?
AM: Well, not really. My father always had the vision of me taking care of other parts of his business, which was Bakhaus Building and different pieces of property. He thought that was more of what a girl should do, you know: rental properties and so forth. But when my brother decided that he didn't like the beer business, I had to get involved. My father was my rock; he believed that women had a place in the community and a place in business. He always instilled in me that I could do anything I needed to do. He believed in me, and I think it was that belief that helped me make the decision to take over his business.
JH: How hard was it in the beginning?
AM: It was a struggle. Anheuser-Busch didn't know how to accept me, and I really had to prove myself to them. I had to earn their respect.
JH: You were raised in Lexington and went to school here?
AM: I went to Sayre High School, loved my years there, and graduated in 1974. And I went on to a girls school in Raleigh, North Carolina, called Saint Mary's College. I really wasn't girls school material, but I went and I had a big time.
JH: Why were you not girls school material?
AM: I was more of a tomboy, not real fluffy! I liked to do things, get things done, I guess. But I enjoyed school and made some wonderful friends. And then I went on to school at the Atlanta School of Fashion Design, which hasn't done much to help me with the beer business!
JH: Your community involvement is impressive, especially your work with Junior Achievement.
AM: I really have a passion for education. And I know that our community is only as good as our young people coming up. Several years ago, Ted Basset sponsored an event for J.A. and had some kids talk about what effect Junior Achievement had on them. I was sold at that minute. Also, my dad was a Hall of Famer for Junior Achievement, and I remember how special that award was to him.
JH: Both your father and husband were chairs of Commerce Lexington before you. Quite remarkable! Tell me about some of your priorities for the coming year.
AM: Getting everybody to work together. Getting us to speak as one voice and to be seen as one. Regionalism is so important because we are all affected when it comes to water supplies, sewer infrastructure, transportation, public safety. The only way we are going to grow as a community is to grow as a region.
JH: Tell me about some of the regional projects Commerce Lex is involved in.
AM: Most impressive is the Bluegrass Alliance. The relationships we've developed with economic development and utility representatives in nine counties are so important when we do the D.C. Fly-In and talk to our Congressmen about what's needed in the area. We're also able to showcase our entire area to potential new businesses, whereas in the past we'd be competing.
Also, the United Way has put into place a 2-1-1 program where people from throughout the region can call in for information about resources around their communities.
There's the Bluegrass Emergency Response Team out of Winchester, a unique group of emergency responders who have pooled resources from 11 counties. The result: a major emergency response asset for the region with little to no cost to individual county and city governments. Then, of course, together we set an agenda for our D.C. Fly-In, and we'll be talking about the 75 Bypass around the Nicholasville area. There are many issues to work on, and I'm excited.
The one thing I've learned is we are only as strong as we can be when we work together.
Janet Holloway is president of j. holloway & associates and co-founder of Women Leading Kentucky. A national columnist for womenentrepreneur.com, she can be reached at jhollow@alltel.net.