Bio

Daren has spent his entire career working alongside his father, Dean, and brother, Evan, acquiring, transforming and enhancing the value of iconic American and European brands. Through his experience, passion and detailed focus in overseeing the resurgence and reshaping of these companies top to bottom, Daren has developed a particular expertise in creating and executing innovative sales and marketing strategies designed to connect brands with contemporary audiences, regain relevance and propel product growth and awareness in the marketplace and pop culture. Daren has played an integral role in establishing a new vision and philosophy in these organizations anchored by creative, resourceful thinking and a strong commitment to financial and operational discipline. This approach has created unparalleled performance in very short periods of time. In 2021, Metropoulos & Co. and One Rock Capital Partners acquired Blue Triton Brands, American’s largest privately owned bottled water company. In the year following the transaction, Daren played a key role in the transformation and reinvention of the company’s iconic brand portfolio, making significant improvements to become a category leader in a fast-growing segment. Daren spearheaded extensive sales, marketing and operations efforts in order to establish each of the brands’ identities, including the introduction of a guerrilla marketing campaign, innovative sales strategies, updated packaging design, and improved operational capabilities. The brands quickly gained new distribution and achieved strong sales growth, all while innovating new premium products, including new health and wellness products targeting younger consumers. Daren and the team also completed the acquisition of premium brand Saratoga. From 2010 to 2014, Daren served as co-CEO of Pabst Brewing Company, which, in addition to the flagship Pabst (PBR) brand, owned 30+ national and regional beer brands. Under his leadership, the company initiated numerous grass roots programs and unique sales, marketing and social media strategies. These initiatives changed consumer perceptions, enhanced brand equity, increased national distribution and created double digit sales growth establishing their beer brands as the go to favorites for millennial consumers of legal drinking age. In 2013 Daren played a key role in the relaunch of Hostess Brands out of bankruptcy. The return of the iconic products to stores became a national phenomenon and the Hostess turnaround story has been used as a case study. In 2016, Daren and the family bought 30% of UTZ Quality Foods and embarked on an extensive company restructuring and revamping of sales, marketing and operations. Within 14 months they had made such a positive impact on the organization that they sold their position back to the founding family. At the age of 19, Daren oversaw the management, renovation and complete transformation of the historic Castle on the Hudson, a ultra high-end hotel/spa/ restaurant and meeting destination for many New York based corporations that the family purchased in 2003. Throughout the years Daren has also concentrated on luxury residential real estate development in California, New York City, Miami and Hawaii. Daren was an Associate Producer on “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”